“How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes behind your veil are doves. Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from the hills of Gilead.”

Song of Songs 4:1

The Beloved now speaks to his treasured woman. He reiterates how he feels about her and how she looks to him. He says that she is beautiful and he calls her his darling. Again he tells her she is beautiful. He cannot say it enough times he wants her to be secure about how she feels about herself when he’s around. He wants her to know that she is always beautiful and that she will always be beautiful to him, no matter what state she is in she will always be his darling – his darling bride.

We have the reference repeated here, about her eyes being like doves. Her eyes are not accusatory but are peaceable. Her eyes look on him with love and deep affection, for she has always loved him and she always will. When the beloved looks into her eyes he sees peace because she is at peace with herself and she is at peace with him. For now the eyes are veiled, for they are not yet officially together. She hides her eyes and is humble, demure, mysterious, chaste. Soon the beloved will lift the veil and will see that beautiful face and those deep peaceful eyes will be his.

He likens her hair to a flock of goats coming down from the hills at Gilead. It is difficult to know exactly what this means but her hair is thick and dark and she has not styled it into a formal style but it is left natural and it looks like the hair of the goats as they come down the mountain all together in a herd down the mountains of Gilead. She is beautiful because she is natural and does not try to make herself look like something she is not. Her decorations are natural and they enhance her natural beauty rather than detract from it. Natural hair is always an issue because every culture has styles and every culture has formal designs for hair in particular situations. But to have natural hair shows the hair for what it is – it’s own natural beauty and its own colour and its own texture. She is not ashamed of her natural hair – it is a crowning glory. The Beloved also respects her and respects her views and respects the way she presents herself and treats herself and behaves in all circumstances. The way she presents herself is important because it shows what her character he is like, and he honours that in her and encourages her to have integrity and to be a true hearted woman.

Her integrity is built from her difficult background and from the mistreatment of her family. It results from being forced to look after their interests rather than her own and this is forged her character and made her the woman that she is today. She has nothing to be ashamed about and her beloveds sees that. This is why she prizes him and lifts him up and this is why he prizes her because she is a woman of deep integrity. This is why he sees her as beautiful because of who she is and how she looks, suffering making her become what she is like in her inner core. It is a desire of every woman to be thought of this way and to be highly prized and that her beloveds should do whatever he can to make her happy and to make her feel valued. This is a sign of the truly beloved.

Our Saviour views us the same way. No one can detract from us, because we are already like Him! God the Father sees us in our redeemed state, and regards us as perfect before His throne, where we can come anytime in our great need.

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Hebrews 4:16

We are encouraged every day by the man, Christ Jesus, who loves us without measure and will uphold us always. He holds us fast, to Himself, and not to another. He is jealous of our love and wants us with all His loving, tender heart, where no harshness dwells. Who would not want such a Saviour!

Only the foolish. The Christian loves Him right back and will take the encouragement and run the straight race set before them. Because we are accepted in the Beloved, we have ultimate confidence to go about our takes with a singleness of heart and mind, that protects us from the sorrow and guilt that surrounds everything.

Ephesians 1:3-6

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. In love he predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the Beloved One.”

We have no fear, since there is no fear in love. We have only rest, rest for body, mind and soul. This love affair is forever, truly. Take His warm embrace, and love Him back…