Memory Verse(s)
Song of Solomon 8:6-7
(6) Set me as a seal upon your heart, As a seal upon your arm; For love is as strong as death, Jealousy as cruel as the grave; Its flames are flames of fire, A most vehement flame.
(7) Many waters cannot quench love, Nor can the floods drown it. If a man would give for love All the wealth of his house, It would be utterly despised.
Overview|Background
The Song of Solomon is a lyric poem written to extol the virtues of love between a husband and his wife. The poem clearly presents marriage as God’s design. A man and woman are to live together within the context of marriage, loving each other spiritually, emotionally, and physically.
This book combats two extremes: asceticism (the denial of all pleasure) and hedonism (the pursuit of only pleasure). The marriage profiled in Song of Solomon is a model of care, commitment, and delight.
Key Passage(s)
Song of Solomon 2:8-17
(8) The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes Leaping upon the mountains, Skipping upon the hills.
(9) My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, he stands behind our wall; He is looking through the windows, Gazing through the lattice.
(10) My beloved spoke, and said to me: “Rise up, my love, my fair one, And come away.
(11) For lo, the winter is past, The rain is over and gone.
(12) The flowers appear on the earth; The time of singing has come, And the voice of the turtledove Is heard in our land.
(13) The fig tree puts forth her green figs, And the vines with the tender grapes Give a good smell. Rise up, my love, my fair one, And come away!
(14) “O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, In the secret places of the cliff, Let me see your face, Let me hear your voice; For your voice is sweet, And your face is lovely.”
(15) Catch us the foxes, The little foxes that spoil the vines, For our vines have tender grapes.
(16) My beloved is mine, and I am his. He feeds his flock among the lilies.
(17) Until the day breaks And the shadows flee away, Turn, my beloved, And be like a gazelle Or a young stag Upon the mountains of Bether.
Key Facts
Authorship & Time Period
Song of Solomon takes its title from the first verse of the book, which mentions who the song comes from: “The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s” (Song of Solomon 1:1). The original Hebrew version of the book took its title from the book’s first two words, shiyr hashiyrim, usually translated as “the song of songs.” This latter title remained in Greek and Latin Bible translations in later centuries. The repetition of the word song indicates that the writer considered this “the greatest of all songs.”1 We find a similar construction in other famous biblical phrases: Lord of Lords, King of Kings, and Holy of Holies, to name a few.
The title of the book eventually took on King Solomon’s name because of the mention of his name throughout the book (1:5; 3:7, 9, 11; 8:11–12). This title change also supports the traditional view of Solomon as the author of the book. While numerous critics in the last two centuries have disputed Solomon’s authorship, the internal evidence seems to support it, not only because of the appearances of Solomon’s name but because of evidence of his royal advantage (3:6–11) and his numerous wives and concubines (6:8).
Solomon wrote the book during his reign as king of Israel, meaning he composed it sometime between 971 and 931 BC. Scholars who hold to Solomon’s authorship tend to agree that the song was written early in his reign, not merely because of the youthful exuberance of the poetry but because his harem of 140 women, mentioned in 6:8, is relatively low in number compared to the final tally of 1,000 (1 Kings 11:3). Also, the author mentioned place names from both the north and the south of the country, including Lebanon and Egypt, reminding us of the relative peace and good relations among these nations early in Solomon’s reign.
Type of literature
Poetry
Characters
MAJOR CHARACTERS: Bride and Bridegroom (Solomon?)
KEY MINOR CHARACTERS: The bride’s friends, the city watchman.
The Story
Summary
The poetry takes the form of a dialogue between a husband (the king) and his wife (the Shulamite). We can divide the book into three sections: the courtship (1:1 – 3:5); the wedding (3:6 – 5:1); and the maturing marriage (5:2 – 8:14).
The song begins before the wedding, as the bride-to-be longs to be with her betrothed, and she looks forward to his intimate caresses. However, she advises letting love develop naturally, in its own time. The king praises the Shulamite’s beauty, overcoming her feelings of insecurity about her appearance. The Shulamite has a dream in which she loses Solomon and searches throughout the city for him. With the help of the city guards, she finds her beloved and clings to him, taking him to a safe place. Upon waking, she repeats her injunction not to force love.
