With her question in Song of Songs 1:7, quoted below, regarding “the flocks of your companions,” the Seeker in the Song of Songs (who signifies us as those who seek after Christ) shows she realizes she can never find her beloved (who signifies Christ Himself) if she remains with the flocks of others; she must first find his own flock.

Since we as the believers in Christ are the Lord’s flock (John 10:16), these “the flocks of his companions,” signify the many different kinds of sectarian church fellowship the believers have today. Therefore, the Seeker’s question shows us that, for our own spiritual seeking, it is crucial for us to avoid any such sectarian gathering in terms of how we meet with other believers for church fellowship. Rather, to know the Lord, we must seek to enter into the unique New Testament fellowship of God’s Son; that is what we have been called into as the believers in Christ, and that is where we will find Christ (1 Cor. 1:9; for my own video testimony of how I entered into this fellowship as a new believer, see “How I Found the New Testament Fellowship”).

In his comments below, C.A. Coates (1862-1945), who ministered in England within the “Exclusive” branch of the Plymouth Brethren, considers how we, like the Seeker in the Song of Songs, must exercise spiritual discernment to distinguish between any fellowship that does not belong to Christ Himself, on the one hand, and His one unique flock, on the other.

C.A. Coates on
“The Flocks of His Companions”

Tell me, O you whom my soul loves,
Where you feed your flock?
Where you make it rest at noon?
For why should I be as one who veils herself
Beside the flocks of your companions?
— Song of Songs 1:7 —

She now turns to her eternal Lover that He may tell her how to distinguish between His flock and the flock of His companions. Her heart perceives a more subtle danger. It is not now a question of those who are in manifest opposition to Him, or to her; the flocks are not looked at here as the flocks of bad men, or even of men who are His rivals; they are the flocks of His companions.

She has a fine sense of discrimination. Some might feel that to be beside the flocks of His companions was a good place, and quite near enough! How many are content to be beside the flock of some earnest and devoted servant of Christ. That is a good place surely, but it is clearly suggested by the enquiry of the spouse that there is a better place.

Her exercise was to not miss the best that was available. For her there is only one flock that is supremely attractive, and that is the flock which He tends and leads and feeds.

Do we covet to know the precious reality of a place where He feeds His flock, and makes it to rest? Do we in our hearts know how to contrast that with the flocks of His companions? Or have we thought that they are all really alike, and that there is little or nothing to choose between them?

To the heart of the spouse, to be roving beside the flocks of His companions would be to miss His company, and His leading and feeding. To her this would be great loss, and she felt assured that it would be a loss from which His love would shield her. Even His companions may become a distraction from Himself, and, however excellent they may be, they are to be shunned if they detain us from that unique place where He feeds His flock and makes it to rest.

— Outline of the Song of Songs, pages 19-20