Song of Solomon 4:8-16
SS Lesson for 10/23/2011
Devotional Scripture: 1 Cor 13:1-13
The major outline of the lesson came from the NIV Standard Lesson Commentary. It examines Finding True Love. The study's aim is to learn that God shows us true love in the pages of the Bible. The study's application is to appreciate the fact that Solomon's experience of love pictures the way God loves us.
A Song to Remember
It’s happened to all of us. We hear a song on the radio or a jingle that goes with a TV commercial, and we just can’t get it out of our heads. The tune keeps coming back to the point of being a nuisance. At some point, however, the melody gets pushed aside, replaced by more pressing matters. The Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon as it is sometimes titled) has no melody to it. All we have are the words recorded in Scripture. The problem with this song, though, is not keeping it out of our minds, but getting it into our minds and giving proper attention to its message.
Because of the rather frank language within the book, Christians in many cases have avoided close study of it, and the church has been hesitant to teach or preach from it. One congregation’s preacher decided he would prepare a series of messages from this book. He wanted the announcement in the bulletin to read, “Pray that God will help us to treat this book in a sacred manner.” But a “typo” occurred (one of those that the spell-checker can’t catch), and the announcement came out, “Pray that God will help us to treat this book in a scared manner.” The Song of Songs is indeed a part of sacred Scripture. And there is nothing to be scared of. A close look at the Song’s contents will reveal that its message is desperately needed today.
Lesson Background
The Hebrew title “Song of Songs” identifies this song as the best or most outstanding song composed by Solomon. Since Solomon wrote 1,005 songs (1 Kings 4:32), to call this the “Song of Songs” is quite a commendation! The theme of this book is the very special bond, designed by God, that exists in marriage between a man and a woman, particularly in the area of physical intimacy. Some interpreters have attempted to “spiritualize” the book’s message, suggesting that the book is meant to portray God’s love for his people and thus Christ’s love for his bride, the church. There may be some applications of that kind that are warranted; whether these comprise the primary purpose of the book is subject to question. The greatest benefit from the Song of Songs will be gained when Christians (particularly Christian couples) allow it to speak concerning that sacred relationship that God in his wisdom created a husband and wife to enjoy. The authorship by Solomon, whose name appears several times in the book, may spark the question of how someone infamous for his 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3) could know anything about genuine love. The answer depends in large part on one’s interpretation of what is happening within the Song. Commentators differ as to how many main characters are presented in the book. Some believe there are two: Solomon and the Shulammite maiden (Song of Songs 6:13). Others suggest three: Solomon, the Shulammite maiden, and a young man (a shepherd) from whom Solomon is trying to woo the Shulammite so that she may become part of his harem. Under this second viewpoint, the Shulammite refuses Solomon’s offer and chooses to give her devotion to the man she knows she loves. This “three-character view” is the position that will be reflected in the comments on today’s Scripture text. In many editions of the Song of Songs, the reader will find headings throughout the text that designate a certain individual or individuals as speaking. Usually there are three such parties: the “beloved” (the woman), the “lover” (the shepherd whom she loves, in keeping with the suggested interpretation above), and a group of “friends” who may be viewed as members of Solomon’s court. We should keep in mind that such headings are not part of the original Hebrew text. They simply reflect efforts on the part of translators or editors to identify a specific speaker or speakers. In truth, it is sometimes hard to know when one speaker’s words end and another’s begin.
From the beginning this book was included in the Hebrew canon of Scripture, and it was commonly sung at Jewish wedding feasts. But because of its celebration of physical love and its use of metaphors that seem extravagant to the Western mind, Christians have been reluctant to interpret it in a natural way. Some have allegorized the book, avoiding the literal meaning and applying it to the relationship between Christ and the church. Others have seen it as a series of types or as a poetic drama. It seems best to take the Song of Solomon in its natural sense. As Job explores the meaning of suffering and Ecclesiastes the meaning of life, so this book explores the meaning of love between male and female as created by God. Far from being lewd or immoral, it glorifies the God-given love of husband and wife. It also can illustrate Christ's greater love for His bride, the church. This week we look at Solomon's view on tradition and love as we open one of the most beautiful love poems ever written. Love is greatly misunderstood today. What we see on television has corrupted our thinking about what true love ought to be. Solomon was blatantly honest about the physical side of married love. God is the Giver of all good gifts. Love within the bounds of marriage is something beautiful that God Himself has created for us to enjoy. Although some of the content might seem strong, God is teaching us about the sanctity of love and sex within the marriage bond.
