How beautiful you are, my darling,
How beautiful you are!
Your eyes are like doves behind your veil;
Your hair is like a flock of goats
That have descended from Mount Gilead.
— Song of Songs 4:1
Second, the Lord praises her hair, saying, “Your hair is like a flock of goats that repose on Mount Gilead.” Hair refers to power, as illustrated with Samson. Hair also signifies consecration and obedience. Here the flock of goats that pastures on Mount Gilead speaks of her satisfaction with the Lord as her pasture. It also indicates that she is willing to give herself to the Lord. She is fully in submission to the Lord, just like a Nazarite (see Numbers 6).
Even when we have eyes like doves, we still need hair that is like a flock of goats. Besides being pure and single, we also need to be obedient and powerful. True power comes not from our own exercise of will, but from obedience to the Lord’s will. The Shulammite is no longer wandering about or trying to do something separate from the Lord’s will. She is now a consecrated person, empowered by the Lord.
Adapted from The Journey of Life, page 219.
Tomorrow: “The Lord’s Praise” (3)