{4:1-5:1} Let’s Get It On.

art by Will Godwin

“Eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with love.”

People that know my love for this book know how dearly I hold the allegorical sense of interpretation for this book. But, this is too good to pass up.

Chapter 4 (and the first verse of Chapter 5) is the honeymoon section, and it has some amazing tips for anyone looking to have an amazing wedding night.

One of the first things that’s sort of overlooked here is the fact that there’s so much talking. The way some people (guys, mostly) dream of their honeymoon, they seem to imagine that there’s very little talking involved. Not so according to Solomon. Not only that, what’s even more peculiar is that this is the largest single chunk of talking from the man that we find in the book. The girl gets a third of a verse, and the “others” get a fourth of a verse. So what’s the significance of this? Well, first off we see the exhortation to men to make the presence of their whole selves evident through speech. This is a main way that woman are communicated to. Men are more tactile, it seems. A touch on the neck can say more to a guy than many words. Women should be spoken to. But not only that, let’s look at the content.

This is so good. For the guys out there that are thinking “Okay, fine, I have to talk. But what on earth do I say as I’m getting ready to have sex with someone?” Well, I’m sure there are many options, but this was Solomon’s choice. He starts talking about her various body parts. Look at this: He says,

“you are beautiful…your eyes are doves…your hair…your teeth…your lips…your mouth is lovely…your cheeks…your neck…your two breasts…[your] garden fountain, a well of living water, and flowing streams.”

I think you can figure out what that last one is. What he is doing is slowly undressing her from top (her veil) to bottom (her “well of living water”), and as he undresses each part, he dwells on it, taking it all in, and complimenting each part. This is such a sensual passage. If you read some if it and try to analyze all the imagery and symbolism for various sexual acts and body parts, and you think to yourself “is he really saying what I think he’s saying?” The answer is yes. This is one of those passages that made this book forbidden to Jewish boys until they were twelve or so.

The way many people (once more, guys mostly) talk about their honeymoon, they talk as if they are just going to barge in there and get to business. They are rough. They are impatient. This passage encourages us, men, that tenderness and slow advances turn a girl on and prepare her more than just your body.

Notice the effect all this has on the girl. Throughout the book she has dominated the narrative with her thoughts and musings. Longing for her Lover, showering him with praise, expressing her insecurity. Then he sweeps in there, slowly undresses her, lingering on every part, showering her with compliments tailored just for her, and then as he leans in and draws near to her “garden fountain” he says:

“Awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind! Blow upon my garden, let its spices flow.”

I think you get it. In response to this, the woman, at this point lying down and nude can only get out:

“Let my Beloved come into his garden, and eat its choicest fruits.”

The Bridegroom then enjoys his new Bride and says,

“I came into my garden, my sister, my bride, I gathered my myrrh with my spice, I ate my honeycomb with my honey, I drank my wine with my milk.”

That is hot.

As this all happens, the camera seems to pan away from the couple to the “others” to close this scene out. I think these “others” represent different groups at different points in the book (the church, the world, groups of angels, God). In this case they seem to represent God and all the heavenly hosts looking down and watching all this, seeming to smile approvingly and joyfully exhorting the lovers:

“Eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with love.”

{3:1,5} Sovereignty, sleeping and seeking

“On my bed at night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him, but found him not…I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem…that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.”

These verses come from a dream that the Bride has about her Beloved. So much is here. I’ve had a had time thinking through which thing I’m going to tease out here. This dream comes true in Chapter 5 and a few things happen differently in that account that help shape how we see this one. The one thing I want to point out is this idea of Sovereignty and pursuit. When she tries to seek him, she can’t find him. The quiet testimony of her soul is that this is the one her soul longs for, yet her attempts to find him aren’t successful. What is her ultimate take-away from the futility of the situation? She tells the people around her that oft-quoted verse of not awakening love “until it so desires”. All literal-historical interpretation aside, what does this verse mean as it relates to Christ and His Church. He is love, and he pursues us at his own whim and pleasure. When we try to seek him before he has found us, we will inevitably go to all the wrong places and people (as evidenced by vv. 2-4). It’s not until he reveals himself and comes our way (Chapter 3) that our pursuits can yield results.

