Strictly, this scene presents a beautiful picture of Israel, of whom the Lord could say, “I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness,” and again, “I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of great drought” (Hos. 9:10; 13:5). It is true that Jehovah “drew them with cords of a man” and “with bands of love” (11:4), into a land flowing with milk and honey, but they turned from the Lord and went after strange gods. Yet, in the days to come, God will again bring Israel into the wilderness, will there “speak to her heart,” and from thence open to her “a door of hope” that will lead to the kingdom glories of the true Solomon (2:14–23).

The Church, too, has her wilderness journey, the time of her earthly pilgrimage, before the end is reached in heavenly glory. In this lovely song we see the unfolding of this journey, not in its weakness and failure, but according to the thought of God, taken in the communion of love. For the wilderness has its privileges as well as its privations, and this the song presents, for the journey is made in the King’s traveling couch. Moreover the very privations become the occasion of calling forth a sweet odor, just as the path of the bride is marked by the smoke of ascending incense, and perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, and with all powders of the merchant.

There is spiritual significance in the fact that the powders of the merchant are compounded from plants gathered in the wilderness. The trials, the testings, and the privations of our wilderness journey, when taken from the hand of God, become the occasion of developing the graces of Christ, which ascend as “a sweet-smelling aroma” even now, and will be found to praise and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.