Song of Songs 6

Chapter 6 begins with a group of friends asking the woman, “Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women? …” They offer to help seek him.

She answers that he has gone to his garden, to “graze” and gather lilies. If you have ever been in a really beautiful, well planted garden, you may be able to close your eyes and envision the metaphors that appeal to our senses in these chapters: glorious colors delight our eyes; soft petals brush our hands; fragrant, sometimes spicy flowers waft on a breeze; even different fruits are ripe for tasting. In other words, we are invited to enjoy love in every way we can experience it. And I suggest we are invited to enjoy God’s presence in these same ways, as best as we can in our hearts.

The intimacy and exclusivity of the relationship is once again affirmed in verse 3: “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine; he grazes among the lilies.”

Song 6:4-10 offers more descriptions of the beloved, but interestingly, they include comparisons to great cities and armies with banners (vv. 4, 10), giving her honor that is not simply physical beauty, but dignity and strength as well.

And among all women (“sixty queens and eighty concubines and virgins without number” —v. 8), to him “my dove, my perfect one, is the only one, the only one …” (v. 9). Wow.

Verse 13 ends the chapter with an interesting exchange between other men and him:

The Others:
“Return, return, O Shulammite, return, return, that we may look upon you.”
He:
“Why should you look upon the Shulammite, as upon a dance before two armies?”

Song of Songs 6:13

We see the other men desiring to look at her beauty—what good can come of that? But her Lover protects her and admonishes them. Can this verse be likened to our protection from evil in Christ? I’d like to think so.

Song of Songs 5

At the end of Song 4, the Beloved has invited her Lover into her garden to “taste its choice fruit”, and he is extolling her spices, honey, and wine as Song 5 begins.

And at this point Friends chime in, urging them to “Eat, O friends, and drink; drink your fill, O lovers.”

So let’s pause. What do you think? Are you enjoying reading through Song of Songs? Because as two of us were discussing it at church today, someone else exclaimed it was the “least favorite book of the Bible.” I wonder why. Does it make us uncomfortable, perhaps because it can be very erotic? Do we feel it is not a serious or useful book? I have the feeling that this person would gladly dig through Romans…

What then? I will make a case for embracing the Song, embracing it in all its beauty and glorious imagery, thankful for the permission it gives us to enjoy LIFE, to submit to the rapture and blessings of love between one another, and in our relationship to our Lord. And thankful for what it teaches us about what these relationships should be like: intimate, intense, delightful, exclusive, powerful—what a gift!

Okay, back to Song 5:

Song 5:2-8 gives us an odd episode: one night the Lover knocks at the door, but she is reluctant at first to rouse and open up. When she does, he’s gone. She goes out into the streets to look for him, but doesn’t find him, and is beaten by the city watchmen. As a metaphor for our relationships, it is a cautionary tale—don’t wait when your lover comes knocking (second chances don’t always come).

Song 5:10-16 finishes the chapter with our only lengthy description of the Lover: his radiance, his hair, his face, his body—all are described using gold and precious gems, cedar trees, and lilies. You get the picture…

Song of Songs 4

The first 15 verses of this chapter are the Beloved extolling the beauty of his lover: her eyes, her hair, her teeth, her lips, … (I find the description of her teeth most amusing, but in a culture where there were no toothbrushes, I guess a newly shorn sheep was one of the best examples of white.) I won’t go on and make anyone blush!

Later in the chapter he compares her to a lush garden filled with choice fruit, fragrant plants, and flowing water. His devotion to and desire for her are deep and strong. Humanly speaking, a person would be completely blessed to be loved like this.

On a different level, can we believe that God Himself desires His bride, His church, this way? Does He see us this way? Yet He is preparing us to be the desirable bride of Christ. And through Jesus’ sacrifice for us, and only through that, He can say, “You are altogether beautiful, My darling; there is no flaw in you.” (Song 4:7‬ ‭NIV‬‬).

Let’s live in that truth today.

Song of Songs 3

Today’s chapter has two parts. In Song 3:1-5 the woman, the Lover, is alone and longs for her Beloved. She searches all night through the streets of the town, finally finding him and bringing him back to home. Then she watches over him, making sure he is safely sleeping and not disturbed.

This is a picture of devotion, perhaps our devotion to our spouses, or perhaps to our Lord. It is a sustained search, a longing for the presence of the One who is our heart’s longing.

The second half of the chapter (Song 3:6-11) changes entirely. It is a picture of the King, specifically King Solomon, coming in splendor, surrounded by sixty warriors. The use of comparisons to the wedding of a king is a typical trope of marriage songs in the Middle East.

There is again a feast for the senses: perfumes of rare spices, the beautiful carriage made of gold, silver, and purple cloth, “… its interior inlaid with love. …King Solomon wearing a crown, the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, the day his heart rejoiced” (Song 3:10-11‬ ‭NIV‬‬).

Again we read of the joy of love in marriage, God’s special gift to us, and it is good, very good.

Song of Songs 2:8-17

I am enchanted by the beauty of the scene described in Song 2:8-14. The Beloved comes and calls for her: “Come away! … The winter is past … Come away!” Spring has come and the birds are singing. It is time to delight in each other. Exclusively.

Relationships can be difficult sometimes as we all know. It is healthy to take time away, to enjoy each other, to renew and rejoice in our love.

In addition, one could again apply these metaphors to our relationship to God. He certainly calls us to separate ourselves from distractions to spend time in his presence. I believe that enjoying God for himself alone is perhaps lost on us sometimes. And he wants us to love him in an exclusive way.

