Song of Solomon 1:8

Just as the loved one was suffering in her soul from the mean suspicions of others, the Beloved appears for her comfort. This is the first time we hear the Bridegroom's voice. But oh! what grace flows out to her! What words drop from His lips! "O you fairest among women," is the first utterance of His heart. Enough, surely, to sweeten the most bitter soul.

Here for the first time we hear the Bridegroom's voice. He addresses the bride as the "fairest among women." She may be black in her own sight, and hated and persecuted by others too, but in His sight she is the "fairest among women." Nothing will alter Christ's estimate of His people. Neither the failure of the saints, nor the slander of the world, will alter His appreciation of His own. He ever views them in all the value of His own work, and according to the counsels of His grace.

The Bridegroom's answer comes at once and clearly, but nothing more. He gives no word of approval to the questions… He delights in her person, and assures her of His delight in the strongest terms. "O you fairest among women." His love never changes. Yet there are many things said and done by her that He cannot approve of. In his person the believer is perfect in Christ, and in His sight. He is justified from all things. But in practice he is full of failure.

Is there not something in that little word "if" which hints that He expected her to know the pathway of His flock? As if the Lord had said — Surely you know. My mind on all these questions, as the Shepherd of Israel, lies plainly before you. Why not read, my love, and understand? He cannot scold, yet His love is faithful. As He said to Philip, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip?" How gently He leads! How kindly, even the rebukes of His love!

"Go your way forth." The shepherd never feeds his flock in the cities. In the Song of Solomon the city is a picture of the world that man has built up to satisfy his own lusts and pleasures, with no regard for God. Are you saved and still going along with the world in its pursuit of lust and pleasure without God? Then you may be sure you are moving in a different world from the one where the Good Shepherd feeds His flock. Your soul will starve.

What mattered now was to be found following the ways of the word of God: "go your way forth by the footsteps of the flock." Those who had walked the path before were the sheep of Jehovah. "And feed your young goats beside the shepherds' tents." Hold fast the testimony of the word of God — what God had given in His own word. The shepherds are those whom God had raised up to guide His flock here below. In short, He tells her to hold fast to His word before she knows His heart is turned towards her — before she has proof of His love for her.

Let her feed the lambs beside the shepherd's tents, and in feeding others she will herself be fed. What is this but a foreshadowing of that last scene in John's Gospel? There the Lord speaks His touching words to a disciple who had fallen away and been restored: "Follow me," and "Feed my lambs." We find rest and food for our souls by following Christ and feeding His lambs.