This verse portrays the beauty of Christ’s lover in her singleness and insight by the Spirit (eyes like doves), which is invisible to the outsiders (behind your veil), and in her submission and obedience through God’s feeding (hair like a flock of goats) that subdues her disobedience among the disobedient people.

This portrays the beauty of the lover in her receiving the divine food by her power that has been dealt with by the cross (teeth like a flock of shorn ewes), made clean by the Spirit’s washing (come up from the washing), and strengthened twofold and balanced (twins), without losing strength (none bereaved of her young).

This is the beauty of Christ’s lover in her speaking with Christ’s redemption and His authority (lips like a scarlet thread — Josh. 2:21; Matt. 27:28-29) by her lovely mouth, and in her expression (cheeks), which is full of life (pomegranate) and hidden (behind your veil).

The lover of Christ is beautiful in her having a will that is submissive to Christ (neck like the tower of David — cf. Isa. 3:16) and that is rich in the defending power (bucklers and shields of the mighty men).

This speaks of the beauty of Christ’s lover in her tender faith and love that are strengthened twofold (two breasts — Gal. 5:6; 1 Tim. 1:14) and nourished (feed) in the environment of a pure and trusting life (among the lilies — Matt. 6:28).

Lit., breathes. After the lover of Christ has experienced Christ in His sweet death and His fragrant resurrection (S.S. 2:14-17; 3:1-5), in her deeper pursuit she determines to stay in the sweet death of Christ (the mountain of myrrh) and His fragrant resurrection (the hill of frankincense) until her Beloved comes back (the day dawns and the shadows flee away — cf. 2 Pet. 1:19). Here it seems that the lover does not care whether her Beloved is with her or not, as long as she remains on the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense. However, it is not possible to experience Christ’s death and resurrection as something separate and apart from Christ. The death, resurrection, ascension, and Spirit of Christ are actually Christ Himself (Rom. 6:3; John 11:25; Eph. 2:6; Rom. 8:9-10). If we remain in Christ, who is the Spirit in our spirit (Rom. 8:16), and have Christ with us, we will be in His death, His resurrection, and His ascension. This is to experience Christ, to enjoy Christ.

God in His economy does not want us to experience something of Christ. Instead, He determined that we enjoy Christ Himself in many aspects. Death, resurrection, ascension, and the Spirit are the four conditions in which Christ is enjoyed by us. To die with Christ is to enjoy Christ in His death. He is always in His sweet death for our enjoyment (Gal. 2:20a). To be resurrected with Christ is to enjoy the resurrected, life-giving Christ (John 12:24). To live in ascension is to enjoy Christ in the condition of ascension (Col. 3:1-3). If we enjoy Christ in ascension, we also enjoy Him in resurrection as God’s new creation. Ascension, God’s new creation, and resurrection are one. Christ is not only in the conditions of His death, resurrection, and ascension but also in the condition of the life-giving Spirit. He is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit of Jesus Christ to us (1 Cor. 15:45; Phil. 1:19). Where the Spirit is, Christ is, and it is in this Spirit that we enjoy Christ.

Here Christ expresses His appreciation of His lover to prepare her to receive His call to live with Him in His ascension as His new creation in resurrection, instead of remaining on the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense (v. 6). The new creation is only that which is in ascension in resurrection. Anyone who is in Christ and in His resurrection is a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). The matters of resurrection and the new creation are closely related to Christ’s ascension. Actually, Christ’s resurrection and ascension are one (cf. Eph. 2:5-6). If we are in His resurrection, we are also in His ascension.

Here Christ asks His lover as His bride to look with Him from His ascension (Lebanon), the highest place of the truth (Amana) and of Christ’s victory in His fighting (Senir and Hermon), and from the heavenly places of the enemies (the lions’ dens and the leopards’ mountains). Christ calls His lover to live with Him in His ascension, as He had called her to remain in His cross (S.S. 2:14). When the lover is living in ascension, she and Christ are living in one condition, the condition of ascension, to be a couple. Christ is divine and human, and His transformed lover is human and divine. They are the same in life and nature, perfectly matching one another.

Lebanon, a high mountain, signifies ascension as the peak of resurrection (2 Kings 19:23 see note John 6:3¹). See note S.S. 4:7¹.

