Song of Solomon 4:8

Song 4:8. "Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, come with me from Lebanon, look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards." This call and invitation of Jesus Christ may be looked upon as directed either to her that is already actually the spouse of Christ, or her that is called and invited to be his spouse, that is, already his spouse no otherwise than in his gracious election. So the Gentiles are called a sister in the last chapter of this song, even before they were in a church estate, before she had any breasts. So in Isaiah 43, where respect is had to the calling of the Gentiles, God calls those his sons and daughters, that were so as yet only in his decree of election. Verse 6. "I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth."

Lebanon, Amana, Shenir, and Hermon, were certain noted mountains in the wilderness, in the confines of the land of Canaan, that were wild and uninhabited. Hence the wonderful work of God in turning barbarous and heathenish countries to Christianity, is compared to the turning such a wild forest as Lebanon into a fruitful field. Isaiah 29:17, "Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?" They were mountains that were haunts of wild beasts, and probably some of them at least very much frequented by lions and leopards, those most fierce and terrible of wild beasts; they were places where lions had their dens, and either these or some other noted mountains in the wilderness, were so frequented by leopards, that they were called the mountains of the leopards. It is from such places as these that the spouse, or she that is invited to be the spouse, is invited to look to Jesus Christ, where she was without the limits of the pleasant land of Canaan, wandering and lost in a howling wilderness, where she was in continual danger of being devoured and falling a prey to those terrible creatures. Christ graciously calls and invites her to look to him from the tops of these desolate mountains towards the land of Canaan, and towards the holy city Jerusalem, where he dwelt, though far off; yea, to come with him; for Christ is come into this wilderness to seek and to save her that is lost, to come and leave those horrid places, and come and dwell with him in the pleasant land, yea, in the city Jerusalem, that is the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth. Yea, though the lions had actually seized her, and carried her into their dens, there to be a feast for them, yet Christ calls and encourages her to look to him from the lions' dens.

David represents his praying to God in a state of exile and in distressing circumstances, by his remembering God from the land of the Hermonites. Psalms 42:6. Christ saves souls out of the dens of lions, as he did Daniel, and out of the mouths of wild beasts, as David did the lamb from the mouth of the lion and the bear. He invites sinners that are naturally under the dominion of Satan, that roaring lion that goes about seeking whom he may devour; and invites saints under the greatest darkness, and distresses, and temptations, and buffetings of Satan, to look to him.

Song 4:9