Solomon has given us one of the truly great and inspiring songs in the Bible. While the interpretation of this song is hotly contested, It seems that there are two clear meanings intended: First, it is a song praising marital love between two real people. Second, it is also a picture of Christ’s love for His church. 

Well, open your Bibles to the Song of Solomon. This book is very, very difficult to interpret. This is acknowledged by commentators throughout the ages. It's a book that lends itself to various excesses of interpretation, strange ideas, lots of importations of personal opinions about how one thing connects to another, and so it is a difficult book. The theme of this book is Marital Love.

It is Marital Love, which is also a picture of Christ's love for the church. And Solomon, in this testimony, has given us one of the most inspiring songs in the Bible, even though the interpretation of it is hotly contested. The poetry is beautiful, the imagery, the analogies are remarkable. My understanding is that there are two aspects of this song. First of all, it's a parable of marital love between two real people who lived in a real place that is described with the various features that we find communicated in the song, but it is also a picture of Christ's love for his church.

It's hard to escape the proposition that this is a book about human love. You have a king, you have the son of David, the king of Israel, Solomon, who is in a relationship with the Shulamite woman. That's the heart of the matter. We should be reminded that this book is in the Bible. It has been accepted into the canon, and it is written for our edification.

It's not a book that we should ignore. It may be difficult for us to apply, but we should try to apply it. It's designed for our sanctification. It's designed for married people. It's designed for unmarried people.

It's designed for children. And it explains various aspects of the way that love works in the human heart. This is a book that's inspired by the Holy Spirit, and I think it would be a mistake for people in the church, regardless of their marital status, to dismiss this book, but would rather, you know, seek to see how it might be understood under the illumination of the Holy Spirit. I think it's a book that a person should read slowly and try to understand it. I think it's also a book that you might not understand every detail of the imagery.

At least that's how I respond when I see it. Some of it seems to be plain, other parts of it I'm not sure what it means. It is a book about love, it's a book about marriage, and marriage is a central matter in the kingdom of God, and it is a central matter in the kingdom of this world. The Bible makes it very clear that marriage is about Christ and his love for his bride. And this is why the whole idea of the love between a man and a woman is being so viciously attacked today, and that the idea of a marriage of a man to a man or a woman to a woman is even being proposed.

But I think we should be very clear, marriage can never be between a man and a man or a woman and a woman. Only God can define marriage. These things that are called marriages are not marriages at all. This discussion about marriage is not about marriage at all, and so we don't want to sanctify those who hate God in the way that he has explained marriage by flattering them and acting as if they're really talking about marriage. But in this book, which is composed of 117 verses, You see a description of a couple's love.

To some it portrays some of the days before marriage and then the consummation of marriage and then their days after. Some say that the beginning of the book is a description of their courtship, and then their marriage takes place at different times according to different people. I'm not sure if there is a courtship here. It's possible that there is. It could be that this is really a description about the things that happen in the midst of marital love.

There are a couple of places in the book where it seems like there could be a wedding, but I'm not confident in it, particularly when you are weighing the figurative language that's here. Many things can be taken different ways. At the bottom, most literal level, a country girl finds herself smitten by a king, and that king is smitten by her. And there's a growing intensity of desire in both of them. The setting is a farming setting.

And there seems to be no sexual intimacy until the right time. And you see this language of the right time or before the time in chapter 2, verse 7 and also in chapter 8, but I'm not sure of the timeline here. Others are more confident in the timeline. Read it for yourself and Ask yourself, when do these things happen? Is it the awakening of love and then a courtship and then a marriage and then the things that happen after marriage?

I think that there's a case that can be made for that. But I'm not sure. So this is a story about a couple's love. Secondly, it's representative of Christ's love for the church in the form of a parable which really is a story of two real people. And I think that we should interpret the Song of Solomon out of the foundational concepts that you find in Ephesians 5, 22 to 33, where you find a disclosure of Christ's love for his church.

