Song 1:5-6 | KingComments | STEP | After the bride was brought into the king’s chambers in the previous verse, she says something about herself. The sense of this privileged place does not make her proud, but humble. In what she says here, she addresses the “daughters of Jerusalem”. We will hear about them more often. We will see that the daughters of Jerusalem also include believers who love Christ but do not have as burning a love for Him as the bride has. They are also unable to understand the relationship the bride has, precisely because they do not have that burning love and do not know that intimate relationship. It is as if the bride justifies herself to them about her relationship with the groom and explains who she is to him. She says that she is “black” (cf. ). She says that she realizes who she is by nature. This is an important aspect of our relationship with the Lord Jesus. When we speak of the relationship of love in which we stand to the Lord Jesus, we also have to be deeply aware that we are “black” in ourselves, which is sinful. Sin is still in us. “If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us” ( ). This does not make us depressed or discouraged, but the acknowledgment of this will turn our eye to the Lord Jesus, Who through His work on the cross has destroyed the power of sin for all who believe ( ). The bride immediately hereafter says that she is “lovely”. This is what she is in the eye of the groom. She knows that, despite the fact that she is looking for confirmation. We may know that through repentance and confession we have forgiveness of our sins. But beyond that, we may also know that God “has made us acceptable [as it also can be rendered] in the Beloved” ( ). Yet we may have moments or sometimes periods in our lives when this awareness is not so alive, that our feelings of gratitude have faded. Not that we have lost the assurance of our faith. That is not the case, but the danger is present, that our assurance makes us somewhat indifferent. We know it so well, that it doesn’t amaze us anymore and that we don’t wonder anymore about what the Lord Jesus did to and for us and how God sees us now. The first fire of love for the Lord Jesus is extinguished. When the bride says “I am black”, it expresses a deep conviction that each child of God must have. The words that immediately follow, “but lovely”, do not take away this conviction, but only increase the wonder of being lovely. This means for us the awareness that God looks at us in His Son and that we are children of God. If we understand both sides with our heart, we will remain fervent in our love for the Lord Jesus. If we forget one of both sides or place a disproportionate emphasis on one of both sides, our faith life loses its stability. We will, also depending on our character, fall into legalism on the one hand or carnal freedom and even liberality on the other hand. Then the bride uses two comparisons, which are an illustration of what she has just said about herself. She is “like the tents of Kedar” and also “like the curtains of Solomon”. Kedar is an area outside of Israel. It points to a place outside the blessing of God. The remnant that in the future, during the great tribulation, will have been driven out of the land and fled abroad, complains: “Woe is me, ... for I dwell among the tents of Kedar!” ( ). Kedar’s tents are black. So we also live on earth, in a world that lies in evil, where it is black with sin. This includes the black of our sinful nature. But through faith we may know that sin within us has been judged by the judgment that Christ underwent on the cross. As a result, we are clothed with the righteousness of God in Christ. We see that in the second comparison, that of “the curtains of Solomon”. We can think of the radiant white curtains in the palace of Solomon. We may know that we have put on Christ and that we have been made pleasant in Him before God. When we think about what we were and what we have become now, we will say with the Psalmist: “Who remembered us in our low estate, for His lovingkindness is everlasting” ( ). We owe it all to His lovingkindness. We will then be like Mary, who sang, when she was told that she would become the mother of the Lord Jesus: “My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave” ( ). Just as the insignificant girl from Shulam, the shepherdess, became the object of the love of the great king Solomon, so it went with us. We were by nature corrupt, lost, unworthy, rebellious creatures, but we are now connected in the most intimate way with the almighty God, the eternal Son. We are the objects of His love and share in the consequences of His work. We share in His place in heaven, and we share in His reign over heaven and earth. Doesn’t it become, the longer we think about it and the better we get to know ourselves, an ever greater wonder? There is another practical comment to be made about the fact that there is a relationship of love between a countryside girl and a powerful king. There is a huge difference between Solomon and the bride in education, wisdom and wealth. Yet they are attracted to each other and long for each other. Similarly, two young people may today be brought together by the Lord, although there are great social and intellectual differences between them. The question is whether there is real love, because real love transcends and bridges such differences. A feeling of love, infatuation, is not a basis. It is about Divine love, because only Divine love can refrain from things that would be an obstacle in all other cases.

