For the month of March, if God wills it, I will be reading, studying, and sharing some observations from The Song of Solomon, utilizing text found in The King James Version (KJV) of The Holy Bible, God’s Sovereign Word. Any errors and omissions are on my part, and not this infallible text.
“The song of songs, which is Solomon's. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine. Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee. Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee. I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon. Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother's children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept. Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions? If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents. I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots. Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold. We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver. While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof. A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts. My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi. Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes. Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green. The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of fir.”
-Song Of Solomon 1 (KJV)
“The song of songs.” This great song, or collection of poetic songs, is unique in the Bible. If the Song of Solomon was not in our Bible and we were to discover it as an ancient document from the time of Solomon, it is unlikely that we would include it in the collection of Old Testament books.
"If a manuscript of this little book were found alone, detached from the biblical context and tradition, it undoubtedly would be viewed as secular. The book has no obvious religious content."
-J. Kinlaw
It seems that Bible translators cannot even agree on a name for the book. Some call it "Song of Solomon," some "Song of Songs," some even use the Latin word for songs, calling it "Canticles."
No matter what one calls this book it has rightly been highly praised, even by those who have interpreted it in somewhat allegorical and speculative ways.
"The entire history of the world from it beginning to this very day does not outshine that day on which this book was given to Israel. All the Scriptures, indeed, are holy; but the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies."
-Rabbi Aqiba
Charles Spurgeon preached 59 sermons on this book (in Victorian England) and Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) preached 86 sermons on chapters one and two alone.
“The song of songs.” Many different interpretive approaches have been used in understanding this great song.
Some avoid this book altogether. Origen (c.185-c.254), an important teacher in the early church, said of the Song of Solomon: "I advise and counsel everyone who is not yet rid of vexations of the flesh and blood, and has not ceased to feel the passions of this bodily nature, to refrain from reading the book and the things that will be said about it." Origen apparently felt he was prepared to study Song of Solomon because he castrated himself when he was a young man.
Others embrace this book with great devotion, but see it primarily as an allegory describing the love relationship between God and His people, not between a husband and wife. "The early Jewish rabbis taught that the book pictures God's love for Israel. Early Christian writers took the same approach, but they replaced Israel with the Church. One writer in the third century wrote a ten-volume commentary on Song of Solomon, telling how the book describes God's love for Christians. (Estes)
"The chief speakers are not Solomon and the Shulamite, but Christ and his Church."
-V. Trapp
Others see this book primarily as a drama dealing with three characters; Solomon, a simple country shepherd, and the young maiden. The idea is that Solomon one day traveled through his kingdom and saw the young maiden and was captivated by her beauty. Though she was betrothed to the simple shepherd, Solomon brought her back to his palace and tried to win her affection with all lavish gifts and loving words. Though her resolve wavered, just before she gave into Solomon's attention and affection, she fled his palace and went back to her simple shepherd, her true love.
The best way to see this book is as a literal, powerful description of the romantic and sensual love between a man and a woman, observing both their courtship and their marriage. It does not give us a smooth chronological story, beginning with the introduction of the couple to one another and ending with their married life together. Instead, it is a collection of "snapshots" of their courting and married life, with the pictures not necessarily in order.
Yet, because God deliberately uses the marriage relationship as an illustration of the relationship that He has with His people, we find that this great “song of songs” illustrates the love, the intensity, and the beauty of relationship that should exist between God and the believer. This is clearly a secondary meaning, sublimated to the plain literal meaning, yet nevertheless valid and important.
"There are those who treat this Book as a song of human love. There are those who consider its only value is that of its mystical suggestiveness. Personally, I believe that both values are here."
-K. Morgan
“The song of songs.” The fact that this "greatest of all songs" focuses on romance and marital love shows us what a high regard God has for the institution of marriage. We might expect that the “songs of songs” be a song that only praises God instead of one that celebrates love and sensuality within marriage.
This is decidedly contrary to the negative view towards marriage that came early in the history of the church. In 325 at the Council of Nicea, a proposal was made to prohibit all clergy from living as married; but the Council did not approve the proposal. In 386 Pope Siricius commanded that all priests live as celibates, and later this order was extended to include deacons in the church. In this period, many people who were ordained as priests were already married. Leo the Great (440-461), out of concern for these wives, did not allow priests to put their wives away but commanded that the priest and his wife live together as brother and sister - that is, without any sexual relationship. This led to the rule that a married man could not be ordained as a priest unless he and his wife took a vow that they would live as celibate, and then led to the refusal to ordain anyone who was or had been married.
This idea that the truly spiritual cannot or should not be married and enjoy sexual love is not based in the Old Testament. The Old Testament has no word for a bachelor; in Old Testament thinking, there were to be none. Every patriarch was married, all priests were married, and as far as we know every prophet was married except for Jeremiah, who was uniquely commanded by God not to marry:
“Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place.”
-Jeremiah 16:2 (KJV)
Since the office of high priest was hereditary, the high priest had to marry, showing that only a married man could experience this most intimate closeness and communion with God as the high priest did by entering the Most Holy Place on the Day of Atonement.
As well, the idea that the truly spiritual cannot or should not be married and enjoy sexual love is not based in the New Testament. In the New Testament, Jesus reaffirmed the value of marriage in The Book of Matthew when the religious leaders came to Him with a question about divorce:
“The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.”
-Matthew 19:3-9 (KJV)
The Book of Hebrews tells us:
“Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.”
-Hebrews 13:4 (KJV)
Paul told us that it was desirable for elders and church leaders to be married in the following scripture:
“One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity.”
-1 Timothy 3:4 (KJV)
“If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre.”
-Titus 1:6-7 (KJV)
Jesus began His ministry by blessing a wedding:
“He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.”
-John 3:29-30 (KJV)
The final step in man's relationship and fellowship with God is pictured as a wedding feast:
“And He saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And He saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.”
-Revelation 19:9 (KJV)
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