“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God” –Romans 3:10-11

“It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.” — Psalm 127:2

What’s the application here? First off, we should take comfort in the fact that if we have a loved one who is not a believer, and that person is seeking the fulfillment of their soul in all the wrong places, this is normal. People are supposed to do that before Christ has seized them (and even sometimes after, as we’ll see in Chapter 5). That is the posture of our nature (see the Romans verse above). It is expected. The people that are most in trouble are those that are going to the Church to find this fulfillment. These people are often blind to there own attempts at “awakening love before it so desires” because it’s happening in a “godly context.” So it’s easy for them to feel as if they are saved, when in fact they are trying to pursue the one their soul longs for, but to no avail. They are just getting enough of his “stuff” to make them think they are.

Also, if you are in a dry season spiritually, or if you are someone who wishes to be changed by God to be a Christian, but don’t know how it’s done, take heart. It is those who have it stirred in themselves to truly desire him that are being prepared for Christ to come bounding over the hills to wed you to himself (See the rest of Chapter 3). These stirrings and longings deep within us are merely Christ laying the foundation to draw near to you. Rest, and trust in Christ and his accomplished work and word of promise.

Love will be pleased to arouse and it will be pleased to awake, it just takes time sometimes. Trust and believe him.

{2:1-2} Of Lillies, Valleys, and a Bride

“[She:] I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. [He:] As a lily among brambles, so is my love among the young women.”

The story of the courtship of Solomon and the Shulamite is one of a consistent pattern. She expresses insecurity, he reaffirms her. This is presented as the healthy, passionate romance book of the Bible. I never forgot when my dad told me about some study done years ago that found that a woman’s greatest emotional need was security while a man’s greatest need was to feel like he was needed. No, I don’t remember who did the study, their methods, nor their purpose in the study. Nevertheless, all inaccuracies of such a study aside, I have found this to be generally true in life and in Song of Solomon. For example, right after the initial rush of excitement (1:1-4) the Beloved returns back to reality and in what sounds like the first direct speech we hear to the Lover she expresses immense insecurity and a longing for him to relieve her fears and feelings of inadequacy (1:5-7).

This is okay. This is how we’re made. On purpose.

One thing that I intend to make as evident as possible in this series of Bible Studies: human relationships were made to be a shadow and symbol for the dynamics of our relationship with Christ. This is especially evident here. There is so much in just this one verse, I have debated putting this as two separate posts.

This shows what the overall substance of our relationship with Christ is and should be. It is a continual reacknowledgement of our insufficiency and Christ’s sufficiency. In an amazing song called “Untitled” from my back-home friends My Epic, they write about God’s revelation of Himself at the burning bush in Exodus 3 where He said His name was simply “I AM”. In the song the chorus says simply “Oh God, I am not, but you are.” That’s it. And that’s as simple of an articulation of this principle I can think of. All we can do is express our insecurity and in ability to be who we feel we should be in his presence. But look at his response:

“As a lily among brambles, so is my love among the young women.”

God hears our feeble expression of inadequacy “I am a lily of the valleys”, in other words, “I am a weak, small, faint flower in the depths of darkness, in the lowest recesses of the valley. I don’t deserve to be looked upon by you.” Our lover doesn’t look at us and say “No you’re not! Don’t be so hard on yourself. You are amazing and completely deserve my love.” No, he in essence says that she’s right, but he puts a redemptive spin on it. He declares that she is indeed that sort of lily, but she in her weakness has been chosen and loved. Therefore she stands as a pure white flower in the midst of brambles.

This is our hope. That yes, every accusation thrown at us is absolutely true. You are inadequate. You don’t deserve this salvation and this love. You have not met the requirements to be His Bride. You don’t have anything to give him. You’re not good enough. You never have been, and never will be.

