Song 1:10 “Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments,
Your neck with strings of beads.”
Jer. 2:32 “Can a virgin forget her ornaments,
Or a bride her attire?
Yet My people have forgotten Me
Days without number.
2Cor. 11:2 For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.
2Cor. 11:3 But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
There is nothing quite like the countenance of someone, who out of love, has joyfully given their life to another. First-Love, on the face of The Lovesick, is radiant with the ornaments of a surrendered heart. Cheeks, in The Song of Solomon, speak of emotions, and countenance. The Bridegroom has just affirmed her surrendered heart in verse 9, and He is now telling her that everyone can see her love and surrender in her countenance, like ornaments. In the Orient, women often wore, and still do, jeweled head bands that draped strings of pearls down their cheeks. We are the Pearl of Great Price to Him. He sold all that He had to purchase our hearts, and it brings Him such pleasure when our volunteer love can be seen so obviously, and publicly in our emotions, and on our countenance. An exhilarated heart, that is full of delighting emotions, is hard to hide. You can see it on the face of people. Haven’t you heard the phrase, “You can see it all over them.” That’s what this verse is saying. The pearls framing her face, in light of what pearls speak of, is the radiance of someone who is beginning to know how much she is loved, and who is beginning to value Him as her Pearl of Great Price. Don’t you long to love Him that much. Don’t you want to love Him with such a joyfully surrendered heart, that everyone can see it. In John 14:30-31, Jesus said that His surrender to the Cross would be a public display of how much He loved His Father. I want to be so surrendered before Him, that my very countenance declares His wonder, and the holy radiance of being His Beloved.