He desires his church. He has affection for his church. He takes care of his church and the church also responds. The church gladly enters into the relationship and the church delights in Him and delights to do His will. She desires to follow Him and become a disciple.

In one sense, it's a picture of true conversion, where there must be love from the husband and reciprocal love from the wife in the same way that no one really comes to Christ without a true affection and love for him. I think we should acknowledge the graphic nature of this book. Most readers are embarrassed when they read this book. Reading the book in mixed company can have its challenges. Because of these explicit expressions of physical love, words that could have double, triple meanings.

The language that's used can set your mind running in all kinds of different directions, as has been the case of many authors who write about this book. Of course, the author is Solomon. Solomon may be one of the very worst people to talk about marriage. You wouldn't want to necessarily go to Solomon for marriage advice, particularly earlier on in his life. He had 700 wives, 300 concubines, you know, He was pursuing every manner of pleasure.

He experienced a period of downfall that had devastating consequences in his life. I suggest that this had to have been written after his time of apostasy and repentance, and he sees things more clearly here. And there's a lesson here for all, And that is that the Lord has a way of making use of people who've fallen into sin. And you can sing a new song. You can see things differently.

We see many examples of this in the Bible. Maybe one of the most prominent is the Apostle Paul himself. He was a persecutor of the church. Paul was a murderer and he did shameful things and yet God rescued him and put him into service. Paul was astonished that God would put him into service in light of the things that he had done in his past.

And here we find Solomon who had violated the principles of marriage that we find in the Bible on almost every front. And now he's writing a book about marriage. Well, again, I think that this should come to encourage us that God can rescue, that he can put a new song in your heart, that he can give you a usefulness that you may think has completely been destroyed. This is a song, I think we should recognize that the genre of this literature, well, it's a song, it's also poetry, It's beautiful poetry, but it's a song that was meant to be sung. There are many songs in the Bible.

The song of Deborah, the song of Moses. You have the song of Mary, and this is a very beautiful song. In fact, it's called the Song of Songs. That title of this song really bears witness to the excellence of it in the same way that you find this same construction in phrases like king of kings, or holy of holies, or lord of lords. This kind of language emphasizes the importance of it.

So the Song of Songs is as if to say this is a supremely important song in the same way that the King of kings and the Lord of lords indicates that God as King is worthy to receive emphasis. The time of writing, perhaps between 971 and 965 BC, We're not exactly sure. There are different clues in the book. I don't know how we can tie it down to a year. I don't believe we can.

Let's talk about interpreting the Song of Solomon. This is perhaps the most foundational question. How do you approach the book? Franz Delich, the Old Testament commentator, said this about the book, "'The Song' is the most obscure book in the Old Testament." How about that? He continues, "'Whatever principle of interpretation one may adopt, there always remains a number of inexplicable passages, and as such, if we understood them, would help us to solve the mystery.

And yet, the interpretation of the book presupposes from the beginning that the interpreter has mastered the idea of the whole. It has thus become an ungrateful task for however successful the interpreter may be in the separate parts. Yet, he will be thanked for his work only when the conception as a whole, which he has decided upon, is approved." In other words, it's dangerous to make a comment about this because there are a lot of people out there who are not going to approve of your interpretation and that will be true of the interpretation that I take. I'm going to identify three primary methods of interpretation. The first is the literal interpretation where the song is interpreted to be an instructional for husbands and wives.

Henry Morris says this, poem describing the love of young Solomon and the Shulamite maiden who became his first bride. There's nothing unseemly, of course, about the book of the Bible depicting the beauties of pure courtship and marital love. The union of male and female in holy matrimony is intrinsic to the creation itself. In this sense, the narrative of the song can be considered as an idyllic picture of courtship and marriage that might apply with varying details to all true love and marriage as ordained by God." This is Henry Morris in the Defenders Study Bible, which is online. John MacArthur comes to it similarly, but maybe with a little bit different twist.

