Song of Solomon 5:1
I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved. I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.
Christ has come into His garden, which is His church, as her Master and Bridegroom, near to His betrothed people as Brother and Husband who will not abandon her. He declares His joy fulfilled in the revived graces, fragrance, and fruitfulness of His people, gathering and partaking of what His grace has produced in them as the satisfaction nothing else can give Him. He comes at once into every heart and church that truly longs for Him and makes room for Him in faith, walking with gladness among renewed affections as a pledge of the joys of His kingdom. He calls His friends to feast without reserve, to feed richly on His word and receive abundant spiritual life and fresh discoveries of His grace and beauty through the Spirit.
Garden, Bride, and Language
The garden is the church, and Christ has come into it as her Master, while the church turns in heartfelt longing toward the light of His countenance as every leaf and flower turns to kiss the rays of the rising sun and welcome His coming. The book is warm, figurative, Oriental love poetry in the warm coloring of the East that can be read as a parable of Christ and His church. Solomon's experiences are typical of Christ and the church, giving a poetic picture of Christ's love for the church and her answering love, though her faithfulness and constancy often fail.
The beloved called sister and spouse pictures His betrothed people, showing that He comes as Brother and Husband. He is near to His bride and will not abandon her wherever she is. The word rendered as having drunk means drinking freely or sufficiently, having enough to drink without excess, not becoming intoxicated.
The invitation to buy wine and milk and to knock so that the door will be opened belongs to the former dispensation. It stands in contrast with the later call to buy gold, white raiment, and eye-salve, while Christ stands at the door and knocks. The garden invitation is the beloved inviting her spouse into her garden to gather its produce and enjoy its abundance, picturing the soul's loving surrender in welcoming Jesus to come and reap what has been yielded to Him.
Christ's Coming and Believers' Feast
The verse promises the instant coming of Christ into the heart and church that truly longs for Him and prays for Him to come, as soon as there is room for Him and faith to receive salvation. His gathering and eating and drinking mean His joy is fulfilled in the revived graces, fragrance, and fruitfulness of His people. He has no joy like the joy of His people, and the salvation of His elect satisfies Him as nothing else can. When His people desire souls He pours out the joy of salvation and converts sinners, refreshing, enlarging, adorning, and blessing the church, because the church is His own body, the center of all His plans of redemption, and the place of all His joys. He comes at the bidding of the humble disciple into renewed love, walking with gladness among revived affections and delighting in every grace, and He communes in present eating and drinking as a pledge of the joys of His kingdom, calling the believer to live so as constantly to welcome Him that both rejoice together.
His coming into His garden to enjoy its fruit searches professing Christians who belong to His garden but show only outward profession and bear little fruit. When He finds such a life fruitless He uses affliction as a gardener's knife to make it fruitful, cutting deeply yet in measured and careful pruning intended to produce fruit rather than destroy the plant. The call to eat and drink abundantly is a feast of love and abundance, inviting the friends of Christ to close fellowship without reserve. It is a call to abundant spiritual life in feeding richly on His word and to receiving fresh discoveries of His grace and beauty through the Spirit, for His love is worth receiving in abundance.
The eating of honeycomb with honey expresses the satisfaction and delight of everyone who feeds on the varied and far-reaching truths of God as seed and bread meeting the need of every soul in every land under every circumstance. The meal figures the soul feeding on Christ the bread of life for its keeping. Even a common breakfast table can display His call to eat and drink fully with Him, and so make preparing breakfast a joy that unfolds God's love.