The song of Solomon or also known as the Song of Songs tells the story of King Solomon and the Shulamite Woman whom he loved. It is a love song describing all the aspects of perfect love between a man and woman. Furthermore, it describes the details of romantic love between a husband and wife as it was ordained by God from the beginning. There are many different interpretations of this book; however, I choose to believe it is a real story with a typology to Christ as well. Whenever I close my eyes and listen very closely, I feel the excitement of the thought of my beloved coming over the mountain. My heart overflowing with this thought-His Banner Over Me is Love.
God’s grace blessed me with loving someone here on earth with that magnificent overwhelming love. Ours was not what most would call an ideal marriage; yet, despite each trial, God blessed my heart with an unconditional love for this man. It was as if I could see Pete through the eyes of Jesus Christ, deep within his heart, knowing who he would be one day because of Christ. For that reason, whenever we were apart I would long for his return. As I saw him approaching from a distance my heart would fill with “butterflies.” It would beat a little faster, and I could hardly contain my love and joy.
What a picture of how I now await my true bridegroom who has gone away to prepare a place for me and will return. So, I pray God guide this study, so we first look at it as the facts and then a typology of Christ.
Waiting for My Beloved with Great Excitement
The excitement of love is like nothing else. There is a release of hormones causing one to feel gleefulness, excitement, power, as though all is well in the world. Sometimes it is so overwhelming it is hard to sleep . Appetite is gone. Drunken with love. That seems the picture here as the story opens. Obviously, they have met. It is that first flirtatious glance. He the shepherd whom she saw. And he saw her either while she tended her family’s vineyard or caring for their flock. It would appear she is the true Cinderella story as her half-brothers made her do all the chores.
1This is Solomon’s Song of Songs.
The Bride
2Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!
For your love is more delightful than wine.
3The fragrance of your perfume is pleasing;
your name is like perfume poured out.
4No wonder the maidens adore you.
Take me away with you—let us hurry!
May the king bring me to his chambers.
(Berean Study Bible)
Remembering My Beloved
Seeing him, she believes herself unworthy. Much like when we truly see Jesus. Part of the magic of the truest love is always wondering how fortunate I am. How did he ever choose me? or vice versa. Those flames of true love remain high throughout a marriage if we have this. Each time we see the other we are amazed in wonder. How is it possible they could love me?
The Bride
6It is only right that they adore you.
am dark, yet lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem,
like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.
Do not stare because I am dark,
for the sun has gazed upon me.
My mother’s sons were angry with me;
they made me a keeper of the vineyards,
but my own vineyard I have neglected.
At first, she sees him and wants to know more about him.
7Tell me, O one I love,
where do you pasture your sheep?
Where do you rest them at midday?
Why should I be like a veiled woman
beside the flocks of your companions?
Of course, the friends want to help her find him.
The Friends
8If you do not know, O fairest of women,
follow the tracks of the flock,
and graze your young goats
near the tents of the shepherds.
The Bridegroom
9I compare you, my darling,
to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots.
10Your cheeks are beautiful with ornaments,
your neck with strings of jewels.
We would have been like, “he called me a horse?” Truth is King Solomon loved horses and had stables of the most beautiful horses. Besides Pharaoh’s chariots were all led by Stallions. Can you imagine the attention a mare would get there with all the horses desiring her? But at any rate, the friends hearing this about her beloved want to help her out by making her jewelry to adorn her beauty.
The Friends
11We will make you ornaments of gold,
studded with beads of silver.
Then she jumps back into declare her love. As is typical of the love struck, one jumps back and forth within the tales of the story. She suddenly remembers what will be further detailed in chapter two when her beloved takes her to present her at court in a banquet hall.
The Bride Remembering the Banquet
12 While the king was at his table,
my perfume spread its fragrance.
13 My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh
resting between my breasts.
14 My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms
in the vineyards of En-gedi.
She wears a sachet of myrrh (his perfume) about her neck which remains warmed by her own body heat. This way she could breathe in his aroma even when he was gone. Ruth Graham in an interview once said that when Billy Graham was gone on long preaching tours, she would sleep with one of his suits wrapped close just to be reminded of his scent. That way she felt his presence and the loneliness would abate itself.
Recalling My Beloved in the Gardens
The Bridegroom
15 How beautiful you are, my darling!
Oh, how very beautiful!
Your eyes are like doves.
The Bride
16 How handsome you are my beloved!
Oh, how delightful!
The soft grass is our bed.
The Bridegroom
17 The beams of our house are cedars;
our rafters are fragrant firs.
Thus, we are taken back and forth through beautiful descriptions of their courtship. I particularly love it when he takes her to the banqueting hall unashamedly presenting her as his love. Whatever doubts she had about his sincerity seemed squelched there.
My Beloved Has Gone Far Away
The Bride
3Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest
is my beloved among the young men.
I delight to sit in his shade,
and his fruit is sweet to my taste.
4He has brought me to the house of wine,b
and his banner over me is love.
5Sustain me with raisins;
refresh me with apples,
for I am faint with love.
6His left hand is under my head,
and his right arm embraces me.
7 O daughters of Jerusalem, I adjure you
by the gazelles and does of the field:
Do not arouse or awaken love
until the time is right.