(Scriptural Text from the New King James Version; cross-references from the NIV)
8 Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, With me from Lebanon. Look from the top of Amana, From the top of Senir and Hermon, From the lions' dens, From the mountains of the leopards.
9 You have ravished my heart, My sister, my spouse; You have ravished my heart With one look of your eyes, With one link of your necklace.
22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
28 But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.
18 The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.
7 What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?
55 I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit. 56 You heard my plea: "Do not close your ears to my cry for relief." 57 You came near when I called you, and you said, "Do not fear."
13 Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
6 The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.
7 My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
39 I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them.
3 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. 3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.
23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
10 How fair is your love, My sister, my spouse! How much better than wine is your love, And the scent of your perfumes Than all spices!
11 Your lips, O my spouse, Drip as the honeycomb; Honey and milk are under your tongue; And the fragrance of your garments Is like the fragrance of Lebanon.
12 A garden enclosed Is my sister, my spouse, A spring shut up, A fountain sealed.
13 Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates With pleasant fruits, Fragrant henna with spikenard,
14 Spikenard and saffron, Calamus and cinnamon, With all trees of frankincense, Myrrh and aloes, With all the chief spices —
15 A fountain of gardens, A well of living waters, And streams from Lebanon. The Shulamite
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved.
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless
5 and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,
5 The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
25 for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?
In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. 25 "Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. 26 In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. 27 No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.
20 This is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah, doing what was good and right and faithful before the Lord his God. 21 In everything that he undertook in the service of God's temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered.
19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, 20 and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you — even Jesus. 21 He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.
7 "Let us go to his dwelling place; let us worship at his footstool — 8 arise, O Lord, and come to your resting place, you and the ark of your might.
25 I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint."
16 Awake, O north wind, And come, O south! Blow upon my garden, That its spices may flow out. Let my beloved come to his garden And eat its pleasant fruits.
21 Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
9 However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him"—
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession — to the praise of his glory.
5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites."
1 Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, 22 set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs — heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory
The topic of sex seems to move toward extremes. On the one hand, certain sectors of today’s culture glorify sex to the point of making it a god. Sexual themes permeate television and movies, and very seldom is sex portrayed in the way God intended. A Christian perspective on sex is ridiculed as out of touch and restrictive to personal freedom. On the other hand (often Christian circles), the subject of sex is avoided out of embarrassment. As a result, young people who have legitimate questions about their bodies and emotions go to the secular world for insights after finding the church ill-equipped or unwilling to address such matters. The outcome is that often Christian relationships, marriages, and homes end up looking like their secular counterparts. An important means of witnessing to the world is therefore lost. Consider that today’s lesson is part of a quarter of studies that is dedicated to the theme of wisdom. In Proverbs 1:20, wisdom is described as proclaiming her voice “aloud in the street... in the public squares.” Biblical wisdom is clearly not something restricted to men and women of great learning, locked inside their hallowed halls of ivy. Wisdom is “street smart”! The Song of Songs, as part of the Old Testament’s “wisdom literature,” fits perfectly with this perspective on wisdom. Biblical wisdom is not just for the “religious” setting; it is for the workroom, the classroom, and, says the Song of Songs, the bedroom. In fact, all “rooms” of our lives (the bedroom included) are meant to reflect God’s wisdom and in that way to be sanctuaries just as much as the places where we worship on Sunday.