But there’s good news! “While we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly…God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:1,3). You being a needy, weak, ungodly human is precisely the requirement for Christ having died for you! This is why we worship. Though all those things are true, it is also true that while we were at our worst Christ died, bearing that righteous wrath of God that was due us. So now we come to him and express our insecurities and He looks at us and says “You’re right. But, I’ve chosen you. Not because of you, but in spite of you. So now you are a weak person I am showing my strength through which makes you a lily among brambles. Rest in your lily-ness knowing you’re no longer a bramble.”

So, Christian, rejoice that though you are a lily you are not a bramble, and your Lover delights in the scent that comes from the recesses of the valley.

On a personal note, the journal that I used during my personal study of this book about a yer ago only has two little comments written on these two verses. The last of the two is on the second verse and its what I want to leave this post with. The verse says: “As a lily among brambles, so is my love among the women.” I have this verse circled with a few words written beside it. My comment merely says:

“My dream for my wife.”

Love, wherever you are, whoever you are, this is my prayer for you. I love you and know that I am waiting for Christ to bring you. I pray he brings you quickly.

{1:4} Draw Me After You

“Draw me after you; let us run. The king has brought me into his chambers.”

Oh, the beauty of this.

We all know that Christ “draws” us, but how? What can we trust as the nature of this “drawing?” He draws us after him. Would that we feel the weight of that word! Our king and lover only draws us down paths he has walked before. This is why Christ didn’t die as an infant under Herod’s wrath. His death could have been equally sufficient to save us whether he was three or thirty-three, but simply dying the death we were meant to die was not sufficient to bring about the salvation God desired. Jesus needed to also live the life we were meant to live. He has fully accomplished all the righteous requirements of God on our behalf – in both life and death. He became completely human in every respect – birth, hunger, pain, temptation, and death – so that his life and death would be sufficiently lived in our stead. When we trust that (1) we needed that and (2) Christ accomplished that, both His life and death are credited to us as our own. The theological phrase for this is imputation and it has been the most precious doctrine of this Holy Christian Faith I’ve clung to.

But what’s the effect that this doctrine should create in us? Let us run, the Beloved says. When he is only drawing us through steps and places he has been, it gives us a freedom to run, to will, to act, to obey, to love. When we’re not trying to accomplish those steps on our own, but instead resting and trusting in His accomplishment of them, we are actually more free to walk in those steps than we would otherwise be. Why?

Because the king has brought us into his chambers. That is ultimately what Christ’s living on our behalf draws us into. Where he has walked, and where he draws us is the same place. He draws us into the place of rest, intimacy, and unadulterated enjoyment of our King. This means that the Christian is living life in the natural as anyone else is, but in the spiritual, something else all together is happening. They experience the same pains, joys, trials, and pleasures as anyone else, but it’s all within the chamber of the one for Whom their soul was made.

So in this one verse we see both the means and the end of the life of Christ: to purchase for us a rest from our labors into a life lived in the loving arms of the One we call our God.

{1:2} O Let Him kiss me indeed . . .

“Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth!”

In the last post, I discussed that fact that the verb for “kiss” in this verse can also mean “to arm” or “to equip for battle.” I want to discuss some more spiritual implications of this. As I will have to remind over and over again in this blog (due to new readership, hopefully). I have personally found the most edifying approach to this whole book to be the allegorical one where the Lover is a symbol of Christ and the Beloved is the believer. If this is the the case, how can this verse speak to our relationship with God?

In this verse, the Beloved is desiring for the Lover to kiss her, but in this word is inherent the idea of “arming for battle”. What is the connection here? Security. Spiritually, everything around us is potentially harmful and deadly. So many things compete for our affections, work to rob us of our love for God, and strive to steal us from his grasp. Where is our hope in this world? Where is our surety that we will persevere? In the kisses of our Lover.

Can we lose our salvation? Yes. But we won’t. We technically could lose our salvation, but ultimately, it’s not our salvation to lose. Salvation belongs to the Lord and he could in His own Sovereign prerogative decide to let us go. But here’s the thing – and here’s why salvation must be by faith – He has promised by Himself that he will not let us go. We must simply trust Him at His word. We have to live and rest in that promise. This is what “arms us” for this battle. And that is what is meant by His “kisses”

It’s in God’s displays of affection toward us that we get our security and assurance in this life so toxic to our relationship with God. May we believe that, rest in that, and spend the rest of our lives understanding the depth and complexity that one truth has to offer.