He says, it is best understood when we take it at face value like any other text of Scripture. Many interpreters whom I otherwise hold in high esteem, including Spurgeon and most of the Puritans, have unfortunately done more to confuse than clarify the song's message by treating it in a purely allegorical fashion that eliminates its primary meaning. Solomon's song is a love poem between Solomon and his bride celebrating their mutual love for one another, including the delights of the marriage bed. To interpret this or any other portion of Scripture in a purely allegorical fashion is to treat the interpreter's own imagination as more authoritative than the plain meaning of the text. However, those who pretend to know the meanings of poetic symbols that are not clearly identifiable from the text itself commit the very same error.

Their speculation is likely a way of exalting their own imaginations to a higher level of authority than the plain sense of the text. MacArthur has identified a difficulty that we need to acknowledge in interpreting this book. And what he's saying is if you take a purely allegorical approach, then you have to make up the connections yourself, and you have to attribute them to things. And some of the allegorists have seemingly lost their minds in their allegorization of this book. So let's turn to the radical allegorists.

Bernard of Clairvaux is one of them. He delivered 86 sermons and he didn't even get to chapter 2. His elaborations were so remarkable where every single detail had meaning regarding Christ and the Church. In his understanding, it had nothing to do with any kind of human love. The Puritans, most of them, held this allegorical view.

Samuel Rutherford, James Durham, and many others used the Song of Solomon as an absolute allegory. Richard Cameron, during the killing times in Scotland, preached on the Song of Solomon, and connecting these troubled times that the church was in to their need for this Savior, this loving husband of Jesus Christ for them. The allegorical approach has been very, very popular in the past. You know, there are, here are a couple of examples. In chapter 1 verse 3, There's language of the two breasts.

And these are thought to be the two cherubim, you know, in the temple. In seven to, you know, you have the wine that fills the navel is the cup of the Lord's Supper. So you just have to make this stuff up if you're going to be, you know, a faithful allegorist and whatever comes out of your mind, out of your creative, imaginative connection making, finally becomes the authoritative view. And I would just caution us from a purely allegorical approach to the book and to recognize if we're going to make these allegories, then we should ask ourselves, is it legitimate for us to do it? Can we make up the connections or not?

There's a view that I'm going to call the literal and typological view, which would say that it's a literal story of Solomon's marriage that also acts as a type of Christ and his church. It doesn't look for every detail as an allegory, but that this is a song between two people celebrating the gift of romance and physical affection and that does point to Christ's love for his church so that whenever you're celebrating marital love you're celebrating the love of Christ for his church. It's a parable, not an allegory. It's more like a type. For example, in the Geneva Bible introduction, it's proposed that the voice of speaking is the voice of the church speaking to Christ, her Savior.

It's a cry of longing for closer communion with Christ our husband. Now I want to grant that there's an element of truth to that in this because you can't talk about marriage without also talking about Christ's love for his church. You see lots of imagery of redemption here. The story begins in a garden and ends in a city, And in the same way, you know, so does all of redemptive history. It begins in the Garden.

And then there are days of separation, and then finally, a consummation in the heavenly city. Key verses, as you can see in your outline, chapter 1, verses 2 through 4, chapter 2, 1 and 2, chapter 2, verse 16, chapter 3, 1 through 5, chapter 4, 16 through 5, 1, chapter 5, verse 2 through 7, and then chapter 8 seems to be a conclusion to the whole book. Let's talk about who is speaking because you'll find this to be a dialogue. Interestingly enough, you know, it being a song, you have lots of singers in the song. And of course you have the Shulamite woman, you have King Solomon himself, you have the friends of the Shulamite, you have God, you have the Shulamites brothers, you have the daughters of Jerusalem.

So there are various characters that are in the book. Let's talk about Christ in the Song of Solomon. Again, with the interpretive grid that I'm using, you do have a physical, real relationship between two human beings, but at the same time I do believe it's legitimate to say that the husband in the song is the Lord Jesus Christ and he has love for his bride and his bride, the church, is responsive to him. So you can see the outline here. I've broken this down into four different sections.

