The lover of Christ expects the cold north wind to awake and the hot south wind to come blowing upon her garden that her spices may flow forth (v. 16a). The wind from the north is cold and harsh, but this causes the apple trees to give forth the best fragrance. If she has only the north wind, everything will die. There is also the need for the hot south wind to come and blow upon her garden that her spices may flow forth. The flowing forth comes from these two kinds of winds. No one likes to be sick, but sometimes our days of sickness produce a very positive result. On the other hand, our easy days may produce a bad result. It is not easy to say, “Awake, O north wind; / And come, O south wind!” (v. 16a). We have to learn of the lover of Christ in Song of Songs to appreciate both kinds of winds.
Her desire is for her Beloved to come into His garden and eat His choicest fruit (v. 16b). The goal is that she would become a garden to meet her Beloved’s need.
The Beloved has come into His garden, which is His sister and bride (5:1; 6:2). He has gathered His myrrh with His spice (5:1a). He has eaten His honeycomb with His honey and drunk His wine with His milk (v. 1b). The garden is the Bridegroom’s garden. He is eating His own things, and He invites His beloved friends, the Triune God, to eat and drink deeply with Him (v. 1c). The Bridegroom, Christ, the Son in the Divine Trinity, invites His beloved friends, God the Father and God the Spirit, to enjoy His garden. Furthermore, He has gone down to the beds of spices to feed in the gardens (referring to the lover and other lovers of Christ) and gather lilies (6:2).
At this point the lover of Christ remembers her source. She realizes that she is Christ’s and that Christ is hers. She says, “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine” (v. 3a). This is their private and affectionate love. She also realizes that Christ pastures His churches among His seekers as lilies (v. 3b). Those who are lilies have lives of trusting in God and looking unto God with a single eye. This is different from the thorns. In chapter two Christ appraised the lover as a lily living among thorns (v. 2). All the worldly people today are thorns who hurt others, but the lilies suffer all ill-treatment while trusting in God and looking unto Him with a single eye.