Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful. Our couch is green;
The bride has just heard the King call her beautiful, and here she gives Him back His own word. Her reply moves from what He is to where they rest — and one small pronoun in it changes everything.
The commentators below use an older translation. It reads "fair" and "pleasant" where the ESV reads "beautiful" and "truly delightful." It also reads "bed" for "couch."
The answer that echoes Him
She does not praise herself in return. She takes the exact word He used and turns it back on Him. One writer draws out what that echo says about all of Christ's people.
Hamilton SmithThe Bridegroom had said, "Behold, you are fair, my love." With great delight the bride at once responds, "Behold, you are fair, my beloved." Her beauty is the counterpart of His. Is Christ fair? So are His people.
Certainty of being loved
The whole exchange happens before the King has arrived. Another commentator points out that the words themselves are God's provision, so that her affection for Him is met with the assurance of His affection for her.
William KellyHe has not come yet. But God provides the word, so that she may know. Her heart takes up these words and expresses its affection to the Messiah. Just as truly, God gives her to know that such is His affection towards her.
Fair and pleasant
She uses two words, not one, and they are not saying the same thing twice. The second word answers a question the first leaves open.
Andrew MillerHe is not only fair to the eye, but pleasant to the heart. Many are fair that are not pleasant, and many are pleasant that are not fair, but Christ is both. Oh! what combinations, what perfections, what harmonies are found in Jesus! Here, and here alone, the heart can find rest — quiet, perfect rest.
A green couch
The couch she mentions is not a private bedroom but the place of reclining beside the King. Its colour carries the point.
Hamilton SmithThe bed refers to the couch on which the King and the bride recline at the King's table, and gives the thought of rest. When Christ takes His place among His own, a green spot appears in this barren world. In His presence there is rest.
Another writer looks at the colour itself. Green is a mixture, and the two colours behind it both carry meaning.
The Song of SolomonGreen is the most restful colour in nature. It is a compound colour made by mixing blue and yellow together. Blue is the heavenly colour. Golden yellow is the symbol of what is divine and pure, with nothing mixed in.
Rest outside the city
One writer links the green couch to the green pastures where a shepherd rests his flock — and points out where those pastures are never found.
Andrew MillerThe green pastures and the still waters of God's abundant grace have long been familiar to us as symbols of the rest and refreshment of the sheep of Christ under His shepherd care. But the shepherd never pitches his tent inside the city walls. He rests His flock outside, in the open country. "The city," in this book, pictures the world; the country pictures heavenly places.
The word "our"
She does not say your couch or my couch. One commentator finds in that one small word the proof of real fellowship, not admiration from a distance.
Andrew MillerBut there is one word in these closing sentences which shows full, conscious, happy fellowship with the one she loves. I mean that little word "our": "our bed is green … our house," "our rafters." It is like the precious little "us," "we," and "with," in the Epistle to the Ephesians. Oh! happy union — blessed unity, "our, us, we, with." Eternal oneness with Christ! One in life, one in righteousness, one in acceptance, one in peace, one in rest, one in joy, one in heavenly, eternal glory!
What she leaves unsaid
Praised to her face, she says nothing about herself — not even a modest denial. One writer calls that silence true humility.
Andrew MillerThe bride does not speak of herself. She hears the words of His admiring love, but says nothing about herself. She does not even say that she is unworthy of such love. However deep her feelings, she passes over self. This is true humility. We may speak of bad self and unworthy self while the heart is full of pride. True humility does not speak of self at all, either good or bad.
Summary
- Love spoken. He calls her beautiful first. God supplies the very words that make her sure of His love.
- Love echoed. She hands His word straight back to Him. Her beauty is the counterpart of His: what Christ is, His people become.
- Love enjoyed. He is fair to the eye and pleasant to the heart. Many are one without the other. In Christ alone the heart finds quiet, perfect rest.
- Love shared. The couch is green — rest in a barren world, outside the city. And it is our couch: "us," "we," "with."
- Love that silences self. Praised, she says nothing about herself, good or bad; that is what true humility sounds like.