Song of Songs 1:8-17
Not being a person who uses perfume much (and rarely chooses perfumed products), I can still imagine the fully sensual delights of fragrances described in Song 1:12-14. How attracted these two lovers are to each other through sight and scent and even the sound of their voices (Song 1:3)! What a gift our five senses are!
God has surely granted us pure enjoyment through beauty, especially His beauty. One of my favorite verses expresses this desire:
One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple.
Psalm 27:4 RSV
His beauty, of course, as well as the gifts and grace He bestows to us, surpass anything we can experience or imagine. Paul says,
… “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love Him, …”
I Corinthians 2:9 RSV
Chapter one ends with the couple extolling each other’s beauty. This is certainly a parallel to our relationship with God: to praise Him, to love Him, to be in love with Him.
I was thinking of the She/He pairing in the context of Carol’s next to the last sentence, the couple extolling each other’s beauty. I was thinking of the beauty that is God, but I paired Him with us, thinking of His joy at the beauty that He sees in each one of us. Glory!!!