Bible Story · Song of Songs 2:1–17; 8:6–7
The Song of Love
The Story
I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. As a lily among brambles, so is my love among the young women. As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. The Song of Songs opens in the middle of love — not explaining it, not analyzing it, but expressing it. The beloved and the lover speak in poetry that is physical, sensory, immediate. She is a rose of Sharon; he is like an apple tree in the forest. The imagery is not apologetic — it is lavish, unembarrassed, full of the pleasure of the senses. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. Sustain me with raisins; refresh me with apples, for I am sick with love. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me. The beloved hears her beloved — and the hearing itself is joy. He comes leway, leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills. He is like a gazelle or a young stag. He stands behind the wall, gazing in at the windows, looking through the lattice. "Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away. For behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land." The voice of the beloved calling her out of her room and into the spring — this is love as urgency, as invitation, as the breaking of enclosure. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine. I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine. And then, in chapter 8, the deepest notes of the song are sounded. "Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord." Love is strong as death. The one power in the ancient world that could not be resisted or undone, the power before which kings and armies were equally helpless — that is the power of love. Love is unyielding. It does not submit to fear, to price, to obstacle. "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised." Love cannot be purchased. It cannot be earned. It can only be given and received. And the one who would reduce it to a transaction has not understood what it is. The rabbis called the Song of Songs the Holy of Holies of Scripture. Perhaps that is because it speaks most directly of what all the other books are ultimately about: a love that is stronger than death, that cannot be quenched by many waters, that has set its seal upon the heart and will not let go.
Background
The Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon) is attributed to Solomon and has been included in the Hebrew canon since ancient times, though its inclusion was debated. Rabbi Akiva (c. 50–135 AD) famously declared it "the Holy of Holies" of all Scripture. Jewish interpretation has traditionally read it as an allegory of the love between God and Israel; Christian interpretation has read it as an allegory of the love between Christ and the church. Most modern interpreters affirm both the literal and allegorical meanings simultaneously: it celebrates human embodied love as genuinely good, and simultaneously pictures the divine love that human love imperfectly reflects. The phrase "the very flame of the Lord" (literally, "a flame of Yah") is the only direct reference to God in the book.
Truth
The Song of Songs teaches that embodied human love — its longing, its delight, its physical expression, its jealousy and commitment — is not a merely secular reality that Scripture tolerates but a good gift that Scripture celebrates. God made human beings as embodied, desiring creatures. The love between a man and a woman, at its best, reflects something true about the Creator himself. And the passionate, pursuing, costly love that the Song describes — love strong as death, love that many waters cannot quench — is the shape of the love God has for his people, the love that sent his Son to be the Bridegroom of the church.
Application
The Song of Songs reclaims human love as something God celebrates rather than merely tolerates. For those who are married: how does viewing your marriage as a reflection of God's love for his people change the way you invest in and cherish your spouse? For those who are single: the Song ultimately points beyond itself to a love that is for everyone — the love of God that is strong as death, that pursues without rest, and that cannot be quenched. How does that larger love reframe your experience of human longing?