Meaning truth. The truth refers to the reality of the consummated Triune God, the all-inclusive Christ with His complete redemption, and the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving, sevenfold intensified Spirit. These realities are the three of the Triune God. Cf. note 1 John 1:6⁶.

Meaning soft armor. That the armor is soft, not hard, signifies that the enemy, Satan, has been defeated, the war is over, and the victory has been gained (Heb. 2:14; Col. 2:15). In Christ’s ascension we do not need to fight, for the enemy has already been defeated. We wear soft armor to enjoy our victory in Christ.

Meaning destruction. In Christ’s ascension there are the positive peaks of truth (Amana), victory (Senir), and the destruction of the enemy.

The lions’ dens and the leopards’ mountains signify the heavenlies, where Satan and his subordinates (the lions and the leopards) are. The victory has been gained, but Satan and his evil forces are still there, in the heavenlies (Eph. 3:10 and note Eph. 3:10^1a). Christ calls His lover to look from this, indicating that we must have our living in ascension, far above the evil powers (see note Eph. 6:12^4e). Here we fight with Satan and his power of darkness by being empowered in the Lord and in the might of His strength, by putting on the whole armor of God, by standing against the stratagems of the devil, by receiving the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, and by praying always in the spirit for the building up of the Body of Christ and the spreading of the gospel (Eph. 6:12-20). This is the reality of living in the ascension of Christ.

The silent answer of Christ’s lover, by a quick look (glance of your eyes) and by her submission to God’s instruction (strand of your necklace — Prov. 1:8-9), has ravished His heart.

Christ considers His lover as one with Him in nature (sister — cf. Heb. 2:11) and as His bride (vv. 9-10, 12; 5:1). Cf. note S.S. 1:1^1a, par. 2.

Considering His lover as one with Him in nature and as His bride, Christ enjoys her beautiful love, which is much better than wine, and her ointments, which were the King’s (S.S. 1:3) and are more fragrant than all spices.

Christ enjoys her word as fresh honey (for restoring the weak — 1 Sam. 14:24-29), which comes from her lips, and as honey and milk (for restoring the weak and feeding the immature ones — 1 Cor. 3:1-2; 1 Pet. 2:2), which are under her tongue. He also enjoys the fragrance of her conduct (garments — Rev. 19:8) like the fragrance of ascension (Lebanon — see note S.S. 4:8²).

Through her living in Christ’s ascension as the new creation in resurrection for her growth in life and transformation by life, Christ’s transformed bride becomes mature in the riches of the life of Christ so that she becomes four things: a garden to satisfy Christ (S.S. 4:12-16; 5:1; 6:2-3), God’s dwelling place with its protection (S.S. 6:4a), the heavenly bodies as the universal light (S.S. 6:10a), and a terrible army, which is the corporate overcomer — the Shulammite (S.S. 6:4b, S.S. 6:10b, S.S. 6:13, and notes). Here the garden is enclosed, and there is a spring shut up, a fountain sealed, for Christ’s private enjoyment, indicating that in experiencing Christ we, the seeking believers, must have something private, hidden, shut up, and sealed that is for Christ alone. The spring is the Spirit of life and is seen in Rev. 22:1 as the river of water of life. The fountain is the source of the spring, which is God’s throne.

Christ’s lover wants the difficult environment (north wind) and the pleasant environment (south wind) to work on her as a garden, that its fragrance may be spread. She asks her Beloved to come into her as a garden and enjoy its choicest fruit.

The fountain in gardens and the well of living water of the life-giving Spirit (John 7:38-39) are streams from the resurrection and ascension life (Lebanon). The fountain and the spring stream out from the overcomers, flowing out from what they are and from where they are.

Heb. pardes, meaning an enclosed garden; the word paradise is akin to it. In Christ’s enjoyment of His lover, she is an enclosed garden that grows all kinds of plants in different colors as different expressions of the inner life and in a variety of fragrances as the rich expression of the mature life (vv. 13-14). This becomes the lover’s beauty to the Lord. The lover of Christ is now rich in life, producing fruits to nourish and refresh, giving forth sweet fragrances, and displaying beautiful colors for Christ’s enjoyment.

See note S.S. 4:9².