Commentary Critical and Explanatory
Song of Solomon 5:1
I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.
Answer to her prayer, while she is still speaking.
I am come - already: her prayer had been, "Let my beloved come" etc.; The Beloved was there before she was aware.
Sister ... spouse - as Adam's was created of his flesh, cut of his opened side, there being none on earth on a level with him; so the bride, out of the pierced Saviour (Ephesians 5:30).
Have gathered ... myrrh. His course was already complete: the myrrh, etc. (; Matthew 26:7; ), emblems of the indwelling of the anointing Holy Spirit were already gathered. They accompanied the birth and the death of Jesus.
Spice - balsam: aromatic spices.
Have eaten - answering to her "eat" ().
Honey-comb - distinguished here from liquid "honey" dropping from tress. The last Supper, here set forth, is one of espousal, a pledge of the future marriage (; ). Feasts often took place in gardens. In the absence of sugar, then unknown, honey was more widely used than with us. His eating honey with milk indicates His true yet spotless human nature, from infancy (), and after His resurrection ().
My wine () - a cup of wrath to Him, of mercy to us, whereby God's Word and promise become to us "honey" and "milk" (; ). "My" answers to "His" (). The "myrrh" (emblem, by its bitterness, of repentance), honey and milk (incipient faith), wine (strong faith), in reference to believers, imply that He accepts all their graces, however various in degree.
Eat. He desires to make us partakers in His joy (Isaiah 55:1; ).
Drink abundantly - so as to be filled (; contrast ).
In respect to the Israelite Church, this whole Second Division, from to , sets forth the people's sin against the heavenly Solomon, and the judgment with which it is visited. Then the repentance and the reunion brought about with the cooperation of the very daughters to whom Jerusalem herself, the mother, had previously brought salvation: the consequent re-establishment of Zion as the center of the kingdom of God in the new and unchangeable covenant of love.