Overview: Song of Solomon

This book, taken by some as an allegory of the believer’s relationship with God, is better understood in its plain sense as a collection of love poems that celebrate and caution concerning human love. The joyful and sometimes erotic portrayal of the relationship between a lover and his beloved reminds us that intimacy within marriage is a gift, given by the God who created human beings male and female.

However, when read in the context of the Scripture, the Song has a clear and obvious relevance to the divine-human relationship. Throughout the Bible, our relationship to God is likened to a marriage. Therefore, this book is a resource not only for our understanding of male-female relationships, but also for a more profound understanding of the intimacy and exclusivity of our relationship with God.

Song of Solomon 4

English Standard Version (ESV)

 

Solomon Admires His Bride’s Beauty

He

¹ Behold, you are beautiful, my love,
behold, you are beautiful!
Your eyes are doves
behind your veil.
Your hair is like a flock of goats
leaping down the slopes of Gilead.
² Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes
that have come up from the washing,
all of which bear twins,
and not one among them has lost its young.
³ Your lips are like a scarlet thread,
and your mouth is lovely.
Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate
behind your veil.
⁴ Your neck is like the tower of David,
built in rows of stone;
on it hang a thousand shields,
all of them shields of warriors.
⁵ Your two breasts are like two fawns,
twins of a gazelle,
that graze among the lilies.
⁶ Until the day breathes
and the shadows flee,
I will go away to the mountain of myrrh
and the hill of frankincense.
⁷ You are altogether beautiful, my love;
there is no flaw in you.
⁸ Come with me from Lebanon, my bride;
come with me from Lebanon.
Depart from the peak of Amana,
from the peak of Senir and Hermon,
from the dens of lions,
from the mountains of leopards.

⁹ You have captivated my heart, my sister, my bride;
you have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes,
with one jewel of your necklace.
¹⁰ How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride!
How much better is your love than wine,
and the fragrance of your oils than any spice!
¹¹ Your lips drip nectar, my bride;
honey and milk are under your tongue;
the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.
¹² A garden locked is my sister, my bride,
a spring locked, a fountain sealed.
¹³ Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates
with all choicest fruits,
henna with nard,
¹⁴ nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon,
with all trees of frankincense,
myrrh and aloes,
with all choice spices—
¹⁵ a garden fountain, a well of living water,
and flowing streams from Lebanon.

¹⁶ Awake, O north wind,
and come, O south wind!
Blow upon my garden,
let its spices flow.

Together in the Garden of Love

She

Let my beloved come to his garden,
and eat its choicest fruits.

 

Reflection

• What do the lover’s explicit words describing his beloved’s physical beauty (vv. 1-7) reveal about their relationship? What words and phrases help you understand how Solomon feels about his beloved (vv. 9-15)?
• How does the woman respond to the praise and adoration that is lavished upon her? What does their dialogue reveal about their attitude about themselves as sexual beings?
• If God’s view of sex in marriage is conveyed here, then why do so many couples experience nothing like it? What does it say to you in your relationship with your spouse?
• God pursues you like the lover pursues the beloved in this passage. Praise God and thank him for his love that never lets us go.

 

Prayer & Journaling:

Stay with God for a little longer. Continue to converse with God and listen to what he wants to tell me. Then write down any thought and/or prayer in the “Spiritual Journal” book.