Christ’s espousal and marriage life cover the church age, the kingdom age, and the eternal age. Christ’s espousals began from the time of incarnation, when incarnation as His mother crowned Him with His humanity, and continue through the church age, an age of warfare (vv. 7-8), in which all His believers are espoused to Him as virgins (2 Cor. 11:2). After the church age, in the kingdom age Christ’s regenerated and transformed wife, composed of the overcoming believers, becomes a palanquin to Him for His triumphant celebration (vv. 9-10). The celebration of Christ’s victory is His thousand-year wedding day (Rev. 19:7-8). His marriage life after His wedding will be the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (Rev. 21:9-10).

The union of the bed with its sleeper (vv. 7-8), the union of the palanquin with its rider (vv. 9-10), and the union of the bride with her bridegroom (v. 11) all signify the complete union of the lover with Christ, which has made her God’s new creation in Christ’s resurrection (2 Cor. 5:17). The bed in the night, the palanquin in the day, and the marriage life in the ages to come all refer to the one lover of Christ — the Shulammite (S.S. 6:13 and note S.S. 6:13¹). Eventually, the New Jerusalem will be a corporate Shulammite, which will include all God’s chosen and redeemed people (Rev. 21:9-10, 12, 14).

The entire Bible is a romance between God and His elect (see note Exo. 20:6², par. 2, in ). Through incarnation God became a man so that He could court man (John 3:29-30). Incarnation was a “mother” who gave Christ His humanity as a crown, a treasure. The humanity that Christ put on in His incarnation and uplifted in His resurrection (Rom. 1:3-4) is His crown. In our response to Christ’s courting, we court Him by being transformed to become divine for His expression (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18). As Christ’s human wife transformed with His divinity, we become a crown to Him (cf. Prov. 12:4a).

The Spirit, signified here by a third party speaking, bids the overcoming believers (daughters of Zion — see note Psa. 48:2^1b) to look away from themselves unto Christ in His humanity, which is a crown with which His mother (incarnation) crowned Him on the day of the believers’ betrothal to Him, a day of the gladness of His heart. Here the lover of Christ and Christ are united to be one in the bridal love and marriage life. This portrays the church and Christ being united to be completely and fully one organically in the mingled spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).

After the church age there will be the age of the kingdom, an age of triumphant glory to celebrate Christ’s victory. In the kingdom age the lover of Christ, signified by the palanquin, and Christ, signified by its rider, are in a union of triumphant celebration. Christ’s lover is a palanquin (for travel in the day, the kingdom age — 2 Pet. 1:19), a carriage for Christ, made by Christ Himself out of the resurrected, uplifted, and noble humanity (the wood of Lebanon), having God’s nature (gold) as its base, Christ’s redemption (silver) as its supports, and Christ’s kingship (purple) as its seat (vv. 9-10). The inside of the palanquin is inlaid with the love of Christ’s seekers (daughters), signifying that the lover of Christ is one with all the seekers of Christ in love in the principle of the Body of Christ.

In the church age the lover of Christ, signified by the bed, and Christ, signified by the one who sleeps in the bed, are in a union of love. The bed is for rest and victory in the night, signifying the church age, during the time of spiritual warfare, signified by the sixty mighty men who surround the bed. Christ’s lover is among the sixty mighty men, indicating that she is a leading overcomer, fighting for Christ in order to keep Him at rest during the fighting. She is the victory of the overcoming Christ, full of the power of the overcomers among God’s elect that carries Christ even in times of difficulties. These overcomers are experts in war, fighting with their weapons at the time of alarms (v. 8; cf. 2 Cor. 10:3-5; Eph. 6:10-20; 1 Tim. 1:18; 2 Tim. 4:7).

n vv. 6-11 the lover of Christ becomes a new creation by her complete union with Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). Here the lover of Christ, as an overcoming representative of God’s elect, comes from Egypt, the world (wilderness), like persons in the unshakable power of the Spirit (pillars of smoke — Exo. 14:19; Rev. 3:12), perfumed with the sweet death and fragrant resurrection of Christ (myrrh and frankincense) and with all the fragrant riches of Christ as a merchant.

At this point, after a long period of remaining in Christ’s death (S.S. 2:14), the seeker of Christ has experienced the breaking of her self, her natural man, and has entered into resurrection, in which she has been transformed to be a spiritual person, one who lives in the spirit, not in the physical realm (1 Cor. 2:15; 3:1; 2 Cor. 4:16-18; Col. 3:1-3). She is like smoke, but she is a pillar that can stand on the earth and touch the heavens. In experience she has become the same as God, who is Spirit (symbolized by a cloud of smoke — Exo. 14:19; John 4:24), and the same as Christ, who is a ladder (related to the pillar — Gen. 28:12; John 1:51) standing on the earth, bringing heaven to earth and joining earth to heaven. As such a person, she is worthy of God’s economy and is qualified to move with God, in union with Christ for the accomplishing of His economy (cf. 2 Cor. 2:14).

In the third stage of her experience the lover of Christ is called to live in ascension as the new creation in resurrection. To live in ascension is to live continually in our spirit. Although we, the believers in Christ, are on earth, when we are in our spirit, we are joined to the ascended Christ in the heavens (see note Heb. 10:19^1b). To live in ascension requires that we live, act, move, and do everything in our spirit (Rom. 8:4). This requires that we discern our spirit from our soul (Heb. 4:12).

Here Christ charges the meddling believers (daughters of Jerusalem) not to awaken His lover from her experience of Christ in her being delivered from the self, from her seclusion in her introspection, into her secret fellowship with Him, until she is pleased to enter into the next stage in her experience of Him (until she pleases).

After finding her Beloved, she holds Him and will not let go until she brings Him into the Spirit of grace, through which she was regenerated (her mother’s house and chamber), for secret fellowship. She was born in the mother’s house and was conceived in the mother’s chamber. The mother is grace (Gal. 4:26, 31 and note Gal. 4:31¹), and the mother’s chamber signifies love, which is of the Father and which issues in grace (Eph. 2:4-5). The Spirit brings God’s love and carries God’s grace to us (2 Cor. 13:14 and note 2 Cor. 13:1^1a, pars. 1 and 2); hence, He is called the Spirit of grace (Heb. 10:29). Although the lover of Christ fell into introspection, one day she woke up and realized that, though she was a sinner, she was saved by grace (Eph. 2:8). This revived her.

Signifying the ones who watch over God’s people spiritually (Heb. 13:17) in the ways of the heavenly Jerusalem.

Eventually, Christ’s lover has no choice but to answer His call, and she determines to rise up from her introspection to seek her Beloved in the ways (streets and squares) of the heavenly Jerusalem (typified here by the city Jerusalem on earth — Heb. 12:22).

While she is still in her introspection, in her low situation, she seeks her Beloved, but she fails to find Him.