Songs 7:1 How beautiful are your feet with shoes, O prince's daughter! the joints of your thighs are like jewels… The Great Redeemer, the Heavenly Bridegroom, is now represented under the leading emblem of the Book, as surveying the beauties and excellences of His betrothed bride. The whole chapter is an apostrophe to her. She is in herself full of conscious unworthiness. But He sees her clothed in the bridal attire of His own righteousness, and instead of upbraiding her for avowed imperfections, He begins with the words, "How beautiful are thy sandalled feet, O Prince's daughter!" I. The Church's or the Believer's NAME — "Daughter" and "Prince's daughter." 1. She is called "daughter." This points to the tender relation subsisting between Christ and His people. When Jehovah in the Old Testament speaks most endearingly of His ancient Church, He calls it "The Daughter of Zion." He employs, indeed, manifold figures, all indicative of strong and ardent attachment. "As one whom his mother comforteth." "Can a woman forget her sucking child?" "Like as a father pitieth his children." "I will be a Father unto you." 2. But again, she is a "Prince's daughter." He reminds her of her pedigree. It is no ordinary birth. She is one of the adopted children of the "King of kings." Their glory is His glory. II. THE SUBJECT OF COMMENDATION: "How beautiful are thy feet with shoes. 1. The shoe, or sandal, in ancient times, and in Oriental countries, was the badge of freedom and honour. The crouching slave never wore a sandal. The unsandalled feet was the badge and mark of subjection, if not of degradation. When the Lord, therefore, in the text speaks of His betrothed bride's feet being "beautiful with shoes," what is this but to proclaim that she — type of every believer — is translated from the bondage of corruption into "the glorious liberty of the children of God"? 2. Shoes or sandals were emblems of joy: while the want of these was equally recognized and regarded as a symbol of grief and sorrow. And is not the Christian called to be joyful? Yes, God's children are indeed, really, and in truth, alone of all, in this sin-stricken world, entitled to the epithet of "happy." 3. The sandals on the feet speak of activity and duty, and preparedness for Christ's service. They point to the nature of the journey the believer is pursuing. Though a pleasant road, and a safe road, and a road with a glorious termination, it is at times rough; a path of temptation and trial. Unshod feet would be cut and lacerated with the stones and thorns and briars which beset it. The figure, moreover, suggests, that there can be no loitering or lingering on the way. (J. R. Macduff, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter! the joints of thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman. |
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