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.

Ecclesiastes 11

“Be generous and don’t hoard, for you don’t know when the stock market will crash. Take circumstances as they come, be what may, and don’t wait around for everything to look just right before you act; otherwise, you never will. (Or, if you wait for all the stop lights to turn green, you will never start your grand road trip.)” That’s how I would paraphrase Ecc. 11:1-4. Again we get good advice from the Preacher for living in the real — and broken — world.

And that good advice continues in Ecc. 11:5-10, but it seems to me that the use of the word “vanity” to translate the Hebrew “hebel” leads us astray a bit, perhaps more so in this chapter than elsewhere. Remember that “hebel” refers to a vapor or mist, a passing breath. So I think the notion of ephemorality is closer to the mark than the idea of uselessness or futility. Consider, for example, the two verses in today’s reading where the ESV uses “vanity,” but changing “vanity” to “brief”:

So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is brief.
…
Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are brief.

Ecclesiastes 11:8,10

I think that comes closer to the Preacher‘s intent than the dead end that “vanity” might imply.

Youth is wasted on the young.

George Bernard Shaw, kind of, maybe?

No, that’s not from today’s reading, but it fits, and so the Preacher‘s advice is not to squander your youth, but to live well while you can. (Oh, sorry, too late for that, huh?!) And Saint Paul agrees:

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

Ephesians 5:15,16

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.

Colossians 4:5

So how about us? Perhaps we are no longer young (except in light of eternity!), but are we nonetheless making the best use of the time we have? Or are we persisting in pursuing those things that are vanity and a striving after wind?

Ecclesiastes 10:12-20

Ever the realist, the Preacher continues to set truth before us. Are we beginning to heed what he has to say?

A fool multiplies words,
though no man knows what is to be,
and who can tell him what will be after him?

Ecclesiastes 10:14

The notion that no one can know what is coming next is a recurring theme for the Preacher. (See also Ecc. 3:22,6:12,7:14.) We see the same idea elsewhere in Scripture:

Do not boast about tomorrow,
for you do not know what a day may bring.

Proverbs 27:1

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

James 4:13,14

So if you ever thought that Ecclesiastes is “out there” and not in line with the rest of Scripture, think again. If that last line from James doesn’t sound like the Preacher, I don’t know what does!

We all know from our own experience that the Preacher is right on target about not knowing what is yet to be. We all know that “stuff” happens (to use the more polite term). We all know that life throws us curve balls. Yet look around and listen to how people boast of what they are going to do next, puffed up in their illusions about the future. It pervades our culture — right alongside anxiety about how everything is going to fail!

Perhaps we should instead listen to the Preacher and live in the now.