There are different ways you can break it down. I would encourage you to read the book with this outline in front of you to try to see the connections that are here. As you see, I have some language about weddings. I did that, even though I'm not confident these are weddings, it's possible they are, I put the language in there just so you can see where people would say a wedding happened. But there's disagreement about when this wedding and consummation happens.

So just understand that. Well, let's go into the book. Let's begin in chapter 1. In chapter 1, you have the awakening of love. And what you find here is that the king draws a response of love and desire and admiration.

And how does he do it? It's his character. And the song depicts this process that seems to end in total union, although at the same time, I'm just not sure of the timeline myself. Could it all just be one testimony of love if you suspend the timeline elements of it? Verse 1, you read the song of songs, which is Solomon's.

And then there's this banquet, and the Shulamite says this, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love is better than wine, because of the fragrance of your good ointments. Your name is ointment poured forth, therefore the virgins love you. Draw me away." Now, it opens with this appeal, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. So you have the Shulamite woman, she wants this man to kiss him, and you should ask, you know, what is it that makes this woman want to be kissed by this man? Or what would make any woman want to be kissed by a man?

And The language here points to the fact that it's not just his physical appearance. It's mostly his character. His love is better than wine. There is a way about him beyond the physical elements that she's attracted to. And there's also some confusing language too.

He says, therefore the virgins love you, draw me away. And that should help us to ask, Is this simply a song about the love between one man and one woman? Because now you have these virgins. The virgins also have admiration for this man. So what's happening here?

Is this the beginning of polygamy? Because there are others who love this man as well. But there are different ways to look at this. One way is to interpret this phrase, therefore the virgins love you, draw me away, to mean that there are others who are thinking how wonderful it would be to be married to a man like that. Wouldn't it be wonderful?

And you know, perhaps this is a picture of the church. This verse brings out one of the real problems in interpretation of this book. Once you decide one way or another, there are other things you have to explain, lots of things to explain. And the explanations of Marianette may not be satisfying to people, but I believe what this is, is it's a man who is lovable, and he's kissable by this woman, and because of his character, others look at that man and they had that same admiration for him in the same way that you know Christ's Church has admiration for their Savior. Jonathan Edwards wrote that the wife draws other men to love her husband.

And that's how it becomes a picture of Christ in the church. You know, there are different things that we could possibly consider in applying this. If you're a single young man, here's a question you should ask. Is my character such that a woman would want to kiss me? If you're married, do you have the character where your wife desires you?

Do our wives say, this is such a good man, I want him to kiss me? The problem is when a man's character is bad, it's a turn off. So I think there's an application for both single and married people here, and that is, is there the character in your life that would cause a woman to want to kiss you on the one hand? Then the daughters of Jerusalem speak, and they say, "'We will run after you.'" And then the Shulamite speaks, and she says, "'The king has brought me into his chambers. And then the daughters of Jerusalem speak in verse 3, we will be glad and rejoice in you.

We will remember your love more than wine." And then the Shulamite speaks and she says, I am dark but lovely. O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon, Do not look upon me because I am dark, because the sun has tanned me. My mother's sons were angry with me. They made me the keeper of the vineyards. But my own vineyard I have not kept." So here, the Shulamite woman is definitely in an agrarian society.

She's involved in farming, and she has an awful lot of work to do, so much that she's dark because she's been out in the sun. And she seems to be self-conscious about her darkness, perhaps her lack of beauty, and she's working very hard. You know, and is this a picture of Christ in the church? You have a woman who's being worked very hard, maybe she's being abused, you know, quote, my mother's sons were angry with me. And then she speaks to her beloved.

