I came to my garden, my sister, my bride, I gathered my myrrh with my spice, I ate my honeycomb with my honey, I drank my wine with my milk. Others Eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with love!
The bride has invited her Beloved into His garden, and here He answers: He has come in, He is satisfied, and He calls others to eat. Who is speaking, what He finds, and who the "friends" are — this verse raises all three.
Already Come
These writers quote an older translation. Where the ESV has "I came to my garden," it reads "I am come." Where the ESV ends "be drunk with love," it ends "drink abundantly, beloved ones." The reply itself is the same: not a promise for later, but a fact already true while she is still asking.
Andrew MillerThe bride, loved and beautiful, invites her Lord to come into His garden and share its refreshing fruits. At once He answers, "I am come." He does not say, "I may" or "I will," but "I am come." Already, while she is still inviting Him, He is present. His heart is always ready — waiting to attend to the cry of His beloved ones.
Sister and Spouse
He calls her both sister and spouse, and the garden He enters is His, not hers. One writer traces the two names back to Israel's story, and the garden back to His death.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe bride had said, "Let my Beloved come into His (not her) garden." The Bridegroom now answers that invitation. He says, "I am come into My garden, My sister, My spouse." She is both "sister and spouse." When He speaks of her as sister, He owns the national relationship. In Matthew 12:46-50 He disowned that relationship, because they rejected the offer of the kingdom. Now that relationship is restored, and the godly part of Israel becomes the spouse. In His garden, the product of His love and His death, He finds His enjoyment, His joy and His satisfaction.
Myrrh Gathered First
Before the honey and the wine comes the myrrh — a bitter spice. One writer reads it as the taste of genuine repentance.
Andrew MillerThese different fruits may stand for the different results of the Spirit's work in souls. He works through the truth. There may be tears, bitter as myrrh, flowing from one who has a deep sense of past failure. The Spirit of God has applied the truth with power to the conscience, and the heart is broken... All sin is against God; and it is a painful thing to have to deal with God about our sin.
Nothing Passed Over
He gathers, He eats, He drinks. One writer takes the wine and the milk as the two ends of growth among His people.
Andrew MillerThe Lord finds every variety of fruit in the gatherings of His people. But with everything that is of the Spirit, He has the fullest fellowship and enjoyment. "I have gathered … I have eaten … I have drunk." He shares in all the variety. He slights none. In the advanced disciple He may find the strength and vigour of wine. In the newborn baby there may be the sweet simplicity of milk.
Guest Becomes Host
Having accepted her small hospitality, He turns and provides one far larger.
Hamilton SmithHow gladly the Bridegroom responds to the invitation of the bride. And may we not say Christ delights to be constrained by His willing people? The disciples on the road to Emmaus "constrained Him, saying, Abide with us." The Lord responds at once, in grace: we read that "He went in to stay with them." Having come into the garden, the King does more than share its fruits. He spreads the feast Himself, for He can say, "Eat, O friends; drink, yes drink abundantly, beloved ones." We may spread our little feast for the Lord as in the home at Bethany, but how rich a feast He spreads for us.
Commentators differ on the timing. Smith writes of a feast the Lord spreads for us now; other writers look on to a day still ahead.
The Circle of Friends
The last words of the verse call "friends" to the table. One writer looks ahead to the day when that call goes out, and to how wide the circle is.
Andrew MillerWhat a circle of blessing is set before us here! Look forward to the happy day. He who has been long absent will have returned. He will say in the hearing of His waiting people, "I am come" — "I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse." Then the promises made to the fathers will be fulfilled to their children, according to the word of the Lord... What a circle of glory! What a circle of "friends!" What a feast of love! And what a joyous welcome from the heart of Him who is "Lord of all!"
The Danger After the Feast
The very next words in the Song are "I slept." Writers point out that the highest moment of enjoyment is where the guard drops.
William KellyHow readily we understand such an experience. The very fullest assurance of the Saviour's love tends to make our hearts careless. When we are told that we are precious to Him, if we know Him at all, we are earnest and urgent; but when everything is fully out in His incomparable grace to us, how readily the flesh creeps in and takes it as a matter of course!
Summary
- Answered — He does not say "I will come." He says "I am come." He is already there while she is still asking.
- Accepted — He gathers, eats and drinks. Bitter myrrh, honey, wine and milk: He takes them all and slights none.
- Owned — "sister" and "spouse" mark a relationship once disowned and now restored. The garden is the product of His love and His death.
- Spread — the guest becomes the host: we set out our small feast for Him, and He sets out a far richer one for us.
- Widened — the call goes out beyond the bride to a whole circle of friends, a welcome from the heart of the Lord of all.