Christ in Song of Solomon

The Song of Solomon is, first and plainly, a celebration of married love - the desire of a bride and her bridegroom for one another, told with frank and unembarrassed delight. That Scripture should carry such a book is itself a quiet witness: the love between a husband and wife, the longing, the body, the beauty, is held up as good, the gift of the God who made them male and female and called His creation very good (Gen. 1:27, 31). And from very early the people of God hea…

Song of Solomon 2 is a chapter of married love at its freshest - two people delighting in each other, and a world coming alive around them - and read with the grain of the whole Scripture it also opens onto the love between Christ and His people. The bride sits in the shade of her beloved and tastes his sweetness ( I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste , v. 3); he brings her into the house of celebration and raises one ensign o…

Song of Solomon 3 turns on two images the Gospel later takes up almost word for word: a soul seeking the one it loves until it finds Him, and a royal Bridegroom coming for His bride. The bride lies awake at night reaching for her beloved and cannot find him - By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not (v. 1) - so she rises, searches the dark city, asks the watchmen, and at last lays hold of him: I found him whom my soul loveth: I…

Song of Solomon 4 is the bridegroom’s long, unhurried praise of his bride, and at its center stands a line the New Testament will take up almost word for word: Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee (v. 7). He sees her whole and beautiful - not a flaw left to name - and calls her my sister, my spouse , says thou hast ravished my heart (v. 9), and names her a garden inclosed… a spring shut up, a fountain sealed (v. 12), fragrant with myrrh and spice, fe…

Song of Solomon 5 turns on a knock at the door in the night - I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me (v. 2) - and the risen Christ takes up the very posture: Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him (Rev. 3:20). The bride hesitates over a small inconvenience, and by the time she opens, my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone (v. 6); the ache of a…

Song of Solomon 6 turns on a single line that gathers up the whole book’s longing: I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine: he feedeth among the lilies (v. 3). It is first of all the language of married love - two people who belong wholly to one another - and Scripture treats that union as good and worth singing. But the same Scripture takes up the marriage figure to speak of something more. The LORD calls Himself the husband of His people - thy Maker is thine husband (I…

Song of Solomon 7 reaches the most quoted line of the whole book, and it is the bride’s answer to her husband’s praise: I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward me (v. 10). The word the King James renders desire is a rare one - it appears only three times in the Old Testament - and one of those places is the sorrow of Eden (Gen. 3:16). Here the same word is lifted out of that ache and set in the open light of covenant love: the husband’s longing is turned wholly toward…

The Song of Solomon ends on the single greatest statement about love in the Old Testament, and the New Testament gives it a name. Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it (vv. 6-7). Married love, celebrated through eight chapters as good and strong and exclusiv…