Just as the Lover says, “My beloved is mine, and I am his …” (Song 2:16).

That is a reason to rejoice!

Song of Songs 2:1-7

The first two verses of this chapter are poetic descriptions of the Lover using flowers. She is like a Rose of Sharon and a Lily of the Valley, an especially fragrant flower. He exclaims she is like a lily.

But more importantly, he describes her as a lily among thorns. And she describes her Beloved as an apple tree in the midst of the woods (v. 3). In short, those who truly love see each other as special and unique. This is how love changes how we see each other. How wonderful!

The feasting and celebration of their love is totally satisfying and restoring.

The last verse today admonishes us to wait on love, let it “stir up … awaken” when the time is right. Patience. How many relationships could benefit from a bit of that … ?

Happy Thanksgiving, y’all!

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.

Song of Songs 1:1-7

The Beloved (or She) begins our trip through this book in Song 1:1-4 speaking to her Lover—his love is intoxicating, like wine, like perfume. Here he is a king, a typical trope in wedding songs of Semitic cultures, which will be woven through the rest of the Song.

The friends or maidens who attend her chime in with praises for her lover.

In Song 1:5-6 she describes herself as “dark,” which is not considered as desirable, because she was forced to work out in the sun by her family. What do we know of her then? Is it a metaphor for our own shortcomings before our King? (How appropriate that yesterday was Christ the King Sunday!)

In Song 1:7 she begins searching for her King, wanting to find him, and asks, “Why should I be like a veiled woman (a prostitute) …?,” walking the streets looking for a lover. She asks that he reveal himself to her.

Personally, I see this section as a metaphor for my own search for God, my own sense of unworthiness inhibiting me at times, my prayer that he make himself known to me, especially in those times when I say, “Where are you, Lord?”

Note: The Song is certainly a celebration of God’s gift of human love, but one NIV introduction to it mentions that, while it has sometimes been seen as an “allegory of the love relationship between God and Israel, … or between Christ and the soul” this is not nearly the only way to interpret it and is not even encouraged as such.

Sorry this got so long! I’ll be more brief next time.

Today as we start a new book, Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon), I will be sending daily comments, to which you are encouraged to add with your own thoughts. I hope you will. (Not sure how I got roped into this!)

The introductory notes in my NIV study bible make a case that the book’s author could be King Solomon, but it is not necessarily so. Either way it borrows heavily from traditions of wedding songs of the ancient Middle East—celebrating “the delights of married love and the beauty of the human body” (NIV introduction).

This “greatest of songs” conveys the beauty and joy of human love, a gift to us from God, intended for pleasure. The poetry of its metaphors is powerful and inspiring, and the book has a place in scripture because it celebrates and elevates this gift of God above the distortions mankind has made of it. We don’t have to look far to see that today’s society is wandering off the map in this regard …

Finally, the organization of the book is a series of six meetings between the lovers, which culminate in the consummation of marriage. Several versions (NIV, CSV) label various speakers — the Beloved/She, the Lover/He, the Others/Friends, Narrator, etc. — but not always consistently with each other. However, it is very helpful for the reader. The ESV has descriptive headings. Other versions don’t break up the chapters as much, some (like the KJV) not at all.

Have fun and rejoice in God’s gift to us as you read. (Try not to blush!)

Ecclesiastes 12

Remember also your Creator… (v. 1) The first and hardest part of that for each of us is to truly understand that I am not my Creator. (And by “I” and “my,” I also mean “you” and “your.”) I am not the creator of my own universe, I am not the center of my universe, and I certainly don’t control this universe. It is best to figure that out when we are young, while we have a chance to live well and robustly and wisely, before our “house” starts to fall down around us. The imagery of growing old and dying in Ecc. 12:1-8 is striking, and it drives home the Preacher‘s perspective that we need to look reality square in the eye and consider what really matters. Our Creator pronounced that reality at the Fall: You are dust, and to dust you shall return. (Gen 3:19) God means what He says, so live accordingly.

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.

Ecclesiastes 12:8

Of course, that echoes Ecc. 1:2, which we heard at the outset, so are we just right back where we started? Are we just meant to conclude that life is bleak, and the future bleaker? Hardly. But we are meant to see that the entire system is rigged. God rigged it when we broke it, and He rigged it in love. In love He made it such that we cannot possibly find satisfaction without Him. When we insist on going our own way, deluding ourselves with unrealities, we are bound to be disappointed. That, I think, is what the Preacher means by “all is vanity.” And all that “vanity” is meant to point us back to God. Saint Augustine says it this way:

You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.

Saint Augustine of Hippo, Confessions

The Preacher tells us many times in Ecclesiastes that we should eat and drink and find enjoyment in our work, that we should gratefully accept and enjoy the gifts that God gives us. Such enjoyment is also meant to point us back to God, that we might see Him in those simple pleasures, and that we might acknowledge that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights. (James 1:17) It is in such surrender to the ultimate Reality that we find peace. Neither fret about tomorrow nor try to conquer it; rather, enjoy today as God’s gift, trusting that He will make all things right.

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Ecclesiastes 12:13,14

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One more thing…

Despite the warning in Ecc. 12:12 that of making many books there is no end, I’d like to again commend to you the book, Living Life Backward: How Ecclesiastes Teaches Us to Live in the Light of the End, by David Gibson. It is very insightful, much more so than my commentary here. It is not by any means a difficult book, so don’t be put off by envisioning some dense theological treatise. It is well worth the read. And remember, life is gift, not gain.