7 “[a]How beautiful are your [b]feet in sandals,
O [c]prince’s daughter!
The curves of your hips are like [d]jewels,
The work of the hands of an artist.
2 “Your navel is like a round goblet
Which never lacks mixed wine;
Your belly is like a heap of wheat
Fenced about with lilies.
3 “Your two breasts are like two fawns,
Twins of a gazelle.
4 “Your neck is like a tower of ivory,
Your eyes like the pools in Heshbon
By the gate of Bath-rabbim;
Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon,
Which faces toward Damascus.
5 “Your head [e]crowns you like Carmel,
And the flowing locks of your head are like purple threads;
The king is captivated by your tresses.
6 “How beautiful and how delightful you are,
[f]My love, with all your charms!
7 “[g]Your stature is like a palm tree,
And your breasts are like its clusters.
8 “I said, ‘I will climb the palm tree,
I will take hold of its fruit stalks.’
Oh, may your breasts be like clusters of the vine,
And the fragrance of your [h]breath like [i]apples,
9 And your [j]mouth like the best wine!”“[k]It goes down smoothly for my beloved,
Flowing gently through the lips of those who fall asleep.
Solomon pulls out all the stops once more, and gets carried away by the beauty of his bride. In the very first verse, he says something that jumped out at me, “The work of the hands of an artist.” And well he might, for his beloved was created by the master artist, God himself.
The amazing thing is, you were made by those same hands. Perhaps you don’t feel like anyone could possibly think as highly of you as Solomon does of his bride in these verses. Yet one more simple, and profound truth emerges in v. 5, “The king is captivated by your tresses.” Yes, this is Solomon speaking of himself and his bride, yet God thinks no less of you, and more even.
Maybe that’s weird for a guy to think of God being captivated by your “tresses”, but don’t get hung up on that. God doesn’t make anything by accident, nor does he leave things to chance and happenstance. You and I were each handcrafted by Him. We might make a pretty mess of what He created, but God doesn’t see as we do. He sees inside, to the beauty that existed before we were born, that is waiting to be unlocked.
Don’t hide away and think you’re not worth anything, or that you don’t have anything useful to contribute to God’s plan. On the contrary, He created you specifically to “do good works”, things he planned well in advance. He’s ready and waiting to help you find what that means, and if you’ll take him up on it, the result will be beautiful, even “captivating” in God’s eyes.