Verse 10 says, "How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!" It seems that prior to this, he never praised her love. Love is an expressed sentiment, and it is different from the two breasts. God attracts men with His Son Jesus Christ. He placed His Son on earth and invited men to love Him. Through Christ God manifested His love. When men are attracted to Christ, they respond to God's invitation. When men express their love to Christ, they are answering God's invitation. Love is man's answer to God's love manifested through Christ. Man's love toward Christ is his response to God.
Love is expressed more and more perfectly as believers consecrate themselves time after time and as they are dealt with again and again. When the Lord sees that the believers no longer set their mind on earthly things, but on the heavenly things in their experience, He will say, "How fair is thy love...how much better is thy love than wine!" When the maiden praised the King's love in 1:2, she only said that his love was better than wine. In the King's praise of the maiden, he says that her love is much better than wine. From this we see that the believers' appreciation of the Lord's love cannot match the Lord's appreciation of the believers' love. Although we treasure the Lord's love, we cannot comprehend how precious His love is toward us.
Because the Lord loves us so deeply, He can appreciate our love and His heart can be satisfied with our love. We know the story of David and Jonathan. "They kissed one another, and wept one with another" (1 Sam. 20:41), until David won the victory. Our Lord is the One who has the preeminence over all things. Even in loving us, He takes the preeminence.
"The smell of thine ointments [is better] than all spices!" The maiden has the King's ointment. The King is anointed with the Holy Spirit, and the maiden is also anointed with the Holy Spirit. The ointment on Aaron's head flows to the skirts of his garments. But the emphasis here is not just on the ointment, but on the fragrance of the ointment, which implies the effect of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. (The word "smell" can be translated "fragrance." See Darby's New Translation.) Fragrance is something that eyes cannot see and ears cannot hear. But it is something that one can smell. The most difficult thing in the world to explain is fragrance. Language cannot explain fragrance. Is it not true that others are touched not by something that can be seen or heard, but by a special, spiritual flavor which emanates from the believers who are with them? You cannot give a name to this flavor; this is their fragrance. It is the result of a life of submission to the Holy Spirit. This fragrance far exceeds all human virtues. Sometimes we can identify virtues in an unbeliever which excel that of a believer. We can identify many natural virtues that some believers possess, but none of these can be compared to the fragrance that comes forth from a life that is molded by the Holy Spirit.
Verse 11 says, "Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon." ("Smell" in this verse is different from the word "fragrance" in the previous verse.) No human or natural smell can be compared to the fragrance that emanates from the maiden. This naturally makes her lips drop as the honeycomb. Honey is sweet, and it restores the strickened ones. But this sweetness is not produced overnight. It comes from a long period of gathering, inward activity, and careful storage. This is the unique possession of one who is taught by God. From the mouth of the maiden issue forth sweet and refreshing words, not gossip, jokes, or rash words. Her words are not outbursts of torrents, but drops of honey from the honeycomb. This is the slowest kind of dripping. Some people have the urge to speak; their words are like the babbling of brooks. Even when they speak about spiritual things, the way they speak shows that they have not passed through the deeper work of grace. In this verse we can notice not only her lips slowly dropping sweet honey, but the things that are stored within her. "Honey and milk are under thy tongue." The top of the tongue is where man takes in food, whereas under the tongue is where man stores food. This means that she has stored up these things; there are riches within her. She has more than enough food. Honey restores the weak ones, whereas milk feeds the immature ones. She has stored so many riches within her that food seems to be under her tongue and she can dispense to the needy ones at any time. However, she does not reveal all that she has. She is not like many people who exhibit on the outside all that they have inside. Honey and milk are under her tongue; they are not on her lips.