5 “[a]I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride;
I have gathered my myrrh along with my balsam.
I have eaten my honeycomb [b]and my honey;
I have drunk my wine [c]and my milk.
Eat, friends;
Drink and [d]imbibe deeply, O lovers.”2 “[e]I was asleep but my heart was awake.
A voice! My beloved was knocking:
‘Open to me, my sister, my darling,
My dove, my perfect one!
For my head is [f]drenched with dew,
My locks with the [g]damp of the night.’
3 “I have taken off my dress,
How can I put it on again?
I have washed my feet,
How can I dirty them again?
4 “My beloved extended his hand through the opening,
And my [h]feelings were aroused for him.
5 “I arose to open to my beloved;
And my hands dripped with myrrh,
And my fingers with [i]liquid myrrh,
On the handles of the bolt.
6 “I opened to my beloved,
But my beloved had turned away and had gone!
My [j]heart went out to him as he spoke.
I searched for him but I did not find him;
I called him but he did not answer me.
7 “The watchmen who make the rounds in the city found me,
They struck me and wounded me;
The guardsmen of the walls took away my shawl from me.
8 “I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
If you find my beloved,
As to what you will tell him:
For I am lovesick.”
The first verse tells briefly of the joy and pleasure in new love, but as we get to verse 2, the scene shifts. Now the bride is dreaming once more, her beloved is at the door. He has been out very late, until the dew has fallen, but the sun is not up yet. She is reluctant at first, for she has washed her feet and settled into bed. But this is her beloved, she isn’t going to leave him out in the cold and damp night.
I think all of us are with her that far, this is making sense. Then, she opens the door, and her beloved is gone, vanished into the night. She calls and searches, but there is no answer, he cannot be found. It seems that this dream is inspired by her longing for her beloved when he is away, we don’t know how long, but he was away for some time. This is emphasized in v. 8 when she tells her friends that she is lovesick.
Yet what comes in v. 7 is unexpected. The watchmen who guard the city strike her, they even take her shawl. What a helpful lot they are! Remembering that this is a dream though, it seems an indication of how much the woman misses her beloved. Not only does she dream of him, not only does she imagine him at the door only to find him gone, but she feels injured by his absence.
And well she should, for we see in Genesis 2 that a husband and wife should become one flesh. Obviously, this isn’t literal in the physical sense, but describes the emotional and spiritual state of a married couple. This separation is thus a tearing apart of two things that have been sewn together. It is a picture all who are married would do well to remember, myself included.
When we are apart from our loved ones, do we suffer as the woman in this passage. Do we feel the injury of that loss, even though temporary? If not, perhaps we do not love well enough, myself included. We should be all the more thankful for the time we do have with our spouse and our family, and cherish it. We and they are no mere bodies, tossed together by chance. We are souls created by God, joined by Him in relationships, marriage or otherwise.
Jesus said it best, “they will know you are my disciples by your love for one another”. Do we show the kind of love that others take notice of? We certainly should, as His love fills our hearts, and spills out upon others. Don’t bottle it up, but pour it out intentionally, like the liquid myrrh in v. 5. Let it be a pleasing fragrance as you let God’s love flow through you.