Song of Solomon 1:5

Song of Solomon 1:5

The whole volume of spiritual truth lies rolled up in these few words. You might expand them into both the Testaments. Penitence and faith all the heart knows of itself and all it knows of Jesus nature and grace condemnation and peace. God's great method with man in His everlasting covenant it is all here, "Black, but comely." The contrast matches with the experience of every child of God; the contradiction lies in the double being of a renewed man; the solution of the paradox is the gospel of Christ.

I. What is "blackness?" Properly, it is no colour at all. It is that which reflects no tint of all the sun's prismatic rays. It is not one of the hues of the rainbow. It is the absence of colour. It is a simple negative. Remember, this is blackness, a negative life. The absence of love and energy, and work for Christ is the great crime in God's calendar. Nothing more was wanted to place those who were on the left hand on the day of judgment. You are black, because heaven does not reflect itself in you. It is your colourless life.

II. How can the black be comely? There must be something introduced from without. There must be a new nature. David expressed it all in those few words, "Blessed is the man whose sin is covered." It is the covering which is the comeliness. Jesus lived to make a man's righteousness which He could give to a man. When a man puts it on, it not only hides all that is underneath it, but it decks that man in more than celestial loveliness. He wears a robe, which is woven of all the tissues of the holiness of Jesus dipped in the dies of heaven sparkling in all its splendours. This is the wedding garment which gives to our dull souls their festive sweetness.

J. Vaughan, Sermons,9th series, p. 45.

Song of Solomon 1:5 , Song of Solomon 1:15; Song of Solomon 5:16

I. Look first at the saint's "I am." It is a sad one. "I am black black as the tents of Kedar." Every saint is conscious of innumerable sins, blemishes, and imperfections. The more spiritually-minded the Christian is, the more conscious is he of his blackness; and the nearer a man lives to God, the more intense is his abhorrence of himself.

II. Listen next to Christ's response: "Behold, thou art fair, My love; behold, thou art fair." This is not the language of exaggeration. Although the Lord loves His Church intensely He does not love it unreasonably; His love does not blind His eyes to His people's defects. And yet He says, "Behold, thou art fair." Though He sees faults and failings in me,He does not see me inmy faults and failings, but views me as I am in Himself. When He looks upon us, He sees His own loveliness, and His own righteousness, and so He may well say, "Thou art fair."

III. Lastly, you have the Church's "He is." "Yea, he is altogether lovely." That Christ is altogether lovely is the united testimony of all saints in every age. In Him all the colours of beauty combine all the harmonies that can be conceived blend in one ravishing strain. There is no one drawback in Him. He is lovely to my mind's judgment; lovely to my heart's affection; lovely to my will's surrender; lovely in my memory's treasure-house. He is all beauty, and beauty all round, and the Church gives this as her united testimony concerning Him.

A. G. Brown, Penny Pulpit,No. 1090.

Reference: Song of Solomon 1:5. J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs,p. 30.