She says, tell me, oh you whom I love, where you feed your flock, where you make it rest at noon. For why should I be as the one who veils herself by the flocks of your companions." And then the king, the beloved, speaks and he says in verse 8, "'If you do not know, O fairest among women, follow in the footsteps of the flock, and feed your little goats beside the shepherd's tents. I have compared you, my love, to my filly among Pharaoh's chariots. Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with chains of gold." Now here we encounter this language that we find in a number of places in the song and that is the physical features of the Shulamite are compared to animals, plants, towers, you know, things like that. And what's that all about?

You'll see this later on, but here's an interpretive matter that I would just propose. He's Speaking of things that are of high value and beauty, I don't think he's saying, you know, you're like a horse. Except a horse does have particular beauty. They can be absolutely majestic in their strength and the lines that they possess. And then, you know, your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with chains of gold.

My view is that he's talking about value. He values her so much. Every part of her has value. That's the idea. And so don't get lost in some of the imagery.

The heart of the matter is she has qualities that are of great value and attraction to him. You know in verse 12 she says, well the King is at his table, my spikenard sends forth its fragrance." I mean, here's a woman who's making things better where he is, and she's providing fragrance while he's at his table. She's being a blessing to him. In verses 13 and 14, a bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me. That lies all night between my breasts.

My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blooms in the vineyards of En-Gedi. Is this literal? Is she talking about his being between her breasts? Possibly. But when you look at all the figurative language, you have to ask, which is literal and which is figurative?

And at least at minimum she loves to have him near her. After all, she's also like a horse. So what does this mean? It has to do with valuing a person. And I think the language that is used here indicates two people who have a great sense of value of the other person.

Verse 15, you are fair my love. Behold you are fair. You have doves eyes. Again, another figurative mechanism to help us understand something about her. So we get into chapter 2 and she says, I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys.

Now much has been made of this in terms of its allegorical interpretation. Then he says, "'Like a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.'" And then she speaks to the daughters of Jerusalem in verse 4 in chapter 2. He brought me to the banqueting house and his banner over me was love. You know, here again is a picture of love. He brings her into this banquet hall, and he loves her.

Everything about what he does when she comes into the banqueting hall breathes of his love for her. It's like a banner over her. And she says, sustain me with cakes of raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am lovesick. His left hand is under my head and his right hand embraces me. It's verses like verse 5 and 6 that make me think, You know, who knows when this marriage happened?

Who knows when the sexual intimacy occurred? It looks to me like it could happen here in 5 and 6. I don't know. But then in verse 7, She says, I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the doze of the field. Do not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.

Now you'll read this phrase, I believe, three times in the book. Don't awaken love until it pleases. In other words, don't awaken love until you're ready. She's counseling the daughters of Jerusalem in this way. She's talking about this remarkable attraction and love and value that she's having, and he to her.

But then she turns to the young maidens, to the single ones, and saying, don't stir this up until it's the time. That's an important principle. Don't stir it up until the time is right. And then in chapter 2, verses 8 through 17, the king visits her. Verse 8, she says, the voice of my beloved, behold he comes leaping on the mountains, skipping upon the hills.

My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, he stands behind our wall. He's looking through the windows, gazing through the lattice. She senses his attraction to her. He's excited to be with her.

She knows it. She understands the joy that he has. And, you know, this is something that if we're interpreting this as a matter of marital love, every husband has a responsibility to let his wife know that he desires her. When he's coming home, he's coming home. He's charging home.

He's leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. He's happy to be there. That's the whole idea. And then her brothers speak in verse 15, catch us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes. Now, what does this mean, catch the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines?

I've read a number of interpretations of this, but whatever it is, something has a negative influence on this relationship. It spoils the vines. And the brothers are calling out, I think, to remove the things that would spoil this love. And you can think of many things that would spoil a relationship like this. They say, for our vines have tender grapes.

I think they're talking about their sister and they're wanting to protect their sister. That's the way I take it. And then the Shulamite says in verse 16, My beloved is mine and I am his. He feeds his flock among the lilies. She senses that she belongs.

