# 25 2024 Dev. SS.1:4b. Love! Read all of chapter one first. We invite you into God’s space, to read His Word, to think on and interact with. This is God’s Story. Do you believe that this may also be part of our story, in our time? All passages are taken from the NIV.
SS 1:4b “We rejoice and delight in you[b]; we will praise your love more than wine.”
Song of Songs. For centuries this book has been controversial in terms of how to read it. Is this a literal description of human relationships or is it allegorical, a rendering of the relationship of God and Israel or for Christians, Christ and the church. “We do not need to choose between literal and allegorical interpretation of the Song of Songs as earlier generations of Christian readers felt they had to. There is no good reason to see erotic, earthly love as problematic either in itself or in its ability to speak by analogy of the divine-human relationship. Even if we had a problem here, of course, we should still have to ask whether we had good grounds for thinking that the original author found any difficulty in this area — and there is in truth no good reason to think that he or she did.” (NIV Application Commentary)
Vs.1-4 She: Begins with intimate description of her love for the king, enticing him, “Take me away with you-let us hurry!” She is encouraged by others; “We rejoice and delight in you[b]; we will praise your love more than wine.” God created humans in His image, “Male and Female he created them.” Christ as Bridegroom, the church as Bride.
She continues, “How right they are to adore you.” Jesus!
Vs.5-7 “Dark am I, yet lovely,” she says. “Dark like the tents of Kedar.” She refers to the black tents but Kedar is also a tribe, one of the sons of Ismael by his Egyptian wife, They are known as warriors. (See Ps. 120) She makes excuses for being dark, the sun, forced to work in the vineyard, not being able to care for herself. Light is beautiful and dark is beautiful. “Tell me, you whom I love, where you graze your flock.” She wants to know where she can find him. If not in the Scripture, where will we find God? “Why should I be like a veiled woman…” a veiled woman in that day were prostitutes, belonging to no one. We should all belong to someone bigger than ourselves.
V.8 “If you do not know, most beautiful of women, follow the tracts of the sheep…” Follow the blessings of God to you and the signs of Jesus in your friends.
Vs.9-11 He: “I liken you, my darling, to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariot horses.” Is the woman an Egyptian? Adorned with jewels, “We will make you earrings of gold, studded with silver.” Proverbs 25: 11-12 “Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a ruling rightly given. Like an earring of gold or an ornament of fine gold is the rebuke of a wise judge to a listening ear.”
Vs.12-14 She: “My beloved is to me…”she Is describing their relationship, it is intimate, it is also obvious to others as henna is used by women to tattoo. How is our relationship with Jesus? Do Others see? Is Jesus obvious in your life?
V.15 He: Is completely head over heels, fully devoted to her. Who or what are we devoted to?
V.16 She: “Oh, how beautiful! And our bed is verdant”, a grassy place. They are enjoying each other in nature. Nature has an important role in our lives. Ps 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”
V.17 He: He refers to nature as well. The sweet smell of cedar, the permanence of cedar, indicating the permanence of their relationship. It mirrors the permanence of our relationship with our God. John 10:27-28 “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.” Praise be to God!
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