Song of Solomon 1:6
Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother’s children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept. Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother’s children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.
The verse is the church speaking to nominal churches, telling how the sun has darkened her and her brethren have set her to keep the vineyards of others while her own vineyard she has not kept, so that her outward condition shifts with her circumstances. It stands in one of Solomon's one thousand and five songs, a warm figurative dialogue that forms a poetical picture of Christ's wonderful love for His church and her answering but often unfaithful love. Her own vineyard is the heart and inward life of piety and grace, which must be tended with attentive spiritual care and deep communion with Christ rather than spent wholly upon others. Work for others and even preaching the most solemn truths does not excuse neglect of that inward keeping or of duty at home, for one's own household, children, and daily calling are themselves service to God. Neglecting the heart while laboring abroad makes service for others weak and faithless, while keeping one's own vineyard by putting away anger, pride, envy, selfishness and every like stone prepares the plain path in which God can work.
Text and Poetic Setting
The verse belongs to one of the one thousand and five songs or poems written by Solomon, filled with vivid, warm, figurative Oriental imagery and shaped as a dialogue between various parties. It is to be understood by many scholars as a parable forming a poetical picture of Christ and His church, expressed in the warm figurative language of the East, and to be read alone with God with that thought in mind. It expresses Christ's wonderful love for His church and her answering love in response, though her love is often wanting in faithfulness and constancy.
It is part of the church's address to the daughters of Jerusalem, who represent nominal churches. It describes a speaker made black or darkened because the sun has looked upon her, who was made by her mother's children to be keeper of other vineyards while her own vineyard she has not kept. That image shows that the church's condition changes with circumstances.
Keeping One's Own Vineyard
The own vineyard is the heart and inward spiritual life, which must be tended by growing in piety and grace through attentive spiritual care. To spend time and strength caring for others' vineyards while neglecting inward development is to fail to keep the heart. Tending the needs of others while leaving one's own heart and piety uncared for makes Christian service less effective. Personal reflection and a deep life with Christ strengthen service for others, while neglect of one's own soul and responsibilities weakens it.
Being made responsible for other people's vineyards while neglecting one's own warns that service to others or work for God does not excuse neglect of duties at home and the spiritual care of one's own household. A woman's care for her household and children is itself part of serving God, and religious service must not come at the expense of home duty and ordinary duties. The same image describes one who has cared actively for others while failing to guide her own child toward God.
Leaving those of one's own house to go seek after others is sin. Spending oneself warning strangers in the streets to flee from wrath to come yet forsaking one's own home and children brings sore affliction from God, even allowing death to take one's own son while the father is abroad. Talking of grace and glory abroad while neglecting home duties witnesses against sincerity in religion and is faithless. One's own vineyard is daily calling and home life — clean rooms, clean clothes and children, mended socks, buttons on shirts, a neat house and a happy home — and serving God means doing these common actions in a heavenly spirit and using leftover cracks and crevices of time for further holy service, rather than giving up home faithfulness for outside mission work.
Preaching to others the most solemn truths and meeting the sins and errors of the last days while neglecting to keep one's own vineyard is dangerous. To keep one's own vineyard is to go through the gates, prepare one's own way, gather out the stones, and walk in the plain path so the recording angel can make a clean record. The stones that must be removed before God can work successfully are anger, wrath, malice, envy, jealousy, pride, covetousness, self-love, and self-esteem, with the natural heart contended with. Literal vineyard keepers can also see their work reflected here and be reminded to devote renewed diligence to the vineyard of the Lord, with teaching about vineyard work turning ordinary labor toward thoughts of God's kingdom.