Song of Solomon 6:1-8:14; Romans 8:1-25

Thought from Today’s Old Testament Passage: [Chapter 7] Now here we have, I. A copious description of the beauty of the spouse, which, some think, is given by the virgins her companions, and that those were they who called upon her to return; it seems rather to be given by Christ himself, and to be designed to express his love to her and delight in her, as before, ch. 4:1, etc., and ch. 6:5, 6. The similitudes are here different from what they were before, to show that the beauty of holiness is such as nothing in nature can reach; you may still say more of it, and yet still come short of it. That commendation of the spouse, ch. 4, was immediately upon the espousals (ch. 3:11), this upon her return from a by-path (ch. 6:13); yet this exceeds that, to show the constancy of Christ’s love to his people; he loves them to the end, since he made them precious in his sight and honourable. The spouse had described the beauty of her beloved in ten particulars (ch. 5:11, etc.); and now he describes her in as many, for he will not be behindhand with her in respects and endearments. Those that honour Christ he will certainly honour, and make honourable. As the prophet, in describing the corruptions of degenerate Israel, reckons from the sole of the foot even unto the head (Isa. 1:6), so here the beauties of the church are reckoned from foot to head, that, as the apostle speaks, when he is comparing the church, as here, to the natural body (1 Co. 12:23), more abundant honour might be bestowed on those parts of the body which we think to be less honourable, and which therefore lacked honour, v. 24. Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Bible (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers), 1997