Song of Solomon 7:1

It is hard to say whether the daughters of Jerusalem or the Bridegroom speak the first five verses of this chapter to the bride... In chapter 4, when He speaks of her qualities, He begins with the head. In chapter 5, when the bride gives a full portrait of her Beloved, she also begins with the head. But here it is different: the description begins with the feet and ends with the head. Here she seems to be seen from earth's point of view, as if her walk first drew the daughters of Jerusalem.

The daughters of Jerusalem thus celebrate the beauty of the bride. In the past her words gave bright witness to the King. Now she herself is a witness to all the beauty the King had put on her. It is the witness of life rather than lips, of ways rather than words. She had been with the Beloved in the garden of spices and she comes forth from His presence with the beauty of the King upon her. They greet her as the daughter of the Prince. The stamp of royalty is on her, and the grace and majesty of the King's presence goes with her as she walks.

The King's bride is looked over closely again, and given a new title: "O prince's daughter." Her connection with royalty is now acknowledged. The King has brought her into the closest relationship with Himself. Everyone can see it... When He comes and takes the throne of His father David, everything in Israel changes.

She is addressed as a prince's daughter, a child of royal birth. So are we children of the great King. Think for a moment what dignity is yours and mine, dear fellow believer, as the child of the great King of the universe. Should we ever be downcast, or be ashamed of our royal birth? Or choose for our closest friends and companions the children of the realms of darkness? Surely we should always be careful that our walk is in keeping with our royal birth.

Her heart knew Him by the glory of the head. He begins with her at the lowest point instead: "How beautiful are your feet in sandals, O noble daughter!" This is grace — grace whose first care is the part of us that touches a defiling world. Service is sweet to love. He thinks first of our feet, and at last His eye rests on our lips.

Consider your shoes a moment. They are made of leather, the skin of some animal that had to die so that you might have shoes. We are poor sinners who could not stand before God at all on our own merits. This reminds us at once that Christ has made us acceptable to Him. We stand before God clothed in all the merits of Christ's sacrificial death for us... Wearing these shoes — brought near to God through the death of Christ — how beautiful our footsteps should be!

She has been in the hands of "a master workman" and she wears the jewels his hands had made. The beauty of the King is upon her... By nature "from the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and festering sores"; but seen as spiritual and heavenly in origin — as a prince's daughter — we are all beautiful from the sole of the foot to the head.