Song of Solomon is a book about human love. It is a frank presentation of human sexual love without being titillating.
The book describes the loving relationship between a young woman and her lover and later, a bride and her bridegroom. Delicately, the poet evokes intense sensual awareness. The song is a masterpiece of romantic literature. It expresses marital love as the strongest, most unyielding and invincible force in human experience. It is also a picture of God's love for his people.
What does it say?
The title of this book in the Hebrew text is "Solomon's Song of Songs." It is a song by, for, or about Solomon. The phrase "Song of Songs" means the greatest of songs (see Deuteronomy 10:17, "God of gods and Lord of lords" and 1 Timothy 6:15, "King of kings"). The book itself is a wonderful expression of words of love between a lover and his beloved.
Two messages seem to come through in this book (and there is debate among scholars as to which is primary). The book is an inspiring testimony to the highest and best of marital love between man and woman, including a God-given endorsement for the pleasure of marital sex. Song of Solomon can also be read as an allegorical expression of God's intimate love for his bride, which is his people. Using New Testament language, the church is the bride of Christ. The love and adoration between Christ and his church is expressed through the poetry of this book of romance.
Faces & Places
There are three characters in this book of poetry. There is the lover, who is Solomon, king of Israel. There is the beloved, who is the object of Solomon's love and becomes his wife. And there is an unnamed group of friends who interject their remarks from time to time.
(For your assistance, the translators of the NIV Bible have inserted notations throughout the book to indicate where each of the three parties is probably speaking.)
Key Verses & Themes
Love:
Song of Solomon 1:4b "We rejoice and delight in you; we will praise your love more than wine."
Love of the bridegroom for the bride:
Song of Solomon 4:9 "You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace."
Love of the bride for the bridegroom:
Song of Solomon 1:16 "How handsome you are, my lover! Oh, how charming! And our bed is verdant."
The word "lover" occurs 32 times in the book.
So what?
Virtually every one who studies this book in depth agrees that the climax of the Song is found in 8:6-7, "Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grace. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned."
In these words, the unsurpassing power and value of love is expressed. It is the love that draws man and woman together. It is true love. It would do us well to ponder the impact of this kind of love on the beloved - he one who receives it - and on the lover - the one who sacrifices self in order to give it.
