Charles Spurgeon Commentary Song of Solomon 2

I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.

Among all flowers, there is none that can be compared with him.

"White is his soul, from blemish free,
Red with the blood he shed for me."

I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.

So does Christ's Church spring up singular for her beauty – as much different from the world – as much superior to it as the lily to the thorns. Now see how she responds and answers to him.

I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.

So he is, and much more than that.

"Nature, to make his beauties known,
Must mingle colors quite unknown.
So rich is he–rose and lily both in one.
White is his soul, from blemish free,
Red with the blood he shed for me."

As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.

His church stands out like a fair lily in a thorn-brake—separate and distinct—often suffering, standing where she does not wish to be, but all the lovelier by contrast. But if Christ praises his church, she praises him again.

I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.

It is the nature of love to make the thing beloved like itself. If Christ is a lily, He makes His people lilies too. Certainly He is the lily of the valley, and before long His Church is able to say, "As the lily among the thorns, so am I," while for the present Jesus says it.

She is among the thorns, thorns that hurt and vex her. The people of God are still in the tents of Kedar, still among the wicked, having their ears vexed with their filthy conduct.

But the lily is all the more beautiful on account of the thorns that make the background, and so your piety may be all the more resplendent because of the evil men among whom you sojourn.