{1:2} Public Displays of Affection

“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!”

I remember the first time I really read this verse on my own. I was in college and I was going through an intense infatuation over a girl. For a young Christian undergrad in love, what better book is there for him to read than Song of Solomon? Anyway, I was having a particularly amorous night, so I though it would be appropriate to start my study into the Bible’s book of passion. I drive home imagining the night ahead. A quiet evening-just me, my Bible, and the Lord. Iy was going to be great. Upon walking through the door of our apartment, however, I was greeted with the laughter and sarcastic banter of a group of guys (8? 10? 12, perhaps?) all holding a beer in one hand and poker chips and playing cards in the other. My quiet passionate night with the Lord seemed to be impossible. Nevertheless, I felt led by God to do this that night, so I made some tea, sat on the couch next to the poker table (our apartment was like a long studio, so our living room and dining room technically occupied the same space), and wrapped myself in a blanket (we were undergrads trying to save money on heat). I proceeded to open my Bible to Song of Solomon.

This verse blew me away.  The verb in this verse can mean both “to kiss” and to “to arm or equip for battle”. **[For more technical language stuff, look to the brackets at the bottom of the page] The verse could read “let him equip me for battle with the kisses of his mouth”. Wow. Do you see the depth of that? As I said in my Introduction to the book, the interpretation I have found most edifying to me has been the allegorical one where the Lover here is Christ and the Beloved is the believer. This verse has the Beloved crying out in exclamation for her lover to arm with the kisses of his mouth.

So what is a kiss? It’s the simplest most encapsulated expression of intimacy and oneness that can be done in front of other people. I’ve heard it said that the root for the Hebrew word for “worship” is the verb “to arise to kiss”. The parallel should be clear. What is worship? It is the simplest most encapsulated expression of intimacy and oneness with God that can be done in front of other people. With our relationships with both our earthly and heavenly lovers we are called to have certain expressions that remain private – just between the two of us.

I struggle with this much. I live in the land of sermon and communication. Any and every “revelation” I get from God I’m already thinking about how to communicate it to others. One thing I’ve learned in the past couple of years is that there are some things that need to to be kept between you and God. Some moments that need not make it into a blog or sermon. In fact, what ends up in the outside communications should come from the overflow of these intimate moments with God. Your public expressions of worship should flow from your private expressions. No husband only kisses his wife in private; nor does any only kiss her in public. Hopefully, the security, comfort, and intimacy has been reinforced in private such that the public displays of this affection are appropriate and desired.

So what’s the take away from this post? Hopefully we as Christians have learned by now that “worship” is more than just Sunday morning. After that foundation is laid though, we’re not done. We now need to further nuance and mature that view. The contribution to that I hope to offer in this post is the public/private distinction. Churches too often stress the external shows of worship (corporate worship, evangelization, discipleship) and neglect the private “kissing” we are called to do with God. But, in the end, the private foundations we lay are the true ground upon which the public overflows. So, seek to foster that private sense of intimacy, security, and dependency on God to arm you for this life and you will gather with other believers, evangelize, and disciple one another.

Well, I unpacked all this to the guys sitting at the poker table. Some of them seemed to at least pretend to appreciate it to some extent, but for the most part they turned back to their game with a groaning “oh Paul . . .” I mean, I did look pretty ridiculous. Sitting next to a bunch of beer drinking, salsa eating, card playing guys wrapped in a blanket, drinking tea, talking about the verse “let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth” surely seemed like an awkward scene, but flowed from that heart of mine that had hopefully fostered (at least in that season of my life) a private life of worship that overflowed into my public display of affection for the God of the Bible; the God of the Song of all songs.

