Devotional thoughts from Song of Songs

July 19, 2007

Song of Songs 1: The Song -- best of all -- Solomon's song!

I confess here and now that I don't know what I'm going to do with Song of Songs.  I can tell you this; my devotional journey through these eight chapters isn't going to take long!  As my beloved wife will tell you I am not the most romantic fellow in the world so this portion of Scripture doesn't really resonate very well with me.  I can write about the technical side of things though.  Song of Songs is, basically, an opera.  There are different characters and they interact in telling of the passion of two lovers.  The woman, the man, and a chorus sing to one another all through the opera.  The KJV doesn't make this very clear, so, for us who were introduced to this book by that translation, this was a very confusing book.  The Message, and most current translations tell us who is singing when and that helps a bit.  Some have "Christianized" Song of Songs by making it an allegory of Christ's love for the Church.  I am not knowledgeable enough to debate the point but it seems to me that it is more of a celebration of God's gift of human sexuality than anything else.  To be honest about it, I'm a lot more comfortable with the sexuality of Song of Songs when it is left in that realm and not made into a spiritual allegory so I intend on leaving it at that.  Finally, Solomon is the writer and apparently the male character in the opera is based on him.  Because of that, this book is also called Song of Solomon.  When I remember how many wives, etc. Solomon had I have to smile and wonder which of his wives inspired this opera.  However, I do understand that many of his marriages were political in nature -- basically arraigned to seal some treaty between Israel and a neighboring nation.  The actual identity of the woman is, so far as I can see, unknown to us.

July 21, 2007

Song of Songs 2: Don't excite love, don't stir it up, until the time is ripe -- and you're ready.

The woman, who co-stars in the opera, is speaking to her "sisters in Jerusalem" and she has some good advice for them.  She tells them to wait for the right time and for the right person to be sent into their lives before falling in love.  Sometimes young women are more in love with the idea of being in love than they are actually in love.  They get emotionally involved with someone who has a very different agenda than they do and the result is, at best, disappointment and a feeling of having been used and cheapened.  Song of Songs is a celebration of human love and sexuality -- and the two are very much linked.  The woman who is loved by the King says, "The real thing is worth waiting for -- don't sell out too soon."  Young women across the ages have faced the temptation to do otherwise but to do so is to accept a cheap imitation that won't last.  Song of Songs, the opera about love, says "wait, you'll be glad you did!"

July 23, 2007

Song of Songs 4: You looked at me, and I fell in love.  One look my way and I was hopelessly in love!

I mentioned the other day that some Christians have made this book into an allegory of Christ's love for the Church.  As I said then, I'm not all that convinced, although passages like this do remind me of scriptures like Ephesians 4 where we are told that: "Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy...and to present her to himself as a radiant church... holy and blameless."  That passage describes Christ's passionate love for the Church, a love that took him to the cross.  In the portion of Song of Songs that is before us today, the man describes the power of his love for the woman.  In Ephesians we see the power of Christ's love for the Church.  Whether or not Song of Songs is intended to connect us to Christ and his love for us, we are reminded here of the power of love, and the sacrifice one who loves is willing to make for his beloved.

July 24, 2007

Song of Songs 8: Love can't be bought, love can't be sold.

Romantic love is one of the highest of human emotions.  The Song of Songs is a testimony to the power of romantic love plus sexual attraction.  The opera pictures a man and woman who are irresistibly drawn to one another.  She can't sleep for thinking about him and he daydreams only of her.  The imagery here is compelling and sometimes "R-rated."  The woman observes that love like this can't be found in the marketplace.  That is, it doesn't come along every day.  Our society has separated sexual attraction from real love and has, in fact, mislabeled it alone as "love."  The truth is that sex without love and commitment cheapens rather than elevates life.  Song of Songs gives us the whole package.  Since it is all dressed up as an opera we might be tempted to dismiss it as unrealistic.  It probably is unrealistic to envision the average guy and gal singing opera to one another; at least it doesn't happen at our house!  However, it is right on in it's depiction of the power of love, romance, and sex as God intended it.