In comparison, the husband’s vineyard outwardly represents little. His vineyard counts for only one and not for a thousand. He has no appointed keepers, but this man is not at all jealous of Solomon’s property and of his 1,000 wives. The king can keep those! With his one wife the husband is so much richer than Solomon. He is happy with her alone. She makes his life complete. Her love gives him complete peace under God’s blessing.
King Solomon behaved like a true worldly oriental monarch. He wanted to show off his power and greatness through the large harem he had, and the many keepers and caretakers that are required for it. Solomon goes along with the world. He acknowledges later in his life, in the book of Ecclesiastes, that the harem did not bring real happiness, real peace. He writes in Ecclesiastes 2:8, I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man.
After mentioning some other things, his final conclusion is: Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun
(Ecclesiastes 2:11).
Solomon sets the wrong example for God’s people. It appears that he is rich and happy with his 1,000 wives. And yet he is poor precisely because he does not know true love. He cannot grow in that either because of his many wives. That is only possible with the one man or woman you have received from the hand of the Lord. When you live in true peace through Christ, one woman or one man is enough. The husband in the Song of Solomon is therefore richly blessed with his one wife.
12 My vineyard, my very own, is before me; you, O Solomon, may have the thousand, and the keepers of the fruit two hundred.