At this point the lover of Christ is mature in life to the extent that she has become the same as Christ in every respect, except that she still has the flesh. Realizing all the troubles that come from her flesh, the lover wishes that Christ could be her brother in the flesh who was born of grace (her mother — Gal. 4:26), i.e., that He would be the same as she is in the flesh. This indicates poetically her groaning for her flesh. In vv. 2-4 she is hoping to be saved from her groaning for the flesh, indicating that she hopes to be raptured through the redemption of her body (Rom. 8:23; 2 Cor. 5:1-8; Eph. 4:30b).

I.e., outside the limitation of the flesh. When her body is transfigured (Phil. 3:21), she and the Lord will be the same (1 John 3:2), and no one will despise her because of her shortage in the flesh.

In vv. 2-3 the lover of Christ hopes that she and her Beloved could meet in the heavenly Jerusalem, where she is perfected by grace (her mother’s house — Gal. 4:26), and that she could afford her Beloved a way to enjoy the riches of her experience of the divine life (spiced wine from the juices of her pomegranate) for His satisfaction in His embracing, as in His embracing before rapture (S.S. 2:6).

The Spirit, signified by a third person speaking, asks who this lover of Christ is who came up once from the spiritual wilderness (the worldly environment) by herself (S.S. 3:6) and now comes up from the fleshly wilderness (the earthly realm) by leaning on her Beloved. As she is waiting for His coming, she is going out with Him to meet Him (cf. Matt. 25:1).

Here Christ answers that she is a sinner who has repented and has been saved by grace (her mother — Gal. 4:26; Eph. 2:8a) through regeneration (birth) in Him as the Provider of life (apple tree — S.S. 2:3). Here, at the consummation of her Christian life, the Lord reminds His lover that even now she is nothing — a sinner saved by the grace of Christ.

When the lover hears what her Beloved spoke in v. 5, she admits that by herself she is not able to stand and live in her Beloved until her rapture. Having no trust in herself while she is still in the flesh, the old creation, she asks her Beloved to keep her by His love (heart) and His strength (arm), for His love is as strong as unshakable death and His jealousy is as cruel as unconquerable Sheol, which is like the jealous Jehovah, who is a consuming fire (Deut. 4:24) that burns up all the negative things. His love cannot be quenched by trials nor drowned by persecutions nor replaced by any wealth (v. 7; Rom. 8:35-39; 1 Cor. 13:1-3).

See note Matt. 11:23^1d.

Heb. Jah; a shortened form of Jehovah.

Since the lover has matured in life in pursuing Christ and in the ultimate consummation of her experience of Christ, before her rapture she with Christ is concerned for the younger lovers of Christ, whose faith and love (breasts — 1 Tim. 1:14) have not yet matured. She is concerned about how to perfect the younger ones to mature in life for the building up of the Body of Christ and to love Christ until they are betrothed to Him in love for the constituting of the bride of Christ (2 Cor. 11:2; Gal. 4:19).

If the younger one (see note S.S. 8:8¹) is a wall for separation from the world (sanctification), Christ’s mature lover with her Beloved will perfect that one by building upon her a battlement based on the redemption of Christ (silver). If the younger one is a door as an entry for people to enter into Christ, the lover of Christ with her Beloved will perfect that one by building an enclosure around her with Christ’s heavenly and glorified humanity (Matt. 26:64; Acts 3:13) and His heavenly human life (cedar — Phil. 2:7-8). This indicates that the lover of Christ is an experienced one who knows not only how to nourish others but also how to build them up with the proper materials according to their particular need.

Here the lover of Christ testifies that she is a sanctified one (a separating wall) whose faith and love have been developed (breasts like towers — 1 Tim. 1:14), in contrast to the immature believer in v. 8. In the eyes of her Beloved she is like a person who has obtained peace based on sanctification (1 Thes. 5:23 and note 1 Thes. 5:23²).

Meaning Lord of all. Solomon as a great lord who possessed many vineyards rented the vineyards to keepers in order to gain produce. The vineyard keepers would pay Solomon one thousand shekels. Each vineyard keeper had helpers to keep the fruit, and he had to pay them two hundred shekels (v. 12). In the work of Christ, Christ is the Lord of all the works (vineyards). We, as Christ’s lovers, are vineyard keepers, who participate in one part of Christ’s work. According to the Lord’s requirement, we should pay Him the one thousand shekels, i.e., pay Him what He requires. In our work with the Lord we do not have “helpers”; hence, we as the vineyard keepers are able to keep the fruit ourselves. Thus, instead of giving the two hundred shekels to others, we give it to ourselves. This is the same as the Lord giving us two hundred shekels as a reward. Verses 11-12 show that our work with the Lord must exceed what He requires. The Lord requires not only what He has delivered to us but what He has given to us with interest (Matt. 25:26-27). With this interest as the basis, the Lord will reward us when He comes back. This reward will be given not according to the Lord’s grace but according to His righteousness.

Christ as our Beloved is the Lord of all, possessing all things (Acts 10:36), and we as His lovers share in all His possessions (1 Cor. 3:21-22) freely in the grace of Christ (Rom. 3:24), which is the issue of the love of God (2 Cor. 13:14). Yet we as His lovers still should give Him as our Beloved what we should give, not as a duty but as a matter of love (cf. Gal. 5:13). Christ as our Beloved, joining Himself to us as one, still likes to give us a reward of righteousness (2 Tim. 4:8). This implies that Christ as our Beloved gives us a reward for the residue of our labor as an incentive to our faithfulness in our labor for Him in love (cf. Matt. 25:20-23); hence, it is a reward of righteousness.

The lover of Christ asks Him who dwells in the believers as His gardens to let her hear His voice while her companions listen for His voice. This indicates that in the work that we as the lovers of Christ do for Him as our Beloved, we should fellowship with Him. As we are working with Him, we need to maintain our fellowship with Him, always listening to Him (cf. Luke 10:38-42 and note Luke 10:42¹).

As the concluding word of this poetic book, the lover of Christ prays that her Beloved would make haste to come back in the power of His resurrection (gazelle and young hart) to set up His sweet and beautiful kingdom (mountains of spices), which will fill the whole earth (Rev. 11:15; Dan. 2:35). Such a prayer portrays the union and communion between Christ as the Bridegroom and His lovers as the bride in their bridal love, in the way that the prayer of John, a lover of Christ, as the concluding word of the Holy Scriptures, reveals God’s eternal economy concerning Christ and the church in His divine love (Rev. 22:20).