Maybe in the New Testament language, her body is not her own and she is owned by him. She is cared for by him. He views her body just like as if it was his. And it says he feeds his flock among the lilies. I think she sees herself as part of the flock and she's being fed, cared for.

In chapter 3 verses 1 through 5 there's a dream of separation, there's a troubled night. Verse 1 in chapter 3 reads like this, by night on my bed I sought the one I love. I sought him but I did not find him. I will arise now, I said, and go about the city, in the streets and in the squares. I will seek the one I love.

I sought him, but I did not find him." So here there's some turbulence in the relationship. Is this just a dream or is it a reality? Is she operating out of her fears and now has this dream or is it something real that's actually happened? You know, there's trouble in paradise here. This love has been awakened.

All this desire is being expressed. He's skipping along the mountains to come and see her. She can't wait to be with him, but now She can't find him. So there's trouble in paradise. You know, perhaps it's reminiscent of the troubles that couples enter into, either before they're married or after they're married.

And I think it acknowledges that you should expect some disappointments in any relationship. And then in chapter 3 verse 6, this is possibly their uniting in a wedding. Verse 6, who is this coming out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke perfumed with myrrh and frankincense with all the merchants fragrant powders behold it is Solomon's couch with 60 valiant men around it of the valiant of Israel they all hold swords being expert in war Every man has his sword on his thigh because of fear in the night. And then, skip down to verse 10, he made its pillars of silver, its support of gold, its seed of purple, its interior is paved with love. Here she's describing him coming, but with this beautiful array of accoutrements and effects around him.

There's gold and purple, and she says the interior is paved with love. Right? So he's lavish in his preparations for her and as this relates to Christ in his church and Christ's preparations for his people, He has gone to prepare a place. But it bears witness to the kinds of preparations that a husband should make to express love to his wife. Its interior is paved with love.

Everything that a husband does ought to be paved with love. Everything. Everything that he does and says and creates, everything that he works on should bear witness to this love that he has. And then the bridegroom praises the bride in chapter four, verse one, all the way to chapter five, verse one. He says, behold, you are fair, my love.

Behold, you are fair. You have doves eyes behind your veil Your hair is like a flock of goats going down from Mount Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of shorn sheep, which have come up from the washing, every one of which bears twins, and none is barren among them. Your lips are like a strand of scarlet, your mouth is lovely. Your temples behind your veil are like a piece of pomegranate.

Your neck is like the Tower of David built for an armory, on which hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men. Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle." And he goes on and on. And again, I don't think we should get too obsessive about the language. It's figurative language about beauty and value. You know, he's taking things that have high value and correlating them with her.

This, a flock of shorn sheep, it has value. A strand of scarlet, this is something of value. Pomegranates, towers, you know, a thousand bucklers. These are all things that have value. I think he's just piling up language that speaks of things that were valued by people that were there, as if to say, you're valuable to me, like beyond imagination, like here are 25 things that make me think about how valuable you are to me.

We get to chapter five and he says he has come into his garden. He calls her my sister, my spouse. Some say that this is when the wedding happens, others say it happens in chapter three. I don't know. I have come into my garden, my sister, my spouse.

I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey. I have drunk my wine with my milk." Now the allegorists go wild with this language here, with the myrrh and the spices and what they mean. And then he says to his friends, eat, yes, drink deeply, beloved ones. And then there's more struggling in love in chapter five, verse two, all the way to chapter seven, verse 10.

There's this anxiety of love. If this happens after the wedding now, it's the turbulence that happens in marriage is two become one and they try to figure out how to love each other when they encounter one another's sins and weaknesses. She says, I sleep but my heart is awake. It is the voice of my beloved. He knocks saying, open for me my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one, for my head is covered with dew, "'my locks with the drops of the night.'" And then in verse four, she says, "'My beloved put his hand by the latch of the door, "'and my heart yearned for him.