**[Technical stuff for those that care: Apparently, these are two different words for "kiss" used here. The second one (the noun) is the word that means a straightforward kiss. The first one, though (the verb), is more complex. Depending on the source you go to, some will say this word has a diverse "lexical" range, whereas some will say there is just a homophone at work here. A "lexical range" is the range of definitions that one word can stand for. For example in modern American English "love" has a huge lexical range. It can mean anything from general preference to the most passionate expressions of affection we know. A homophone on the other hand are two words that sound exactly alike (and are probably spelled the same way) but have two entirely different definitions. The word "right" would be an example. Of course, it can mean either a direction or a declaration of the moral state of something. But, in the end, even most homonyms have some sort of common derivation. For example, the "right hand" or the "right side" of something has always been considered the optimal place of sanding with someone. So for whatever reason, the direction has a moral connotation. Well the word used here is either one of those. It’s hard to tell with ancient languages.]

Introduction to the Book . . .

This is straight from the “Introduction Page” to your right in the side panel.  This is just to fill space until I get the first post up on verse 1, coming shortly!

For an explanation on how my Bible studies are structured in blog format, visit my Bible Study homepage:

Burkhart Bible Studies

My love affair with this book began a few year ago when I listened through Tim Lucas’ 10-part series on it with his church, Liquid Church in Basking Ridge, NJ. Shortly after that, I listened to Mike Bickle’s (of International House of Prayer) 20-part series on the book. I then about six months ago listened through Tommie Nelson’s famous series on the book.

Both Lucas and Nelson took a more literal-historical approach to the book, meaning that they approached it from the perspective that it fundamentally spoke to human relationships and talked about historical Solomon and a courtship he had with his favorite wife. At the time I listened to it, still wrestling with the last vestiges of teen angst within me, Lucas’ series was amazing. It gave solid principles for the way God has intended for human relationships to work. I would encourage anyone to listen through the podcast series. According to Lucas, much of his series was taken from Tommie Nelson’s series, but upon listening to Nelson’s, I found it lacking in many ways and not quite measuring up to the hype.

But when I listened to Mike Bickle’s series I was floored. I still view the time that I spent listening through it as one of the major milestone’s in my spiritual life. Though I have reservations about much that International House of Prayer does and preaches, this series blew me away. I spent almost all of it crying my eyes out as it softened me to the realities of the Gospel in ways I never knew could be. How this was done was by applying the allegorical-poetic approach to the book. This perspective says that though there are principles of human relationships present in the book, the book is fundamentally an allegory for the passionate love between Jesus Christ and the individual believer/corporate church.

I have found this latter perspective most fruitful and enduring in my reading of the book. This being the case, I will most likely approach most passages from the poetic angle. It’s not because the literal-historical approach is not absolutely valid – I think the Bible is big enough to hold both – it’s just that the allegorical approach is most in need of unpacking and explaining to others. The human relationship principles in the book are obvious enough given even a cursory reading, but I’ll pull some of those out for the reader of this blog whenever I can.

There is one last perspective on the book I wish to give the reader – the Israel-exilic approach. This is the approach taken by most “liberal” scholars and the view most frowned upon by fundamentalist evangelicals. Though I have only begun looking at this angle in he book, I have already found it opening up the book in newer, greater ways. This approach is the same as the earliest Hebrew scholars, and it says that the book is an allegory for God and His chosen people Israel in the time of the Babylonian exile. It’s an expression of love towards God in spite of being removed from the land He had given them. the reason fundamentalists don’t like this is that it says that (a) a “literal interpretation” is not meant for the book, (b) Solomon never wrote it, (c) it’s a purely fictitious account that a few Israelites hurting under the exile “came up with” to encourage fellow Israelites (conservatives would say that if this is purely fictitious but written as if it were historical, where else do we draw the line between history and fiction?) Personally, I see absolute validity in this perspective and I don’t see how any of the objections raised above could make the Bible any less the Word of God.

So, this is my version of an introduction to the book. We have touched on possible author, setting, date of writing, and interpretive issues. I hope this helps, but in the end, we could discuss these issues all day and never actually get to the true Revelation of God and sustenance for the believer. I hope you find this Bible Study beneficial and it softens your heart to the very real realities of the romance of the Gospel.

Charis kai shalom