Verses 1 through 5 say, "Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead. Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing; whereof every one bear twins, and none is barren among them. Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely: thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks. Thy neck is like the tower of David builded for an armory, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men. Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies."
Because of numerous past experiences, the King repeats the words that he said in the past: "Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair." The King can safely say this to her because she has all these experiences behind her. Since she has passed through the experience of 3:6 and since she has a complete union with the King, she no longer retains the praises for her own use. Therefore, the King can safely praise her.
There are seven items of the King's praise in this section. These praises show the outward expressions that a person has after he is completely joined to the Lord and after he understands the cross and resurrection. In other words, these praises reveal the condition of a new creation in Christ.
The first thing a person has when he advances spiritually is spiritual insight; he can discern spiritual things. The doves' eyes denote singleness as well as spirituality because the Holy Spirit is likened to a dove. When the eyes are single, there is spiritual insight. But there is a great danger if we lack a veil for our spiritual insight. (The word "locks" in this verse is translated "veils" in Darby's New Translation.) A veil is something that covers. Being behind the veils means that even though a person has spiritual insight to discern spiritual matters, he does not allow others to see what he has in himself. One may have the eyes of a dove, but be lacking in veils. It is very easy to give away lightly what one sees. In addition, the eyes that are within the veils are not seen by ordinary men. This means that one's eyes are veiled from the world. The world does not know that such a one has spiritual insight. To the world, his eyes are just like the eyes of any ordinary man. The believers' foolishness and mistakes lie in carelessly divulging to the world the things that they have seen through the Holy Spirit. We should realize that we will know very little about the power and the work of the Holy Spirit if we do not have spiritual insight. The more Spirit we have, the more we will have doves' eyes. We cannot be completely isolated from the dove and still have doves' eyes. All true light comes from the Holy Spirit. Many times, however, this light should be veiled before the world. This is the first point concerning the beauty of the maiden. Rarely do we consider spiritual insight to be something for the Lord's delight. But we have to see that even our spiritual insight is something for His appreciation.