The Scriptural text uses images of creation to celebrate one of God's greatest gifts: the gift of marital love. Although commentators differ on the precise details, the text is probably part of a poem that begins in Song of Solomon 4:1 and ends in 5:1. The poem is set as a dialogue between a young man and his wife. Context, as well as Hebrew grammar, usually makes it possible to determine whether the man or the woman is speaking. Here it is clear that the man speaks in Song of Solomon 4:8-15 and the woman responds in verse 16. Solomon's poem gives us vivid images of the beauties of God's creation. In particular, the text uses images from a beautiful garden. There are the tastes of milk, honey, fresh water, and pomegranates and the smells of spikenard, saffron, and cinnamon. These images do more than remind us of the beauty of God's creation, however. They are used as symbols for the mutual love of husband and wife. For the husband, his wife is as beautiful to him as all of these wonders in God's creation. The husband does not just refer to his wife as a garden, however. He also describes her as an enclosed garden (Song of Sol. 4:12). Similarly, he describes her as a spring that is "shut up" and a "sealed" fountain. However we take these images, it seems clear that he is waiting for his wife to respond to his affection with her own words of love. The garden is locked until she decides to open it up. In our text, the woman gives her response: the garden is no longer locked, and the man is invited to come in. In other words, she accepts his invitations. The woman refers to the garden as "his garden" and the fruits of the garden as "his" fruits as an expression of their marital bond. Her choice of language expresses the same truth found in Song of Solomon 6:3: "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine." The beauty of marriage is celebrated throughout the Bible. Marriage was first instituted in the Garden of Eden. There the intimacy of marriage is expressed by referring to the union of husband and wife as the two becoming "one flesh" (Gen. 2:24). In the New Testament, the author of Hebrews reminded us that the marriage bed is pure (13:4). The Song of Solomon should not be read so allegorically that the literal meaning is disregarded. The book is written to express the real love of a real husband and wife. Still, marriage, like all of God's good gifts, points us to God's ultimate gift of salvation. It is no wonder, then, that the Bible often compares our relationship with Christ to a marriage. In the Old Testament, Hosea compares the love of God for Israel to a faithful husband's continuing love for his wife, despite her marital infidelity. In the New Testament, husbands are exhorted to love their wives in the same way that Christ has loved the church (Eph. 5:25). In the book of Revelation, we see a vision of the last day, when the church will be presented to Christ like a "bride adorned for her husband" (21:2). We thank God for the gifts of marriage, the most intimate of all human relationships, and we also look beyond it to Christ, our true, eternal Husband. We eagerly await the day when we will be together with Him forever.
1. Love deserves beautiful language (Song of Sol. 4:8)
2. Passion pervades Christian love (vs. 9)
3. The love spoken of here is not carnal or casual; it is the unique intimacy of a husband and wife (vs. 10)
4. Though the world cheapens physical experiences, Christians should not hesitate to delight in the wonders of their spouses (vs. 10-11)
5. To this day, purity continues to be praiseworthy (vs. 12-15)
6. Once committed in marriage, a couple should eagerly embrace their intimacy (vs. 16)
The Song of Solomon is a difficult book to interpret. The very figurative Hebrew poetry is a challenge for any reader; so too is the overall message of the book. Many have taken it to be allegorical, describing God's love for Israel or Christ's love for the church. However, a normal and more literal understanding is the simplest and best way to approach this unusual book. Given this approach to its interpretation, the book describes the relationship between King Solomon and his bride, in this case the Shulamite woman (Song of Sol. 6:13). Both the man and the woman speak. The book thus describes human love and extols it within the bounds of marriage. As such, it presents for us an example of the kind of beautiful, satisfying relationship that should characterize every Christian marriage.
For the first time in the book, the woman is called Solomon's "spouse," indicating that the two are now married. "Come with me" are the words of the groom and express his desire to always have his bride with him. He calls her to leave behind her home to the north and be with him. To the king, his bride is beautiful (cf. Song of Sol. 4:1-7). He is utterly enchanted with her. She has stolen his heart with a single glance (vs. 9). Even the sight of jewelry around her neck is enough to thrill the groom. Solomon refers to his wife as "sister" several times in this passage. It was a term of endearment. The king goes on to describe the woman's love, lips, and smell in poetic terms. This was not mere poetry, however. It was Solomon's heartfelt expression as he considered the beauty of his bride.
It was not merely his wife's beauty that made her so attractive to Solomon. After all, beauty is a fleeting and external quality. Solomon was just as enthralled with her purity. The king compared his spouse to an enclosed garden with a spring bubbling up water within its parameters. The figure suggests that she was set aside for Solomon alone and was inaccessible to anyone else. Her purity had been preserved for her husband, and the king praises her for this. The garden metaphor continues in Song of Solomon 4:13-14. Here the king focuses on the plants of the garden, which produce "pleasant fruits" and spices. Again, the enclosed garden indicates that the rewards of marriage are reserved only for the bride and groom. Purity is a missing element in many relationships today. Yet centuries ago, Solomon himself knew the agony of adultery and the sad consequences of polygamy. Perhaps this made him appreciate even more the genuine purity of his Shulamite bride. The love of a husband and wife brings great and lasting joy—but only when the purity of that relationship is zealously guarded.
This chapter ends with an invitation from the bride for her husband to enter and enjoy her "garden." Her desire is to be with him, just as his desire is to be with her. Our desire should be for Christ, since His desire for us caused Him to give His very life for our salvation. Paul wrote, "For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ" (2 Cor. 11:2).