‏ Song of Solomon 1:5-6

Black but Lovely

After the bride was brought into the king’s chambers in the previous verse, she says something about herself. The sense of this privileged place does not make her proud, but humble. In what she says here, she addresses the “daughters of Jerusalem”. We will hear about them more often. We will see that the daughters of Jerusalem also include believers who love Christ but do not have as burning a love for Him as the bride has. They are also unable to understand the relationship the bride has, precisely because they do not have that burning love and do not know that intimate relationship. It is as if the bride justifies herself to them about her relationship with the groom and explains who she is to him.

She says that she is “black” (cf. Lam 4:7-8). She says that she realizes who she is by nature. This is an important aspect of our relationship with the Lord Jesus. When we speak of the relationship of love in which we stand to the Lord Jesus, we also have to be deeply aware that we are “black” in ourselves, which is sinful. Sin is still in us. “If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1Jn 1:8). This does not make us depressed or discouraged, but the acknowledgment of this will turn our eye to the Lord Jesus, Who through His work on the cross has destroyed the power of sin for all who believe (Rom 6:6).

The bride immediately hereafter says that she is “lovely”. This is what she is in the eye of the groom. She knows that, despite the fact that she is looking for confirmation. We may know that through repentance and confession we have forgiveness of our sins. But beyond that, we may also know that God “has made us acceptable [as it also can be rendered] in the Beloved” (Eph 1:6).

Yet we may have moments or sometimes periods in our lives when this awareness is not so alive, that our feelings of gratitude have faded. Not that we have lost the assurance of our faith. That is not the case, but the danger is present, that our assurance makes us somewhat indifferent. We know it so well, that it doesn’t amaze us anymore and that we don’t wonder anymore about what the Lord Jesus did to and for us and how God sees us now. The first fire of love for the Lord Jesus is extinguished.

When the bride says “I am black”, it expresses a deep conviction that each child of God must have. The words that immediately follow, “but lovely”, do not take away this conviction, but only increase the wonder of being lovely. This means for us the awareness that God looks at us in His Son and that we are children of God.

If we understand both sides with our heart, we will remain fervent in our love for the Lord Jesus. If we forget one of both sides or place a disproportionate emphasis on one of both sides, our faith life loses its stability. We will, also depending on our character, fall into legalism on the one hand or carnal freedom and even liberality on the other hand.

Then the bride uses two comparisons, which are an illustration of what she has just said about herself. She is “like the tents of Kedar” and also “like the curtains of Solomon”. Kedar is an area outside of Israel. It points to a place outside the blessing of God. The remnant that in the future, during the great tribulation, will have been driven out of the land and fled abroad, complains: “Woe is me, ... for I dwell among the tents of Kedar!” (Psa 120:5). Kedar’s tents are black. So we also live on earth, in a world that lies in evil, where it is black with sin. This includes the black of our sinful nature. But through faith we may know that sin within us has been judged by the judgment that Christ underwent on the cross.

As a result, we are clothed with the righteousness of God in Christ. We see that in the second comparison, that of “the curtains of Solomon”. We can think of the radiant white curtains in the palace of Solomon. We may know that we have put on Christ and that we have been made pleasant in Him before God.

When we think about what we were and what we have become now, we will say with the Psalmist: “Who remembered us in our low estate, for His lovingkindness is everlasting” (Psa 136:23). We owe it all to His lovingkindness. We will then be like Mary, who sang, when she was told that she would become the mother of the Lord Jesus: “My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave” (Lk 1:46-48).

