Song 1:15 | KingComments | STEP | The groom reacts to the expressions of the bride’s love by praising her beauty. By saying twice “how beautiful you are” he emphasizes it. Sometimes this confirmation is necessary. This also applies to our relationship with the Lord. We may say to someone: ‘You are beautiful to God as you are. He sees you in the Lord Jesus, the Beloved. In Him God has accepted you.’ The first time the groom praises the beauty of the bride to encourage her. He calls her again “my darling” ( ). The second time he says it because her “eyes are [like] doves”. He sees from her eyes, which are the mirror of the soul, that she only looks at him. Eyes indicate spiritual insight. She sees in him everything she needs. Thus the Lord Jesus says to His disciples that they are surrounded by hostile people and therefore, among other things, they must be “innocent as doves” ( ). Innocent has the meaning of ‘simple’, ‘unsuspecting’. The eye of the dove has only one direction of vision, it can only be focused on one thing, not on several things at the same time, because it cannot move. It indicates the firmness and determination of the gaze. That is also important for us. If we love the Lord Jesus, our eyes should not wander back and forth, but only look at Him. The dove is a faithful bird. Often, we see two doves together. They always remain true to each other. Thus does the Lord see us, His bride. He tells us that He sees us as doves, who in their love will be faithful to Him and only want to look at Him. Even if we have to admit that our eyes so often look at other things, He knows our desire to really see no one except Him alone. He knows we want to listen to the call “fixing our eyes on Jesus” ( ). The word ‘fixing’ means to refrain from all other things and to keep the eye exclusively on one object. If this is found with us, if our heart goes out all alone to Him, then we are “beautiful” to Him. Our beauty to Him is determined by the direction of our eyes. In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul also speaks of “the simplicity … to Christ” ( ). He fears that the Corinthians will be led astray from this. Must it not be said of the church as a whole that this fear has proved to be justified? Her thoughts have not remained focused on Christ alone. The love toward the Lord Jesus is cooled. She has forgotten her connection with Him and has connected herself with the world. She has not remained a pure virgin. This is a great grief to the Lord Jesus. Paul points out how that came about. It’s because the church didn’t have a good understanding of satan’s tricks, just as it was the case with Eve. Satan succeeded in turning Eve’s gaze away from God and directing it to what he proposed to her. Eve forgot what God had said and her thoughts were deceived by what the serpent said. What should she have done? Simply hold on to what God had said. If we discover that the one Object is no longer enough to our eye, because our heart goes out to other things, let us confess it and return to our first love for Him.

‏ Song of Solomon 1:15

How Beautiful You Are, My Darling

The groom reacts to the expressions of the bride’s love by praising her beauty. By saying twice “how beautiful you are” he emphasizes it. Sometimes this confirmation is necessary. This also applies to our relationship with the Lord. We may say to someone: ‘You are beautiful to God as you are. He sees you in the Lord Jesus, the Beloved. In Him God has accepted you.’

The first time the groom praises the beauty of the bride to encourage her. He calls her again “my darling” (Song 1:9). The second time he says it because her “eyes are [like] doves”. He sees from her eyes, which are the mirror of the soul, that she only looks at him. Eyes indicate spiritual insight. She sees in him everything she needs.

Thus the Lord Jesus says to His disciples that they are surrounded by hostile people and therefore, among other things, they must be “innocent as doves” (Mt 10:16). Innocent has the meaning of ‘simple’, ‘unsuspecting’. The eye of the dove has only one direction of vision, it can only be focused on one thing, not on several things at the same time, because it cannot move. It indicates the firmness and determination of the gaze. That is also important for us. If we love the Lord Jesus, our eyes should not wander back and forth, but only look at Him.

The dove is a faithful bird. Often, we see two doves together. They always remain true to each other. Thus does the Lord see us, His bride. He tells us that He sees us as doves, who in their love will be faithful to Him and only want to look at Him. Even if we have to admit that our eyes so often look at other things, He knows our desire to really see no one except Him alone.

He knows we want to listen to the call “fixing our eyes on Jesus” (Heb 12:2). The word ‘fixing’ means to refrain from all other things and to keep the eye exclusively on one object. If this is found with us, if our heart goes out all alone to Him, then we are “beautiful” to Him. Our beauty to Him is determined by the direction of our eyes.

In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul also speaks of “the simplicity … to Christ” (2Cor 11:3). He fears that the Corinthians will be led astray from this. Must it not be said of the church as a whole that this fear has proved to be justified? Her thoughts have not remained focused on Christ alone. The love toward the Lord Jesus is cooled. She has forgotten her connection with Him and has connected herself with the world. She has not remained a pure virgin. This is a great grief to the Lord Jesus.

Paul points out how that came about. It’s because the church didn’t have a good understanding of satan’s tricks, just as it was the case with Eve. Satan succeeded in turning Eve’s gaze away from God and directing it to what he proposed to her. Eve forgot what God had said and her thoughts were deceived by what the serpent said. What should she have done? Simply hold on to what God had said. If we discover that the one Object is no longer enough to our eye, because our heart goes out to other things, let us confess it and return to our first love for Him.