O precious poetry! O perfect psalm! Would that we were to meditate on thy images of the King and His Bride, we should find ourselves ravished by His splendor, awed by His majesty, overwhelmed by His love and humbled by His grace. Let us gaze into the wedding song of the King and peruse its fair verses, for in due time they shall become to us an even more beauteous and cherished reality!
"You...(v. 2)" Blessed is the heart that knows the true object of all its desires. No fitter beginning can be made than to find oneself enraptured by the King of kings! Many of the sons of men are handsome, but none match the King for perfection of character. He is altogether lovely (Song of Solomon 5:16)! The King's very lips are a fountain of grace. One word spoken can change our darkness to dawn! One word can ignite eternal fire in our hearts! One word can still the most troubled of souls. Blessed are the ears that hang on every sweet word—dripping like honey from the mouth of grace!
Our King is the "Mighty One" (v. 3)—defender, conqueror, victor! He is the champion of His Bride, her hero! In splendor and majesty He rides forth; His enemies fall beneath His feet. In truth and justice He reigns! He takes up the cause of the meek and righteous; His throne is established forever. The King's Bride has no fear of conquering armies or the fiery darts of many foes, for to her He shows Himself strong, powerful, and sworn by His blood to deliver her from all perils. He has fought to the gates of hell and back for His Bride, and no force in heaven or on earth shall snatch her from the everlasting arms! (Romans 8:39)
"Listen...Forget...your father's house, and the king will desire your beauty" (v. 11). The Bride cannot look upon her glorious King with divided affections—she must leave her father's house at the beckoning of her Lord. We cannot remain in worldliness, but must come forth from the house of our fallen nature. We are chosen for holiness and must hearken to our King's cry: "Be holy, because I am holy!" (Ephesians 1:4; Leviticus 11:45). And to this holiness we attain by inclining every faculty, the whole of our being to His teaching.
Nothing sets apart Christ's beloved so much as when she lives by His word, and nothing arouses His affections for her more! The King is enthralled with His Bride! He died to make her both holy and wholly His, and to divide His dominion with another is to dethrone Him completely. He is both our Lord and Heavenly Husband, and we must honor Him with fiercely singular devotion! Anything less is adultery of the soul.
"All glorious is the princess in her chamber..." (v. 13). Christ’s Bride is as yet hidden from the world. "...what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2). She makes herself ready. Waiting. Watching. Eager for that blessed Day when, with brimming joy and adoration, the Bridegroom Himself shall call forth His beloved from her chamber—perfected! She will emerge, clothed in the gown of His righteousness! No fairer bride has there ever been than the all-glorious Bride of the Lamb, and no greater adornment has ever been seen than the robes of righteousness made snow-white by His blood!
"With joy and gladness they are led along as they enter the palace of the king" (v. 15). Finally the Bride is brought to her King. Grace has been her diligent attendant, and Grace leads her to His side—pure, spotless, undefiled. She is a Bride without blemish (Ephesians 5:27), and joy and gladness are her companions. With joy and gladness shall Jesus' beloved enter His heavenly domain! With joy and gladness shall we look upon our light and momentary afflictions, dwarfed thereby in the weight of His glory! With joy and gladness shall we finally behold the Son, our heart’s chief Desire! And with joy and gladness shall all the heavens celebrate the consummation of the divine marriage—the wedding of the King and His Bride!