"'I arose to open for my beloved, "'and my hands dripped with myrrh, "'my fingers with liquid myrrh "'on the handles of the lock. "'I opened for my beloved, "'but my beloved had turned away and was gone." So there's all this expectation of relationship, and she's very excited, and she comes to the door, and he disappears. So it's a disappointment. She's dealing with disappointment. And then she describes him.

Apparently, she gets over this. And in verse 10, she says, my beloved is white and ruddy, chief among 10, 000. His head is like the finest gold, his locks are wavy and black like a raven, his eyes are like doves, by the rivers of waters washed with milk and fitly set." And she goes on and on and on and talking about his legs and his body and all kinds of things like that. And then verse 16, she says something that books have been written about and used for titles that speak of Christ's love for the church. Verse 16, yes, he is altogether lovely.

This is my beloved and this is my friend, oh daughters of Jerusalem. He is altogether lovely. And books have been written about the loveliness of Christ coming off of this verse right here. Is it appropriate? Yes, if we take the double meaning of it.

Yes, it is a real relationship between a man and a woman. And yes, whenever you talk about a relationship between a man and a woman and the unity that's there between them, you're also talking about Christ's love for his church and how the two become one, how the bridegroom rescues a bride. In chapter 6, we continue on. Again, songs have been written, Books have been written about verse three. I am my beloved's and he is mine.

He feeds his flock among the lilies. And then he praises her in chapter six, verses four through 10. Oh my love, you are as beautiful as Tirzah lovely as Jerusalem awesome as an army with banners turn your eyes away from me for they have overcome me your hair is like a flock of goats and then he goes back into this thing about your teeth are like a flock of sheep and all this other kind of thing. Again another potential marital union, maybe it either happens here or it happened back in chapter 5 or it happened you know midway in chapter 3, but some say that it happened here in chapter 6, beginning in verse 11. He went down to the garden of nuts to see the verdure of the valley, to see whether The vine had budded and the pomegranates had bloomed, before I was even aware, my soul had made me as the chariots of my noble people." In other words, she's getting ready to be married.

That's how this is often interpreted. But whatever it is, You see the desire, you see the love, you see the passion and the hope that's invested in this relationship. And then in chapter seven, he speaks, how beautiful are your feet in sandals, oh prince's daughter. The curves of your thighs are like jewels. The work of the hands of a skillful workman.

Your navel is as a rounded goblet. This is the verse that some of the allegorists say is the Lord's Supper. It lacks no blended beverage. Your waste is a heap of wheat set about with lilies. So, depending on what era you live on, this could be complementary or critical, because most women in our era don't want their waste to be like a heap of wheat.

But whatever, you know, the language is used to extol the value, the beauty, you know, correlating it with things of a farming environment. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon. Well, most women wouldn't want that to be said, but he's taking the tower of Lebanon as a glorious, strong thing and something beautiful to it. And then again, another great statement that is so often used of Christ in the church, verse 10, I am my beloved's and his desire is toward me. Well, that can fit a marriage, a wedding between a man and a woman, and it can fit Christ in the church.

I would say it's legitimate to fit it both ways. And in chapter eight, we find this longing that continues. She says, oh, that you were like my brother who nursed at my mother's breasts. If I should find you outside, I would kiss you. I would not be despised.

Well, that's kind of confusing. She's saying she wants him to be like her brother? You know, who wants to kiss your brother? At least not like this. And what do you make of this?

One author that I read said that there's a way that brothers and sisters relate to one another that's additional to the relationship of a husband and wife. And she's longing for a rich and deep relationship. One, not just the kind that would exist between a husband and wife, but more with some of the richness and the contours of other relationships added to it. So, you know, you could take the very best of what a relationship with a brother would be like or an uncle or a father. She's longing for a deep and rich relationship.

That's one way to look at this. Again, she's likening him to her brother. So somehow you have to grapple with that. Perhaps there's a way that you would kiss your brother that has a particular element to it that's valuable and precious in the sight of God. And there's another way that you would kiss your spouse.

