Bible Commentaries

Song of Solomon 7:1

I. Notice, first, the Church's or the believer's name—"daughter" and "prince's daughter." (1) She is called "daughter." This points to the tender relation subsisting between Christ and His people. When Jehovah in the Old Testament speaks most endearingly of His ancient Church, He calls it "the daughter of Zion." (2) Again, she is a "prince's daughter." He reminds her of her pedigree. It is no ordinary birth. She is one of the adopted children of the "King of kings"—those who by virtue of their spiritual relationship to the Prince of the kings of the earth, their Elder Brother, are themselves "made kings and priests unto God."

II. Consider the subject of commendation: "How beautiful are thy feet with shoes!" (1) The shoe or sandal, in ancient times, and in Oriental countries, was the badge of freedom and honour. (2) Shoes or sandals were emblems of joy; while the want of these was equally recognised and regarded as a symbol of grief and sorrow. (3) The sandals on the feet speak of activity, and duty, and preparedness for Christ's service. They point to the nature of the journey the believer is pursuing. Though a pleasant road, and a safe road, and a road with a glorious termination, it is at times rough: a path of temptation and trial. Unshod feet would be cut and lacerated with the stones and thorns and briars which beset it. (4) The shoes point to the believer as a messenger to others. The Church in each of her members must be, or ought to be, shod as a ministering one.

J. R. Macduff, Communion Memories, p. 109.

References: Song of Solomon 7:8.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, pp. 286, 291, 301; Ibid., Sermons in Sackville College, vol. i., p. 224. Song of Solomon 7:9.—Expositor, 3rd series, vol. i., p. 160.

Song of Solomon 7:11

Consider the lessons taught us in the rustling language of the standing corn.

I. Here are revelations from God. In the fields we see (1) His power; (2) His wisdom; (3) His goodness; (4) His faithfulness.

II. Life comes out of death. A few months ago this bright field of teeming life was a graveyard, and every individual grain died, and was buried here in sure and certain hope of a glorious resurrection. The cemetery is the field of God. I hear the winds of heaven making music through the standing corn, and this is the burden of their song, "Sown in dishonour, and raised in glory."

III. Like comes forth from like. This heavy crop of wheat is all the outcome of scattered wheat, and no other kind of plant could possibly arise. "What a man soweth that shall he also reap."

IV. Much comes from little. In a small compass of bag and basket was the seed-corn contained. What spacious yard, capacious barn, and extensive granary will be required to hold the vast result. "Despise not the day of small things."

V. Fruit comes from labour. Success is the offspring of toil. This grand field is no happy accident. This field of waving wheat is the farmer's fee for hard and willing work. Nothing is to be gained by listless indifference.

J. Jackson Wray, Light from the Old Lamp, p. 138.

References: Song of Solomon 7:11, Song of Solomon 7:12.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 130. Song of Solomon 7:11-13.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. x., No. 605, and vol. xviii., No. 1066. Song of Solomon 7:12, Song of Solomon 7:13.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 307. Song of Solomon 7:13.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 275. Song of Solomon 8:3.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 321. Song of Solomon 8:5.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv., No. 877; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 291; J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 330. Song of Solomon 8:5-7.—R. M. McCheyne, Memoirs and Remains, p. 342. Song of Solomon 8:6.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 341; Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 289. Song of Solomon 8:6.—J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 5th series, p. 113 (see also Old Testament Outlines, p. 166). Song of Solomon 8:6, Song of Solomon 8:7.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii., No. 364; Expositor, 1st series, vol. x., p. 386. Song of Solomon 8:11.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 352. Song of Solomon 8:13.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxix., No. 1716; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 306.