Verse 7 says, "The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me." This time she does not go out to look for the watchmen, and she does not ask them. Rather, they meet her. They wonder how a person as beautiful as she, who has gone through as much change as she, would lose her beloved. They may try to help her, but their words only serve to hurt her more and increase her pain. She yearns for consolation, but she receives only wounds. Mrs. Penn-Lewis quoted a good verse regarding this portion: "For they persecute him whom You have stricken,/And they recount the pain of those whom You have wounded" (Psa. 69:26). They do not know how to take care of her problems. They think that she must be wrong if the Lord has withdrawn. They do not realize that she has suffered enough blows already; they think that their rebukes can help her. They give her more blows through their words. At this time, she cannot help but proclaim, "Reproach has broken my heart, /And I am sick;/I looked for pity, but there was none; /And for comforters, but I found none" (v. 20).
Her pain does not stop here. Not only are the others not able to help her or comfort her; they joke about her condition. Those who are responsible to keep watch over her do not cover her; rather, they publicize her affairs. As a result, she loses her veil, and she is without any covering; her shame is exposed. Her failure becomes public news among the believers. She is indeed like Job, who tried to find a friend who would help him, but ended up with those who condemned him.
These keepers are the ones who take responsibility in the house of God. Spiritually speaking, they ought to be her guides. But often even the discernment of a spiritual person can be wrong. Our brothers' attitudes toward us may be wrong many times, but this is something under the Lord's permission; the purpose of it is for us to become conscious of our own failures. If we go on with the Lord according to His will, He will have a way to deal with our brothers. When we fail, however small this failure may be, the Lord will allow our brothers to deal with us more severely than He Himself will deal with us.
Verse 8 says, "I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love." When the maiden cannot find help from spiritual men, she seeks help among those who are less advanced than she is. When she feels that she has offended the Lord and has lost His countenance, in her desperation she tries to find help even from the daughters of Jerusalem. Her words amount to an admission of her failure and that, if possible, they should pray for her. Her sense of failure is so deep that she feels that even babes in the Lord can render her some help. She is not ignorant of their immaturity, and she realizes that their fellowship with the Lord is not perfect. This is why she says, "If ye find my beloved." She knows that they may not find Him. Yet in her deep remorse and helplessness, she hopes to find one or two persons who can render some help. Her own prayers seem to go unanswered, and she now turns to others.
She wants to convey the message, "I am sick of love." She used this expression once before, but her condition was different than it is now. She had been in the midst of an intimate tide of fellowship, but now she is in a time of dryness. It is not surprising for a person to speak such a word at a time when feelings run high. But when darkness is all around and there are contrary feelings, it is not easy to speak such a word. This proves that she has made a considerable advance in the life of faith. She has learned to take control of her environment, and she can control her own feelings. This love sickness does not arise from an overindulgence in love, but from a hunger for love.