Song of Solomon 1:8

Ignorance of God Leads to Despair; the Beauty of the Bride 1. To what then does ignorance of God lead? We must begin here, for this is where, as you will recall, we finished yesterday. What does it lead to? I have already told you: …

Every soul ought to care for nothing more than to know itself. For he who knows himself, recognizes that he was made in the image of God, and ought not to follow the likeness of beasts, nor dissolve himself either in luxury or in present appetite. Concerning this ignorance it is said elsewhere: 'Man, when he was in honor, did not understand; he was compared to senseless beasts, and became like them' (Psalm 48:13). The footsteps of the flocks are the actions of the peoples, which the more numerous they are, the more entangled, the more perverse they are. Let it therefore be said to the Church: 'If you do not know yourself, O beautiful one among women, go forth, and go after the footsteps of the flocks, and pasture your kids beside the tents of the shepherds.' O you, who were foul through ignorance, and through faith have been made beautiful among the souls of others. This is clearly spoken to the Church of the elect: 'If you do not know yourself'—that is, you do not know this very thing, that you were made in my image—'go forth', that is, outside. If indeed you do not recognize by whom you were made, go forth and depart; go after the footsteps of the flocks; follow not my examples, but the examples of the peoples, and pasture your kids beside the tents of the shepherds. Our kids are carnal impulses; our kids are unlawful temptations. 'Go after the footsteps of the flocks'—that is, descend after the footsteps of the peoples—'and pasture your kids'—that is, nourish your carnal impulses, no longer spiritual senses, but carnal impulses. 'Go beside the tents of the shepherds': if you pasture lambs in the tent of the shepherds, you will be pastured—that is, in the teachings of the masters, in the teachings of the Apostles, in the teachings of the prophets. […]

If you do not know yourself, O fairest among women, go forth, etc. Why, he says, do you speak in such a way as if you could by any means be abandoned by me amidst temptation, and you complain that you have been darkened by …

And feed your kids beside the tents of the shepherds. That is, feed lost listeners, having followed the doctrines of foolish teachers, abandoning the words of the wise, which are given by the counsel of teachers from one shepherd. For indeed if you love me, …

If - This is Christ's answer. Go - Observe and follow the paths which my sheep have trodden before thee, my faithful servants, Abraham, and others. For the church in all ages is one and the same, and there is but one way for the substance, in which all the saints from the beginning of the world walk, Christ being the same yesterday, and to day, and forever.

Christ sees a beauty in holiness, whether we do or no. The spouse has called herself black, but Christ calls her fair. Those that are low in their own eyes are so much the more amiable in the eyes of Jesus Christ.

If thou know not,....

It was thus, literally, that Zipporah found her bridegroom (Ex 2:16). The bride unhesitatingly asks the watchmen afterwards (So 3:3). kids-- (Joh 21:15). Christ is to be found in active ministrations, as well as in prayer (Pr 11:25). shepherds' tents--ministers in the sanctuary (Ps 84:1).

THE bride was most unhappy and ashamed because her personal beauty had been sorely marred by the heat of the sun. The fairest among women had become swarthy as a sunburn slave. Spiritually it is so full often with a chosen soul. The Lord's Grace has made her fair to look upon, even as the lily, but she has been so busy about earthly things that the sun of worldliness has injured her beauty. The bride, with holy shamefacedness, exclaims, "Look not upon me, for I am black, because the sun has looked upon me." She dreads alike the curiosity, the admiration, the pity and the scorn of men. She then turns herself, alone, to her Beloved, whose gaze she knows to be so full of love that her swarthiness will not cause her pain when most beneath His eyes. This is one index of a gracious soul—that whereas the ungodly rush to and fro and know not where to look for consolation, the believing heart naturally flies to its beloved Savior, knowing that in Him is its only rest. It would appear from the preceding verse that the bride was also in trouble about a certain charge which had been given to her, which burdened her, and in the discharge of which she had become negligent of herself. She says, "They made me the keeper of the vineyards," and she would wish to have kept them well, but she felt she had not done so, and that, moreover, she had failed in a more immediate duty—"My own vineyard have I not kept." Under this sense of double unworthiness and failure, feeling her omissions and her commissions to be weighing her down, she turned round to her Beloved and asked instruction at His hands. This was well. Had she not loved her Lord she would have shunned Him when her comeliness was faded, but the instincts of her affectionate heart suggested to her that He would not discard her because of her imperfections. She was, moreover, wise to appeal to her Lord against herself.

THE bride was most unhappy and ashamed because her personal beauty had been sorely marred by the heat of the sun. The fairest among women had become swarthy as a sunburn slave. Spiritually it is so full often with a chosen soul. The Lord's Grace has made her fair to look upon, even as the lily, but she has been so busy about earthly things that the sun of worldliness has injured her beauty. The bride, with holy shamefacedness, exclaims, "Look not upon me, for I am black, because the sun has looked upon me."

If thou know not - This appears to be the reply of the virgins. They know not exactly; and therefore direct the bride to the shepherds, who would give information.