The Bride’s Heart of Desire Song of Solomon 3
What’s been your experience regarding young love? Fiona and I had a wonderful experience when we were there. Some are there right now. A few of us will be entering into it.
Song of Solomon is a love story: intimate descriptive details given regarding what that looks like and how it is expressed with a young couple who can only be described as madly in love. As such, it can be a perplexing book as to how it may be applied, but I think it is largely an ancient middle eastern song written by Solomon regarding a young lady who had captivated his heart at the time.
But certainly, there is edification and meaning here for us, particularly as we understand Christ’s love for the church, but more importantly our response to His love for us.
Background: Song written by King Solomon. Indeed, he wrote over 1000 songs (1005, 1 Kings 4:32) and 3000 proverbs, some of which we have in the book of Proverbs, and this lone song of the 1005 he wrote. He was likely writing as a man in his late 20’s/ early 30’s. A descriptor says he had 80 concubines and 60 wives. He would amass 700 wives and 300 concubines. So, this song is fairly early in his journey. His last book, Ecclesiastes, was written as a man who was likely in his late 60’s writing about past desires – he had finished getting wives, wine, women and song by then. He died at 70 years of age.
Who was this girl? She is called the Shulamite. She is only mentioned once by the title “Shulamite,” in Song of Solomon 6:13. Speculation points to Abishag, a young Shunammite who served King David in his old age (1 Kings 1:1–4, 15; 2:17–22). It is plausible that Abishag is the Shulamite; we know she was from Shunem/Shulem. Shunem, a small town in northern Israel. Also, as David’s personal servant, Abishag would have been known to David’s son, Solomon. Solomon’s half-brother Adonijah attempted to have Abishag as his own wife, and Solomon prevented the union (1 Kings 2:13–25). Either way, she was likely Solomon’s first and deepest love. This is often the case, isn’t it? No one forgets their first love. You remember them even now. Possibly they are with you even now. Perhaps not, but either way, you remember them.
Solomon was the most wealthy and wise man on the planet. Who would not want to be with him? If he set his eyes on you as a young woman, it was inevitable that things would progress. For this young woman to have the affection and advances of Solomon was overwhelming for her.
Her desire for him was quite palpable; very intense. Look at what she says, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine;” first words in the book. (Song of Solomon 1:2) “Draw me after you; let us run.” (verse 4) “My beloved is mine, and I am his;” (2:16) “I will seek him whom my soul loves… I held him, and would not let him go.” (3:3, 4) By far the most descriptive is found in Song of Solomon 5:10-16: “My beloved is radiant and ruddy, distinguished among ten thousand. His head is the finest gold; his locks are wavy, black as a raven. His eyes are like doves beside streams of water, bathed in milk, sitting beside a full pool. His cheeks are like beds of spices, mounds of sweet-smelling herbs. His lips are lilies, dripping liquid myrrh. His arms are rods of gold, set with jewels. His body is polished ivory, bedecked with sapphires. His legs are alabaster columns, set on bases of gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as the cedars. His mouth is most sweet, and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved and this is my friend.”
But the beloved, Solomon describes her in very descriptive language as well. Some of it we laugh at because we have very little appreciation of ancient middle eastern prose or poetic love language. The depth and quality of our modern expression is sadly depleted to the point where we can’t adequately express ourselves with any manner of eloquence at all. So, we are left with “she’s hot” or “he’s cute.”
But the greater tragedy for me, folks, is when the people of God and the followers of Jesus drop to these base levels where we not only fail to express ourselves adequately to each other, but we sink to a base level of not being able to adequately express ourselves in prayer or worship to our Creator and Saviour; the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is important because this book, the Song of Solomon, very well parallels the love and desire the bride, which is the church, should have towards our beloved, our husband Jesus Christ. Solomon is described several times as both a king (1:4, 12; 3:9, 11;7:5) and a shepherd (1:7, 8; 2:16; 6:2-3): both attributes of Jesus our heavenly King and Shepherd.
The Apostle John confirmed our status in Revelation; “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” He continued, “"Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” (Revelation 21:2, 3)
Qualifying a marriage in Christ - Indeed, in marriages that understand this principle, Paul said, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.” (Ephesians 5:25, 26) Paul said, “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” (Ephesians 5:32)
Jesus is the Word of God - We are sanctified by its truth, hence the need to read it and study it. By doing so, you get to know your heavenly husband and Father of us all. If you are not doing that, you are missing out on the most vital source of life that the human soul needs to survive. The trouble is we find other sources of food. Rather than feed on the bread of life, we go after worldly junk food. This can take many forms; some even legitimate for a season, but not suffice for a lifetime. Sadly, this diet affects our expression in prayer and even in our worship, our songs and theology expressed in praise, songs that can lack significant expression regarding the character of God.
Challenge for you all. It’s Father’s Day. Can I encourage all those who have fathers here today that you express yourselves in a way that has a bit more depth to it? More than, “I love you Dad,” which is important to say if you’ve never said it before. But why do you love them, what they gave you, who they were for you, what legacy they have left for you. There are always negatives that we can tell our dads. They are fallible, like the rest of us. But here in the Song of Solomon, she is not speaking of any of those, even though I am sure she could.
That’s the first challenge. The second one, that is of far more significance, is to firstly know and then communicate with the heavenly Father, through knowing Christ. Speaking to Christ is speaking to the Father in heaven. Know Him for yourself. Ask Him to show you who He is. Jesus said I and the Father are One. Knowing Jesus means you know God the Father.
This activity will be done through all eternity for the church, the bride of Christ and only His bride. We have all had young love, or first love. Marriage is to be kept alive and passion and joy to be sustained. It’s the same with our Lord, to maintain our first love.