ROSE OF SHARON

ROSE OF SHARON

Song of Solomon 2:1-2 “I am a rose of Sharon, and a lily of the valleys.

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

This is the language of the Bridegroom. In it, he adopts the description which the Bride has given of herself in the words immediately preceding, "I am a rose of Sharon; a lily of the valleys" but adds to its impressiveness and beauty by the words "arnong thorns." The lily referred to was certainly a scarlet flower, and a not uncommon one; just as the rose of Sharon was the violet and white crocus which abounded. Thus the Bride's description of herself was really self-depreciatory, rather than otherwise. It was as if she saw that there was nothing in her beauty extraordinary or out of the common. Here the Revised helps us as it renders "a rose of Sharon," rather than "the rose of Sharon"; and "a lily of the valleys," rather than "the lily of valleys." To this the Bridegroom replies by accepting her description of herself as "a lily," but not as one among many, but as one in comparison with whom all others in his eyes are as thorns. This is the true outlook of love. To the man, the wonder in his beloved is always that she is full of beauty, when others growing in the selfsame soil are devoid of it. When we interpret the words as those of Christ they are the more arresting, because the description is literally true. Those beloved of Him, flourish and become truly beautiful, in soil which produces thorns. The graces and beauties of the Lord's beloved ones are not those of plants nourished in hothouses; they are those which are developed in places of storm and frost and unpromising soils. Here, necessarily, the mystic interpretation carries us into a realm higher and more wonderful than nature can interpret.