Commentary - Song of Songs 4:12-15

Bird's-eye view

In this portion of the Song of Songs, the husband, Solomon, continues his praise of his bride, the Shulamite. Having called her to come away with him, he now describes her with a series of potent and beautiful metaphors. This is not some ethereal, sanitized, spiritual-only love. This is earthy, grounded, and intensely physical, which is exactly what God-ordained marital love is supposed to be. The central theme here is that of exclusive, protected, and yet abundantly fruitful delight. The bride is a private paradise, a garden locked to all others, reserved entirely for her husband. This passage is a robust celebration of the sanctity and profound joys of the marriage bed, a theme that our modern world, in its frantic pursuit of joyless carnality, has utterly lost.

At the same time, we must not be so woodenly literal that we miss the music. The Bible consistently uses the covenant of marriage as the ultimate illustration of God's covenant love for His people. So while we must begin with the rich soil of a man and a woman in their marriage, we are invited to look up and see the great reality to which it points: the love of Christ for His bride, the Church. She is His locked garden, His sealed fountain, and the source of His delight.

Outline

Commentary

Song of Songs 4:12

A garden locked is my sister, my bride, A rock garden locked, a spring sealed up.

The husband begins with a declaration of his bride's absolute fidelity and purity. He calls her "my sister, my bride," indicating a relationship of both familial affection and covenantal union. The central metaphors are powerful and direct. She is a garden locked and a spring sealed up. This is not a public park. This is not a community well. This is private property, and the rights of ownership are celebrated. In an age that despises sexual boundaries and promotes a kind of promiscuous common ownership of the body, this text is a thunderous rebuke. The marital embrace is a place of glorious exclusion. The lock is not a prison; it is a protection. The seal is not a sign of repression; it is a mark of preciousness. She belongs to him, and to him alone. This is the biblical foundation for sexual ethics. The world sees a lock and cries "Oppression!" The believer sees a lock and understands "Covenant." This exclusivity is the very thing that makes the garden a place of true freedom and delight. It is for her husband, and he is for her. This is a picture of the Church, which is set apart for Christ, sealed by the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30), and kept for Him alone.

Song of Songs 4:13

Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates With choice fruits, henna with nard plants,

Having established the garden's security, he now describes its contents. It is not a barren, locked plot of land. It is an orchard bursting with life. Her "shoots," her life and vitality, produce pomegranates and choice fruits. Pomegranates in Scripture are symbols of fruitfulness, abundance, and even righteousness. The priests' robes were decorated with them. This is a picture of a flourishing, productive life. Within the secure bounds of covenant faithfulness, true fruitfulness happens. The world thinks freedom is found in having no fences, but the Bible teaches that fruit grows best within a well-tended and protected garden. The addition of "henna with nard" begins to introduce the aromatic quality of this garden. She is not just fruitful; she is a delight to the senses. Her life produces not just substance, but beauty and fragrance.

Song of Songs 4:14

Nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, With all the trees of frankincense, Myrrh and aloes, along with all the finest spices.

The list of fragrances continues, piling up a treasure trove of sensory delight. These are not common weeds. These are rare, costly, and exotic spices. Nard, saffron, frankincense, myrrh, these were ingredients in holy incense and precious perfumes. They were used in worship and in the anointing of kings. The husband is saying that his wife is a source of overwhelming, precious, and holy delight to him. Every aspect of her being is like a different spice, contributing to an intoxicating whole. This is how Christ sees His Church. He does not see her as a problem to be managed, but as a source of profound delight. Her prayers are like incense, and the fruit of the Spirit in her members are like the finest spices, a pleasing aroma to God. This is the opposite of a utilitarian view of marriage. The bride is not a tool; she is a treasure. Her value is not just in what she does, but in the sheer delight of who she is.

Song of Songs 4:15

You are a garden spring, A well of fresh water, And streams flowing from Lebanon.

Here the metaphor shifts slightly but powerfully. In verse 12, she was a "spring sealed up," emphasizing her purity and exclusivity. Now, she is a garden spring, a well of fresh water. The spring is not sealed from her husband; it is sealed for him. To him, she is an ever-flowing source of life and refreshment. This echoes Proverbs 5:15, "Drink water from your own cistern, and running water out of your own well." A faithful wife is not a stagnant pool but a source of living water to her husband and her household. She is not a drain on his life, but the very source of its refreshment. The imagery culminates with "streams flowing from Lebanon." Lebanon's mountains were the source of mighty, life-giving rivers, fed by the melting snows. This is an image of abundant, constant, and pure life. She is not just a cup of water; she is a river. In the same way, the Church, the bride of Christ, is the conduit of the living water of the Spirit to the world. She receives this life from her head, Christ, and from her flows the refreshment of the gospel.

Application

First, this passage is a summons for husbands and wives to cultivate this kind of marriage. A husband should see his wife as a garden to be cherished, protected, and delighted in. He is the only one with the key. He should praise her, celebrating her fruitfulness and beauty with the same kind of poetic extravagance Solomon uses here. A wife should see herself as a garden for her husband, a sealed spring, joyfully and exclusively his. This is not drudgery; it is the pathway to becoming an orchard of pomegranates.

Second, we must see the grander story. The love between a man and a woman in marriage is a living parable of Christ and the Church. The Church is Christ's exclusive delight. He has locked the gate against all intruders, sin, death, and the devil. He delights in the fruit of the Spirit that He cultivates in His people. And He is refreshed by her love and worship. As believers, we are part of this garden. Our lives are to be a fragrant offering to Him. And together, as the Church, we are to be a well of fresh water, offering the life of Christ to a dry and thirsty world.