The daughters of Jerusalem have no difficulty in replying to her question, and recognizing her as of royal birth—"O Prince's daughter"—as well as of queenly dignity, they describe in true and Oriental language the tenfold beauties of her person; from her feet to her head they see only beauty and perfection. What a contrast to her state by nature! Once "from the sole of the foot even unto the head" was "but wounds, and bruises, and festering sores"; now her feet are "shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace," and the very hair of the head proclaims her a Nazarite indeed; "the King" Himself "is held captive in the tresses thereof."
But One, more to her than the daughters of Jerusalem, responded to her unaffected question, "What will ye see in the Shulamite?" The Bridegroom Himself replies to it:—
How fair and how pleasant art thou,
O love, for delights!
He sees in her the beauties and the fruitfulness of the tall and upright palm, of the graceful and clinging vine, of the fragrant and evergreen citron. Grace has made her like the palm-tree, the emblem alike of uprightness and of fruitfulness. The fruit of the date-palm is more valued than bread by the Oriental traveller, so great is its sustaining power; and the fruit-bearing powers of the tree do not pass away; as age increases the fruit becomes more perfect as well as more abundant.
The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree:
He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
They that are planted in the house of the Lord
Shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bring forth fruit in old age;
They shall be full of sap and green.
But why are the righteous made so upright and flourishing?
To show that the Lord is upright;
He is my Rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
One with our Lord, it is ours to show forth His graces and virtues, to reflect His beauty, to be His faithful witnesses.
The palm is also the emblem of victory; it raises its beautiful crown towards the heavens, fearless of the heat of the sultry sun, or of the burning hot wind from the desert. From its beauty it was one of the ornaments of Solomon's, as it is to be of Ezekiel's temple. When our Saviour was received at Jerusalem as the King of Israel the people took branches of palm-trees and went forth to meet Him; and in the glorious day of His espousals, "a great multitude, which no man" can "number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues," shall stand "before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes"; and with palms of victory in their hands shall ascribe their "salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb."
But if she resembles the palm she also resembles the vine. Much she needs the culture of the Husbandman, and well does she repay it. Abiding in Christ, the true source of fruitfulness, she brings forth clusters of grapes, luscious and refreshing, as well as sustaining, like the fruit of the palm—luscious and refreshing to Himself, the owner of the vineyard, as well as to the weary, thirsty world in which He has placed it.