This name is given to the church in the Songs of Solomon. (Song of Song of Solomon 6:13) It hath been variously accounted for. Some have supposed that it is in consequence of her marriage with Solomon, and bearing therefore his name; for Shulamite is the feminine, as Solomon is the masculine, both being derived from Shalem peace. And if so there is a great beauty in it as it relates to Christ and his church; for if Jesus be the Shalem, the peace of his people, his spouse hath peace in him and his blood and righteousness. We have a beautiful instance of the same kind, and from the authority of the Holy Ghost, Jeremiah 23:6 with Jeremiah 33:16; where, in the first of these chapters, Jesus is called by JEHOVAH'S appointment the Lord our righteousness, and in the second the church, by the same authority, as one bearing the name of her husband, is called the same.
But beside these considerations there is a great propriety in calling the church Shulamite, for Shulem or Salem is the same as Jerusalem; and this is the mother of the church, (Galatians 4:26) Hence Melchizedec is said to have been king of Salem, king of peace. (Hebrews 7:2) What a sweet thought! Our Jesus, our Melchizedec, is king of Salem, and all his people are in this sense "Shulamites;" for they are "fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God." (Ephesians 2:19, etc.)
And it is very blessed yet farther to trace the propriety of the name in reference to the church's connection and interest with her Lord; for she is a Shulamite indeed in the peace and perfection of beauty put upon her by the comliness and perfection of Jesus. Hence when the daughters of Jerusalem, smitten with a view of her loveliness in Christ, call upon her, it is to return, that they may look upon her beauty. "Retrun, return, O Shulamite! return, return, that we may look upon thee." So struck were they with her righteousness in Jesus. (Song of Song of Solomon 6:4)