Just as the insignificant girl from Shulam, the shepherdess, became the object of the love of the great king Solomon, so it went with us. We were by nature corrupt, lost, unworthy, rebellious creatures, but we are now connected in the most intimate way with the almighty God, the eternal Son. We are the objects of His love and share in the consequences of His work. We share in His place in heaven, and we share in His reign over heaven and earth. Doesn’t it become, the longer we think about it and the better we get to know ourselves, an ever greater wonder?

There is another practical comment to be made about the fact that there is a relationship of love between a countryside girl and a powerful king. There is a huge difference between Solomon and the bride in education, wisdom and wealth. Yet they are attracted to each other and long for each other. Similarly, two young people may today be brought together by the Lord, although there are great social and intellectual differences between them. The question is whether there is real love, because real love transcends and bridges such differences. A feeling of love, infatuation, is not a basis. It is about Divine love, because only Divine love can refrain from things that would be an obstacle in all other cases.

Accountability and Failure

What the bride says in the previous verse about her being black, she says from her own feelings about it. It means the acknowledgment that she herself is sinful. That is an important consciousness. Now she talks again about her being “swarthy” or black, but this time she does so to others. She says the others shouldn’t blame her because she is black. Her frankness about her past must not lead to her being looked down on. She can’t do anything about being swarthy, since the cause is the hot rays of the sun. She was exposed to this because her brothers forced her to guard the vineyards. She asks for understanding and acceptance despite what she is.

One lesson for us is that we should not look down on others when they have told something of their past. Even worse is, when we throw at someone what a bad man he is, while he has repented of his sins and confessed them. We must look at each other in the way the Lord Jesus looks at us. We know that we are also swarthy, sinful in ourselves. It can happen that this blackness becomes visible again because someone sinned. Then we should talk about it, not with others, but with the person concerned.

Here however, it is a matter of reminding another person of his past subtly, or perhaps harshly, because the other person is bothering us. Then we ourselves do not live in fellowship with the Lord Jesus, in the awareness of our own sinfulness. When we forget what the Lord Jesus did for us on the cross, we also forget that He did so for that other person. We may and must say of ourselves that we are the foremost sinner, as Paul did (1Tim 1:15).

It is not about measuring the number of sins or the severity of them, but about the awareness of one’s own evil. No one knows better than myself of all my many and dirty sins, doesn’t it? If we are convinced of this, satan will not have the opportunity to take away our peace by reminding us of the sins we have committed.

There was a man who found it difficult to accept that his sins were gone. He kept staring at his sinfulness. Satan was successful with him by reminding him of his sins. He always thought: ‘I’m so bad. My sins are so great.’ He once talked about it with an evangelist. The evangelist said to the man, who was really in great need of conscience: ’But we have a great God, “for He will abundantly pardon” (Isa 55:7). He throws all our sins behind His back (Isa 38:17). ‘Yes’, the man replied, ‘but when He turns around, He sees them again.’

The evangelist then pointed out to him that the Bible also states that He throws all the sins “into the depths of the sea” (Mic 7:19). ‘Yes’, the man objected again, ‘but it also says in the Scriptures that there will come a time when the sea will dry up, and then He will see the sins again.’ Then the evangelist said: ‘But it is also written that God will remember the sins no more’ (Heb 8:12). Then the man gave in and found peace.

It is great to be aware of the fact that God remembers sins no more. This of course only applies if they have been confessed before Him with sincere repentance. He is the only One Who can consciously forget something. When we forget something, it is weakness, a limitation of our ability to remember things. We can say something like: ‘I don’t think about it anymore’, but at the same time as we say this, we are thinking about it very consciously. But God is able to consciously not think about anything anymore, that He doesn’t remember the sins and doesn’t hold them up to us anymore, because they are gone.

So we can say the following:

1. God no longer holds our sins up to us, for He no longer thinks of them.

2. Satan has no right at all to point out our sins and make our conscience trouble, because before God our sins no longer exist.

3. In view of these two facts, we should not remind a child of God of his or her past, for everything about this has been arranged by God on the basis of the work of His Son on the cross.

