Click HERE to read the passage.
King Solomon, who wrote over a thousand songs and is the
author of the Book of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, calls this his “song of songs,
more wonderful than any other.” In fact,
in 1 Kings 4:32 it says, “And he (Solomon) spake three thousand proverbs; and
his songs were a thousand and five.” Isn’t it interesting that as you count ALL
of the proverbs and this song, there’s a lot that’s been left out of the
Bible. But it’s not a mistake! The ones we have are the ones God wanted us
to have. And, it’s possible these are all we need.
This book is actually not a story at all, but rather a
song. In fact the brief 8 chapters that make up this song is also referred to
as the Book of Canticles. A canticle is a little song. And this book is made up
of several little canticles, or little songs.
Because it speaks of love and love making, many people
over the centuries have felt that this book shouldn’t be in the Bible. In fact,
it’s been told by Origen and Jerome that the Jews wouldn’t permit their young
men to read this book until they were thirty years old. The reason was because
they felt it was too suggestive. But God wanted it there!
This is a wonderful picture of the physical, human love
that should be experienced between a husband and a wife. It strongly suggests
the importance of praising the beauty of each other and the wonderful feeling of
being loved, giving love, and truly enjoying the intimacy of each other during
love-making. Obviously God sees it as a wonderful thing! He designed it to be this way.
As we move our way through the chapters of this book you’ll
discover that the setting of this song is in and/or near the palace in
Jerusalem. It starts in chapter 1 with a
Shulamite girl who feels disgraced by the color of her dark skin. She’s
obviously a hardworking girl, and as 1:5 tells us her skin is dark from working
out in the sun all day, day-after-day, due to anger from her brothers. Apparently
her father has passed away and her brothers are in charge now – who forced her
to work alongside them in the fields.
It must have happened that one day while working in the
fields as the handsome Solomon’s caravan passed by her. He became captivated by
her beauty and fell in love with the young woman.
Even though Solomon would go one to have 300 wives and 1000
concubines, this Shulamite girl would be (it would seem) the one, true love of
his life.
Finally, she gave her heart to Solomon, the shepherd as
she says in 2:3 – “And compared to other youths, my lover is like the finest
apple tree in the orchard (there’s no one like him!). I am seated in his
delightful shade, and his fruit is delicious to eat. He brings me to the banquet
hall, so everyone can see how much he loves me...for I am utterly lovesick.”
They are both lovestruck with each other!
I can’t help but think this is how Christ sees His bride,
the Church. The love Jesus has for us is infinite. Like Solomon, there’s no one
like Jesus! And, one day we’ll (the
bride of Christ) be seated at the banquet table (at the Marriage Supper of the
Lamb) and Jesus will show us off to the angelic host and His Father and revel
in how proud He is of us and how much love He has for us.
While this book is a love song between Solomon and a
simple Shulamite girl, it also gives us some insight into how our love for our
spouses should be. It shows us how we
should enjoy each other’s beauty and the intimacy that only true love can
bring.
As we read the first 3 chapters, we see the unfolding of the love story between Solomon and this young, hardworking girl. Their love is growing as they court each other.
You might want to download an app whereby you can listen
on audio the reading of this song, especially in the New Living Translation or The
Message translation. You might do what I
did – get all teary eyed.
When hearing it, it’s a beautiful love song!
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