Song of Solomon 2:16 “My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.” In the first verse of this chapter, the bride describes herself as a lily. Here she tenderly pictures him being filled up by drinking her in and delighting in her. The fragrant, snow white lily is the perfect symbol of the purity and beauty of the nuptial bed. As the earthly bridegroom is allowed to “browse”…to freely “feed among the lilies”…to uninhibitedly enjoy the pleasures of his wife, he finds the reservoirs of his body, soul, and spirit being filled up and overflowing. This is the relationship which restores and refreshes the husband just as much food restores a famished soul. Dear wives, delight in allowing your husband to “feed among the lilies” of your body, soul, and spirit. Let him drink you in and be filled up always by your love!
2:17 “Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.” The word “Bether” means “cleft,” and although this has been a much disputed passage, often spiritualized into a metaphor of the church waiting for the rapture, it would be sadly out of context to suggest that the bride is lamenting her husband’s having abandoned her to feed his flocks among some distant lilies and that she is anxiously awaiting his return. Quite the opposite. She has just been reveling in their unity— “My beloved is mine, and I am his.” Would this be the exclamation of a bride whose husband had just left her to go off on a business trip? Much more likely, it is the exultation of one who was holding her husband in her arms!
In that context, and following her description of him browsing among the lilies, it seems much more natural that this verse is an invitation for her husband to take his fill of love until the morning. This is the true invitation of a loving wife. Notice the marked similarities between this invitation and that of the adulterous woman in Proverbs 7:18: “Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning.” Although the invitation is similar, beware of the striking differences between true love and false love. The adulterous harlot of Proverbs 7 is not in a covenant relationship of “My beloved is mine, and I am His.” Instead, she pursues her prey (Proverbs 7:10-12). The strange woman is not the responder, she is the initiator, flattering with her lying lips rather than speaking the truth in love (Proverbs 7:5, 13-15). She offers him first—not herself, but her material trappings and comforts: “I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon” (Proverbs 7:16-17). Her invitation is couched in deceit and sin: “Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves. For the goodman is not at home…” (Proverbs 7:18-19). Instead of yielding to a loving husband’s desire, the adulterous woman allures her victim against his better judgment: “With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him” (Proverbs 7:21). And most importantly, the result of her invitation—rather than filling up his senses with life-giving refreshment—brings the stench of death: “He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter…as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life… For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her. Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death” (Proverbs 7:22-27).
In this day of adulterous relationships, beware of falling prey to the flattering tongue of the unhappy woman. Follow the example of the perfect husband, and “Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well…Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love” (Proverbs 5:15,18-19).
This is the picture we see in the Song of Solomon 2:17. The wife is inviting her husband to be as a young stag, enjoying the “cleft mountains” of her breasts. “Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.” It is my prayer that husbands learn to love their wives as tenderly as our Heavenly Beloved loves us, and that wives will respond and learn to invite their husbands into the satisfying freedom of enjoying their bodies. Then, there would be no reason for a man to long for another woman’s comfort.
No reason… but sometimes possibly the corrupt non reason of lust welling up within the heart. “And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?” (Proverbs 5:20). Great is the ruin of all who turn aside to lies! “Be thou ravished always with her (your wife’s) love.” Oh God, seal to our hearts this teaching!
Summer Setting 