The lover does not answer the Beloved’s call audibly. Verse 9 indicates that she gives a silent answer: “You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride; / You have ravished my heart with one glance of your eyes, / With one strand of your necklace.” Here He considers her as one with Him in nature and as His bride, whose answer without voice, by a quick look and by her submission to God’s instruction, has ravished His heart.
Verses 10 through 15 describe His private enjoyment of her.
“How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! / How much better is your love than wine, / And the fragrance of your ointments / Than all spices” (v. 10). Considering her as one with Him in nature and as His bride, He enjoys her beautiful love, which is much better than wine, and her ointments, which were the King’s (1:3) and are more fragrant than all spices.
“Your lips drip fresh honey, my bride; / Honey and milk are under your tongue; / And the fragrance of your garments / Is like the fragrance of Lebanon” (4:11). He enjoys her word as fresh honey (for restoring the weak), which comes from her lips, and her word as honey and milk (for restoring the weak and feeding the immature ones), which are under her tongue, and the fragrance of her conduct as the fragrance of ascension.
“A garden enclosed is my sister, my bride, / A spring shut up, a fountain sealed” (v. 12). He considers her not as something open and public but as an enclosed garden, a shut up spring, and a sealed fountain.
“Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates / With choicest fruit; / Henna with spikenard, / Spikenard and saffron; / Calamus and cinnamon, / With all the trees of frankincense; / Myrrh and aloes, / With all the chief spices” (vv. 13-14). In His enjoyment of her she is an enclosed garden that grows all kinds of plants in different colors as different expressions of the inner life and in a variety of fragrances as the rich expression of the mature life.
“A fountain in gardens, / A well of living water, / And streams from Lebanon” (v. 15). He considers her a sealed fountain with a shut up spring in gardens that flows as a well of the living water of the life-giving Spirit and as streams of the resurrection life.
Song of Songs 4:16—5:1 speaks of living a life of love.
Verse 16 is the answer of the bride: “Awake, O north wind; / And come, O south wind! / Blow upon my garden: / Let its spices flow forth; / Let my beloved come into his garden / And eat his choicest fruit.” She wants the difficult environment (north wind) and the pleasant environment (south wind) to work on her as a garden that its fragrance may be spread. She asks her Beloved to come into her as a garden and enjoy its choicest fruit. We all should consider ourselves gardens to Christ, producing fruit for His enjoyment.
“I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; / I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; / I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; / I have drunk my wine with my milk. / Eat, O friends; / Drink, and drink deeply, O beloved ones!” (5:1). Here the Beloved answers, inviting His beloved “friends,” the Triune God, to eat, drink, and drink deeply, to enjoy her with Him.