Tirzah, a capital city of the kings of Israel and the place of the kings’ palace (1 Kings 14:17; 15:21; 16:23), is mentioned here in a positive sense to signify the sanctuary of God, the dwelling place of God as the King. The holy city Jerusalem was the capital of Judah and the safeguard of God’s dwelling place, the temple, on earth. Hence, these two cities signify God’s sanctuary, God’s dwelling place, with God’s holy city surrounding it to be its safeguard. Here the Beloved’s praising His lover, saying that she is as beautiful as the heavenly sanctuary (Tirzah) and as lovely as the heavenly Jerusalem, indicates that through her living in Christ’s ascension as the new creation in resurrection, the lover of Christ becomes mature in the riches of the life of Christ so that she becomes not only a garden to Christ (S.S. 4:12-16; 5:1; 6:2) but also the building of God (cf. Gen. 2:8-12, 18-24; 1 Cor. 3:9-12), the sanctuary of God and its safeguard. It indicates further that she lives in the Holy of Holies, the inner chamber of the heavenly sanctuary, within the veil, experiencing the ascension of Christ through the cross after her experience of His resurrection. To become a garden to Christ is to be flourishing in the element of Christ’s life with its unsearchable riches; to become the sanctuary of God is to be built up (related to the building up of the Body of Christ) in the growth in the life of Christ with its unsearchable riches unto maturity (Eph. 4:12-16). In the Old Testament the building of God is typified by Tirzah and Jerusalem; in the New Testament this building is the organic Body of Christ. Ultimately, the building up of the organic Body of Christ, which is also Christ’s wife (Eph. 5:25-32), will consummate the New Jerusalem, the holy city as the consummation of the Holy of Holies, the mutual dwelling of God and His redeemed in eternity (Rev. 21:2-3, 16, 22).
Although the sanctuary of God is in the heavens, it is divided into two sections — the outer Holy Place and the inner Holy of Holies, where God Himself dwells — by the veil, which signifies our flesh (Heb. 9:1-5, 12, 24; 10:19-20). In relation to Christ, the veil in the sanctuary of God was split at the time of Christ’s crucifixion (Matt. 27:51), but in relation to the believers, it still remains so that God may use it to perfect His seeking ones and so that they may be one with God by dwelling in Him as the Holy of Holies (see Rev. 21:22 and notes). The apostle Paul became mature in the life of Christ, living in the ascension of Christ, yet God still allowed him to have a thorn in his flesh through a messenger of Satan to keep him from being exceedingly lifted up (2 Cor. 12:7). According to God’s economy, no matter how mature and spiritual we may become, as long as we are living on earth, i.e., as long as our body has not yet been transfigured (Rom. 8:23; Phil. 3:21), we still have the flesh, which is the veil. Hence, there is still the need of the Lord’s ultimate calling of us to live within the veil through a stronger experience of the cross in dealing with our flesh after we experience Christ’s resurrection as the new creation of God. We need to learn to pass through the veil by experiencing the dealing of the cross every day that we may live within the veil, in the Holy of Holies. It is here that all the seekers of Christ who live in the Holy of Holies, in the consummated Triune God, enjoy to the fullest extent the hidden Christ in His hidden life supply (signified by the manna in the golden pot — Exo. 16:32-34; Rev. 2:17a), in the resurrection life (signified by the budding rod — Num. 17:1-11), and in the inner law of life (signified by the tablets of the covenant — Exo. 25:16; 31:18; Deut. 10:1-5; Jer. 31:33) hidden in the Ark within the Holy of Holies (Heb. 9:4). This is the highest stage in the experience of the lover of Christ as presented in this book.