I can imagine just lying with his hand beneath her head and another gently holding her with her head in his lap. Yet, the warning is there until it is time, be careful not to go too far or awaken passions too strongly before it is properly awakened in marriage.
My Beloved Returns for Me–O See Him There Over the Mountain
8Listen! My beloved approaches.
Look! Here he comes,
leaping across the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
9My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.
Look, he stands behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
peering through the lattice.
10My beloved calls to me,
“Arise, my darling.
Come away with me, my beautiful one.
11For now the winter is past;
the rain is over and gone.
12The flowers have appeared in the countryside;
the season of singingc has come,
and the cooing of turtledoves
is heard in our land.
13 The fig tree ripens its figs;
the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.
Arise, come away, my darling;
come away with me, my beautiful one.”
The Bridegroom
14 O my dove in the clefts of the rock,
in the crevices of the cliff,
let me see your face,
let me hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet,
and your countenance is lovely.
The Friends
15 Catch for us the foxes—
the little foxes that ruin the vineyards—
for our vineyards are in bloom.
Do not let anything destroy your love such as jealousy, pride, greed or in the case of Christ, do not let lies and fears enter in to destroy your love for Him. Sometimes it is even neglect that destroys love like wily foxes.
Hold Fast to the Truth
The Bride
16 My beloved is mine and I am his;
He pastures his flock among the lilies.
17 Before the day breaks and shadows flee,
turn, my beloved,
and be like a gazelle
or a young stag on the mountains of Bether.
Her beloved must go away.
He has gone to prepare all for her. He is gone a long time it would seem. She dreams of him with great longing for his return. She even ponders wandering in the streets but remembers suddenly. “Do not arouse or awaken love until the time is right.” She must wait patiently for her beloved to return. That makes up the first half of chapter 3.
The second half of chapter 3 is The King’s Return with His Chariot
Song of Solomon Chapter 3 (Berean Bible)a
6Who is this coming up from the wilderness
like a column of smoke,
scented with myrrh and frankincense
from all the spices of the merchant?
7Behold, it is Solomon’s carriage, escorted by sixty of the mightiest men of Israel.
8 All are skilled with the sword,
experienced in warfare.
Each has his sword at his side
prepared for the terror of the night.
The remainder of the Song of Solomon describes the wedding, the wedding night, and love as it matures into a settled steady love. Marriages do that ranging from romantic love to the steady intermittently through good marriages. All of that you can further review. While we step on to look at two more aspects.
Why include the Song of Solomon in the Bible?
Some would ask, why would God have included this in the Bible? Just remember from the beginning, God had designed love and sexuality. In His perfect world, these were a part and blessed by God. Sin has placed its stain on this perfection. But in this God is once more declaring the truth that He has blessed the sanctity of marriage.
4 Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. Hebrews 13:4
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. Genesis 2:24, Matthew 19:5, Mark 10:7, Ephesians 5:31 (KJV)
Then why Solomon? He had 700 wives and 300 concubines. What example can he be of true love? Probably, the Shulamite was his first and only true love. That is why he would later write in Proverbs.
Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Proverbs 5:18
9 Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun. Ecclesiastes 9:8-10 (KJV)
Sin lead to great sorrow.
In Ecclesiastes Solomon speaks much of all his indulgences and how all that lead to is sorrows. He determined in the end that all that really mattered was God.
13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. Ecclesiastes 12 (KJV)
I believe Solomon looked back, saw the disasters created by not following God’s Plan, God’s way. He remembered the beauty of true love and the sorrowful unfulfilling vanity of sharing his body with so many other women.
Who is our Beloved? If not Christ, then who?
Yes, I loved Pete with all my heart. Through that relationship, I learned some of what love is. But who is my true Beloved, the one I long for above all else. That is Christ. He is the one to whom I can say, I am His and He is mine.
I do believe that this book in the Bible ( as is true of all scripture) both is true historically with instructional teaching from God, including a typology pointing us to Jesus Christ. Just as Hosea’s life presented the relationship of God with Israel, his bride. So does Solomon represent the picture of Christ with his bride the church. I can hardly wait for that day when the trumpet sounds, and I go to be with Him. There I will be clothed in white linen as He prepares for us the final preparations that we may return with Him at the end of the tribulation to the wedding feast of the Lamb. Our shepherd King, Prince of Peace who rides before us. Oh, how I watch for His chariot to come over the mountains.
10 I will rejoice in the Lord,
My soul will be joyful in my God;
For He has clothed me with garments of salvation,
He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness,
As a groom puts on a turban,
And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11 For as the earth produces its sprouts,
And as a garden causes the things sown in it to spring up,
So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
To spring up before all the nations. Isaiah 61 (NASB)
So, the final question is. Is He Your Beloved?
6 And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.7 Let us be glad and rejoice and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God. Revelation 19 (KJV)
DO YOU KNOW CHRIST AS YOUR SAVIOR AND LORD? He is our only Hope in Life and Death! Our Joy is found in Him.
Therefore if you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord: I urge you today. Go to my page titled How to Be Saved by clicking on this link. There is nothing more important than this; because He is the way, the truth and the life. Therefore, I urge you to seek Him today.
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©Effie Darlene Barba, 2024
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