But she's perhaps, you know, wanting a deeper, richer kind of relationship. And then in Chapter eight, verses five through fourteen is the conclusion. And. A relative says, Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? So here's this picture of the king with his beloved, and they are leaning on each other.

She says to him, for love is as strong as death, jealousy as cruel as the grave, its flames are flames of fire, a most vehement flame. 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." Now, I take this to mean that human love teaches us about divine love. That the jealousy that you find when there's unfaithfulness, the jealousy of love that's broken, gives us a sense of divine jealousy. It's not exactly the same, but it is given to mankind to have that jealousy to help man understand how jealous God is.

The Bible makes it very clear that God is a jealous God. And he says jealousy is as cruel as the grave and love is strong as death. And so human love teaches us about divine love and it's strong. Nothing can break it. It's as strong as death.

In the same way that you know God's love is unbreakable. He says I will never leave you or forsake you. He says no one can snatch you out of my hand. Love is strong as death and jealousy is as cruel as the grave. Its flames are flames of fire, a most vehement flame.

And then this whole idea of trying to buy love, give all the wealth of your house for love. He says it would be utterly despised if you tried to do that. You can't buy love. You can't purchase fidelity. You can't give money to someone and get their devotion.

It doesn't work. And at the same time, you know, you can't buy salvation, and you can't buy love. They both are correlated here. And then in verses 8 through 14, he applies the song to single people, and then finally to spouses. And this is how it ends.

The Shulamites' brothers are speaking of their little sister. He's applying this to single people, particularly a single sister, an unmarried sister. We have a little sister. She has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister in the day when she has spoken for?

If she is a wall, we will build upon her a battlement of silver, and if she is a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar." A wall keeps people out, and a door would protect her. I think that the brothers here are protecting. They're speaking of the language of protecting their sister, And it's the promotion of purity among those who are not married, among single people. And it's a very quick meditation on the value of sexual purity and the responsibility that brothers took here in this case to protect their sister. And then the Shulamite has some similar language and she says, I am a wall and my breasts like towers.

Then I became in his eyes as one who found peace. Solomon had a vineyard at Baal Haman. He leased the vineyard to keepers everyone was to bring for its fruit a thousand silver coins. And I think she may be just implying that purity is rewarded. She says, My own vineyard is before me.

O Solomon, you, O Solomon, may have a thousand and those who lend its fruit to hundred, its fruit to hundred. And he says, you who dwell in the gardens, the companions, listen for your voice. Let me hear it. He wants to hear her voice and she says, make haste my beloved and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains. In other words, she's saying come, come to me.

I want to be with you. Maybe we ought to conclude with some lessons. The first lesson is this, that the love between a husband and a wife in this song is a picture of the love between Christ and his church. You can go both ways with it. And here in this last phrase you have desire.

You have the desire of her for him and he for her. They long to be together. They want to come together. This is the essence of the two becoming one flesh. God has designed husbands and wives to be together in this life.

A second application, husbands ought to be ravished with their wives and wives with their husbands. They should have a sense of the beauty, the value. They should look at one another's features and see the value of the other person. Here's a third application. True love between a husband and wife is a glorious thing.

It's full of desire and passion. There are disappointments, but it's a glorious thing. Another application is this. True love makes reconciliation when one offends the other. There will be offenses in marriage.

What do the marriage partners do with the offenses? Here you have an offended bride, and what does she do with it? Well, she does reconcile to her husband. Young men who are not married, I think there's an application. Be like Solomon.

Be like that man of character. Be a man whom a woman would want to kiss. And what does that mean? That means your character, by the way. And there's something magnetic and beautiful about a man of character.

A man who dresses himself up and is trying to parade himself isn't always very desirable by a woman. And young women, be like the Shulamite. Do not wake in love at an improper time. Set your affections on your husband. Have them single-minded, as were hers.

And be ready, but don't awaken love at the proper time. So there are many applications that we can derive from the Song of Solomon. And so it is a parable of marital love, which is also a picture of Christ and his church.