Song of Solomon 5:16 concludes the woman's poetic description of her beloved: his speech is sweet, he is altogether desirable or lovely, and she identifies him as both her beloved and her friend. In the immediate literary setting, the Song celebrates the love and delight of a man and woman for one another. The Hebrew expression traditionally rendered "altogether lovely" conveys the idea that the beloved is wholly desirable. The verse itself does not explicitly identify this man as the future Messiah.

Christian interpretation, however, has a long tradition of reading the bridegroom and bride as figures of Christ and His people. On that typological or devotional reading, the woman's delight in her beloved becomes an especially fitting picture of the surpassing excellence of Christ. John 1:17 declares that grace and truth came through Jesus Christ, while the New Testament elsewhere presents Him as the Bridegroom and speaks of His love for the Church. Thus Song 5:16 can appropriately be used to express the Christian conviction that Christ is "altogether lovely," full of grace and worthy of His people's deepest love and desire. The connection should nevertheless be identified as a traditional Christological application of the Song rather than as a direct predictive prophecy comparable to passages the New Testament explicitly says were fulfilled by Jesus.