After the Shulammite asked that she be not blamed for her blackness, she explained how her brothers had treated her. It is as if she is motivating her question not to blame her for her blackness. It shows how sensible she is for her surroundings. She feels misunderstood, both by the daughters of Jerusalem and by her brothers. She has a closer relationship with her brothers than with the daughters of Jerusalem. What they have done to her also hurts her more.

She doesn’t call her brothers ‘my father’s sons’, but “my mother’s sons”. That recalls the common position, that of grace (Gal 4:26-28). They share the position, but their practice is different. The brothers are not going through the same development as the bride.

She says of her brothers that they had become angry with her. She doesn’t say why that was. One possibility may be that they were jealous of her, their simple sister, because of her close relationship with king Solomon. We see something similar with Joseph’s brothers, who were also jealous because Joseph made Jacob’s heart glad. The brothers of the Shulammite sent her away with a commission. These brothers apparently had the power to do so. The brothers are much stronger than the girl. They have forced her to take care of the vineyards.

We can make an application here regarding our families. In families with children, it can happen that some children have some kind of power over another child. It is good that parents keep an eye on how their children interact with each other. Do they accept each other or do they want to use each other? Is there anyone – perhaps the oldest or the strongest or the brightest – who manipulates another member of the family by abusing his or her force majeure to allow the other to do something that benefits him or her?

It is important that we as parents ensure that the children only receive their assignments from us as parents. Parents are responsible for what their children do for as long as they are dependent, until they can take care of themselves.

The above is also important in the church, which consists of stronger and weaker personalities. We must be careful that the stronger personalities do not rule over the weaker ones and determine what they do. That is why it is good to ask ourselves: How do I behave toward my brother or sister? Do I really serve them, without demanding or even manipulating them?

So the brothers have sent their sister away as a caretaker of the vineyards. How she carried out this task is not mentioned. She does say of herself that she has not taken care of her own vineyard. Here we see the case where someone is forced to do something and therefore fails to meet what should have happened first and foremost. An obligation to work for others may result in forgetting responsibility for one’s own work.

In connection with the application to our families, we can learn here that we must give our children tasks that they can carry out, for which they have the strength and the capacities. We will therefore take into account a child’s age and ability when we give him an assignment. The same applies to the church. Again, we should ask of someone only what he or she are capable of doing, which matches his or her talents and does not go beyond them.

It may happen that we are very busy – in our opinion, of course, with good things – but that our activities are at the expense of our first responsibility. For example, fathers should be fathers in the first place and not workaholics. They should not leave the responsibility of fatherhood to their wives. Mothers should be mothers, not career hunters. It is about setting the right priorities. The taking care of their own vineyard, their own family, must happen first. Our boss may ask a lot of us and if we are our own boss, we may ask a lot of ourselves. But that does not mean that we should neglect our family.

Someone once said that some of his children did not follow the Lord. He said he had had a period in his life during which he was completely absorbed in his work. Late in the evening he came home, slept, got up early and left again. He hardly saw his children, nor did his children see him. It was precisely at a time when these children were making important life decisions, when they needed their father’s attention and conversation with him. He now regrets that very much. Let it be a warning for anyone who recognizes it.

What does it mean to take care of the “own vineyard”? It means that we have an area that has been given to us by the Lord Jesus to work for Him. His purpose is that we should produce fruit for Him in that area. The vineyard speaks of joy. He wants us to deal with what He has given us in such a way that it makes Him happy. Families, but also churches, are areas where we all have a responsibility. If we are aware of this responsibility and meet it, it will rejoice both God’s heart and ours.

It is important that we take care of that area. To take care of means that we have to do with an enemy. We must be constantly on our guard against his attacks. In the next chapter we read about foxes who are trying to spoil the vineyard, with the bride’s question: “Catch the foxes for us” (Song 2:15). But here it is about the fact that we have a responsibility to protect our vineyard.