Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
back to:
Song of Songs
Book: Song of Songs
Chapter: 5
Overview:
Christ's answer.
(1) The disappointments of the
Church from
her own folly.
(2-8) The excellences of
Christ.
(9-16)
1 See how ready
Christ is to accept the invitations of his
people. What little good there is in us would be lost, if he did
not preserve it to himself. He also invites his beloved people
to eat and
Drink abundantly. The ordinances in which they honour
him, are
Means of Grace.
2-8 Churches and believers,
By carelessness and security,
provoke
Christ to withdraw. We ought to notice our spiritual
slumbers and distempers.
Christ knocks to awaken us, knocks
By
his
Word and
Spirit, knocks
By Afflictions and
By our
consciences; thus, Re 3:20. When we are unmindful of
Christ,
still he thinks of us.
Christ's
Love to us should engage ours to
him, even in the most self-denying instances; and we only can be
gainers
By it. Careless souls
Put slights
On Jesus Christ.
Another could not be sent to open the door.
Christ calls to us,
but we have
No mind, or pretend we have
No strength, or we have
No time, and think we may be excused. Making excuses is making
Light of
Christ. Those
Put contempt upon
Christ, who cannot find
in their hearts to
Bear a cold blast, or to leave a warm
Bed for
him. See the powerful influences of Divine
Grace. He
Put in his
Hand to unbolt the door, as one weary of waiting. This betokens
a work of the
Spirit upon the soul. The believer's rising above
self-indulgence, seeking
By Prayer for the consolations of
Christ, and to remove every hinderance to
Communion with him;
these actings of the soul are represented
By the hands dropping
sweet-smelling
Myrrh upon the handles of the locks. But the
Beloved was gone!
By absenting himself,
Christ will teach his
people to value his gracious visits more highly. Observe, the
soul still calls
Christ her Beloved. Every desertion is not
despair.
Lord, I believe, though I must say,
Lord, help my
unbelief. His words melted me, yet, wretch that I was, I made
excuses. The smothering and stifling of convictions will be very
Bitter to think of, when
God opens our eyes. The soul went in
pursuit of him; not only prayed, but used means, sought him in
the ways wherein he used to be found. The watchmen wounded me.
Some refer it to those who misapply the
Word to awakened
consciences. The charge to the daughters of
Jerusalem, seems to
mean the distressed believer's desire of the prayers of the
feeblest
Christian. Awakened souls are more sensible of
Christ's
withdrawings than of any other trouble.
9-16 Even those who have little acquaintance with
Christ,
cannot but see amiable beauty in others who
Bear his image.
There are hopes of those who begin to inquire concerning
Christ
and his perfections. Christians, who are
Well acquainted with
Christ themselves, should do all they can to make others know
something of him. Divine
Glory makes him truly lovely in the
eyes of all who are enlightened to discern spiritual things. He
is
White in the spotless innocence of his
Life, ruddy in the
bleeding sufferings he went through at his
Death. This
description of the person of the Beloved, would form, in the
figurative language of those times, a portrait of beauty of
person and of
Grace of manners; but the aptness of some of the
allusions may not appear to us. He shall come to be glorified in
his saints, and to be admired in all that believe. May his
Love
constrain us to live to his
Glory.