On the wedding night, the husband again praises the beauty of his wife, and in highly symbolic language, the wife invites her spouse to partake of all she has to offer. They make love, and God blesses their union.
As the marriage matures, the husband and wife go through a difficult time, symbolized in another dream. In this second dream, the Shulamite rebuffs her husband, and he leaves. Overcome with guilt, she searches the city for him; but this time, instead of helping her, the guards beat her—symbolic of her pained conscience. Things end happily as the lovers reunite and are reconciled.
As the song ends, both the husband and wife are confident and secure in their love, they sing of the lasting nature of true love, and they yearn to be in each other’s presence.
Major Events
- This book is not narrative, and as such, does not have “events”
Themes
- The excitement of physical attraction
- The joy of human sexuality
Outline of Song of Songs
- Title (1:1)
- The First Meeting (1:2;2:7)
- The Second Meeting (2:8;3:5)
- The Third Meeting (3:6;5:1)
- The Fourth Meeting (5:2;6:3)
- The Fifth Meeting (6:4;8:4)
- The Literary Climax (8:5-7)
- The Conclusion (8:8-14)
Where Do We See Christ?
Jesus is called both “the bridegroom” (John 3:29) and our “one husband” (2 Cor. 11:2). His kingdom and consummation is like “a wedding feast” (Matt. 22:2; cf. Rev. 19:9). Read in light of Jesus, the Song, like all Scripture, makes us “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15). That is, it reveals to us something of how the “mystery” of marriage (Eph. 5:32) relates to “the mystery of the gospel” itself (Eph. 6:19). For marriage is itself an institution that displays the gospel of grace (Eph. 5:22–33).
Point of Application
How can we apply this to our lives today?
From courtship to marriage to the assurance of love, Song of Solomon poetically presents a broad range of events and feelings in the days leading up to and during marriage, offering encouragement toward an enduring love amid the petty jealousies and fears sure to threaten even the strongest of relationships. We should heed the Song’s sublime words by continuing to value marriage as one of the bedrocks of society, appreciating the goodness and the beauty borne out of the union of two people in holy matrimony.
Song of Solomon reminds us that both marriage and the physical union that follows originate in God; we should therefore consider each of them as evidence of His grace working itself out in the world.
Discussion Questions
Would you consider your marriage a sign of God’s goodness and beauty working in your life, or has it become something less than that over time?
Closing Prayer
We thank you that you have given us marriage as physical and spiritual blessing and a picture of Christ’s love for the Church. May we strive to be blameless when He returns for His Bride.
Current Prayer Requests:
Doc – renewed vigor to join us on Saturdays
Richard Brooks – faith and courage during the next stage of his journey in Christ
Andrew McKinney – employment provision
Bob & Gaynelle – mother’s hospitalization (from Mike Arras)
Julia (Arras) – health
Jim Allen, friend of Daryl, heart issue, VLAP operation
Jim Sachs – job situation, improvement, wisdom for interaction with leadership
Daryl’s employee Tara – ill (possible tumor) in Cambodia
Daryl’s Son Jonathan and Wife Lizz – spiritual renewal
Tom and Jeanice – Divine Healing and Peace in their spirit
Becky and Lee Davidson, health and healing
Jim & Melissa, father-in-law’s heart condition and spiritual health, marital closeness
Mike Arras’ daughter, mental and spiritual health
Mike Arras’ son, Trevor – employment
Mike Allen – sister Adele and brother
Joe & Deb – continued prayers for Deb’s Dad
Brian – Job situation
Ryan – Interview, new job opportunity
Additional Content
FOR GREATER HISTORICAL UNDERSTANDING: LOVE POETRY IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
Poems like Song of Songs existed in Sumeria and Ugarit before Solomon’s times.2 But the closest parallels are from Egypt. These texts date from c. 1300 BC. They use much of the same imagery, though they are often more graphic in their discussion of erotic love than Song of Songs.
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