CONTENTS The church is here in a season of sharp exercises: seeking, but not immediately finding her Lord. She relates the conflicts she sustained in her pursuit and enquiry after Jesus. Having at length, found him, she rejoices in the discovery. The chapter closeth with an account of the King's gl... [ Continue Reading ]
I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. The streets and broad ways here spoken of, into which the church, resolves to go in quest of Jesus, I should apprehend mean the public Ordinances of wo... [ Continue Reading ]
The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth? Very probably the watchmen here described, are meant for the ministers of the gospel of Christ; for so the Lord describes them as watchmen upon the walls of Zion. Isaiah 62:6. And by their being said here t... [ Continue Reading ]
It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me. It is not said what answer the watchmen gave the church, or whether any; but this ver... [ Continue Reading ]
I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please. Here is the same charge repeated by the church, as Chapter 2:7. to which I refer.... [ Continue Reading ]
Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant? Various are the opinions of believers by whom these words are spoken. Some suppose that they are the answer of the daughters of Jerusalem, to whom the church,... [ Continue Reading ]
Behold his bed, which is Solomon's; threescore valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Israel. Perhaps the church is the speaker here, who calls upon everyone to behold her Solomon, her Beloved, her Jedidiah; and to mark some striking circumstances concerning him. That by Solomon is meant the Lo... [ Continue Reading ]
They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night. It is most probable that the sword here spoken of and which they are said all to hold, means the sword of the spirit, which the apostle calls the word of God, Ephesians 6:17. and which t... [ Continue Reading ]
King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon. (10) He made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple, the midst thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem. I would not strain the figures we meet with in this Song, beyond... [ Continue Reading ]
Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart. Here is a gracious call to the church at large to go forth and behold Jesus as King, and crowned. Jesus came forth at th... [ Continue Reading ]