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Song of Solomon 1:9, 11 "I compare you, my love, to a mare of Pharaoh's chariots ... We will make you ornaments of gold, studded with silver."

 

Despite the fact that the beloved is being compared to a horse, this is meant as the highest praise:). God, speaking as a lover to His beloved, means for the comparison to Pharaoh's chariot horse to evoke the strength and beauty of a powerful, prized, adorned mare. 

 

In the Book of Heaven, Jesus adorns Louisa with gold and jewels on the day she becomes His spouse ("Then He took two gems, as if they were earrings, and He bejeweled my ears. Then He adorned my neck and my arms, and surrounded my forehead with a crown of immense value, all enriched with precious stones and gems, all refulgent with light"*), and at other times He adorns her with other tokens of His love. It is much like an adoring husband wanting to grace his wife with the best of everything. 

 

Adorning things and people is one way we have of showing how much we value them. That is why Solomon's Temple was so extravagantly beautiful, that is why our churches and cathedrals are at their best when they are beautiful, and why things of earthly value are used to adorn them. It is not to show the opulence or power of the Church, it is to show God's opulence and power, His generosity to us, and to make beautiful the things of God, just as He longs to do with us.

 

 

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*Book One of Book of Heaven, undated opening sections, page 62 of this online pdf.