His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me!
The bride has just cried out for something to hold her up. This verse is the answer she receives, and commentators ask two things of it: whose voice is speaking, and what the two hands mean.
Whose voice is this?
One writer reads the opening of the chapter as the bride's own voice:
J. N. DarbyThe first six verses (leaving out the second) of Song of Solomon 2 seem to me to be the voice of the bride. Others have understood them differently, but I think they are wrong. In theory she grasps her relationship, and speaks mostly of herself; but there is real affection.
She speaks this way while He is still absent:
William KellyYet these words do not mean that He had come. It is simply the love and grace He had shown her. It is her sense of His love to her even now, though she still longed for everything to be as His word had said.
The answer to her cry
She had called out for strength to hold her up. Here is what she receives:
Hamilton SmithThis is the answer to the bride's call for sustaining power. The banner of love is over her, and the arms of love are around her. She has attained the longing of her heart expressed in the opening of the canticle. She has reached the assurance and enjoyment of the Bridegroom's love. How happy when the saint finds every longing of the renewed nature satisfied by the love of Christ.
Two hands, two blessings
The left hand and the right are not the same gift twice. One writer works out the difference from where each hand sits and what each hand does:
The Emmanuel Christian HomeWhat a blessed place of rest and peace, drawn so close to Him in His tender embrace. "His left hand is under my head." The heart is on the left side. The left hand is the hand nearest His heart. She pillows her weary head in His left hand. The tender, loving touch of that hand — the hand pierced for her — soothes her... And then, "His right hand embraces me." The right hand is the hand we do things with. It is the symbol of power. "Your right hand, O LORD, glorious in power, your right hand, O LORD, shatters the enemy" (Ex. 15:6)... He throws His mighty right arm around her, to hold her up and draw her closer to Himself. And what protection! With His powerful arm around her, no enemy can trouble her, no harm can reach her.
Held by faith while He is absent
Faith holds Him now, but He is not here in person. One commentator marks that difference, then turns it into longing:
Andrew MillerTo faith, blessed be His name, He is ever present. "His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me." This is faith. It can lean upon His bosom. It can rest in His embrace at night, and go out with Him in the morning to the vineyards... Still, personally, He is not here. He is in heaven, we are on earth. Do you know these distinctions well, my soul? And say, is it not while resting by faith in Him that your heart longs most for His coming? Then He will take you up to be with Himself in glory.
Everything she names is His
Notice what the bride talks about. Every good thing she names belongs to Him:
Andrew MillerThe banner of His love over her, the everlasting arms underneath her, she rests in His eternal embrace. She delights in what He is. So she speaks of His shadow, His fruit, His banquet, His banner, His left hand, His right hand. It is all, it is only, Christ. When the soul is occupied with Him like this, He of all others is the most careful that it should not be disturbed.
Desire or experience?
One writer is honest about this rest. Most of us know it better as a wish than as a fact:
The Emmanuel Christian HomeThis is real rest. Our head rests on His loving hand, the hand pierced for us. His mighty right hand embraces us, draws us close to Himself, and shields us from all alarm. Is not this the real desire of every born-again soul? But sadly we must admit that it is often, as here, more the desire of our hearts than the actual experience of our lives. How may it become more of a reality in our life?... "Who is that coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved?" That is the secret — leaning on the Beloved, leaning hard, leaning all the time.
Summary
- Asked — She called for strength to hold her up. This verse is the answer: love's banner over her, love's arms around her.
- Held — The left hand is nearest His heart and gives rest; the right hand is the hand of power and gives protection. Tenderness underneath, strength around.
- His — Shadow, fruit, banquet, banner, left hand, right hand: every good thing she names belongs to Him, not to her.
- Faith — The embrace is real now, though He is in heaven and we are on earth. Resting in it sharpens the longing for His return.
- Leaning — Commentators admit this is more often our desire than our experience. The way in is to keep leaning on Him — hard, and all the time.