Song of Songs Introduction and Chapter 1a -- John Karmelich
1.
Let me start by saying, of all the books in the Bible,
this one is for adults only.
a)
A Jewish tradition, picked up by the early Christian
writers is that the book,
Song of Songs should not even be studied until one is thirty years old.
b)
It is very sexual in its overtones and its description.
c)
It is about romance, love making and the love between a
bride and a groom.
2.
Now that I’ve gotten your attention, welcome to my study
of Song of Songs. J
a)
If you would like to have a better relationship with
your spouse, read on.
b)
If you are single, and want some good marital advice,
read on.
c)
If you want to comprehend God’s love, and its comparison
to a strong, healthy marriage, read on.
d)
On the surface, it is a wonderful, literal story of King
Solomon and his love for his bride.
Much of the text is from the perspective of the bride and her love for
Solomon.
i)
It reads like a musical play. The writing style is that of Hebrew Poetry.
ii)
There is an interesting comment about Solomon’s life in
1st Kings:
a)
“He spoke three thousand proverbs and his songs numbered
a thousand and five.” (1st
Kings 4:32, NIV)
b)
We know Solomon wrote a lot of proverbs as most of the
Book of Proverbs is written by Solomon.
The Book of Ecclesiastes is also written by Solomon and there are many
proverbs in that book.
c)
Yet the number of proverbs in those two books is roughly
estimated at 400 to 500. In 1st
Kings it says Solomon wrote over 3,000!
d)
That verse in 1st Kings also said Solomon
write over 1,005 songs.
e)
Yet only one song is saved throughout history.
(1)
Only one song is considered inspired by God.
(2)
It is so great, it is well translated “Song of
Songs”.
(3)
The title is taken from the first verse of Chapter 1:
(a)
“Solomon’s Song of Songs” (NIV)
iii)
“Song” in Hebrew, is a different concept than the
American idea of song.
a)
“Song of Songs” is not a catchy little ditty one can
sing in the shower. J
b)
We don’t even know the original musical score that goes
with it.
c)
Hebrew poetry doesn’t have rhymes or commonly repeated
phrases like American songs and poetry.
d)
It is about joining thoughts together or combining ideas
together.
(1)
It is different concepts, joined by a common connecting
theme.
3.
About a year ago, I came up with the bright idea of
teaching at least one book of the Bible from each of the different writing
styles. Thus, I am now tackling Song of
Songs.
a)
Books of the Bible can be divided into
i)
1) Narrative style of writing; “narrative” style is a story with a start and an end.
ii)
2) Prophetic;
The primary purpose of this type of book is to foretell future events.
iii)
3) Instructional;
The primary purpose is a set of instructions to follow.
iv)
4) Poetic; There
is no story per se, but the style is in Hebrew poetry.
b)
Well, I’m now tackling a poetic book, because I haven’t
done one yet. J
c)
God laid it on my heart to teach Song of Songs.
d)
In many ways, this is my greatest challenge as a
teacher.
i)
Being your typical male, writing about emotional love
does not come easy. J
4.
In preparation for this study, I have read introductory
chapters to many commentaries on the Song of Songs. Here is the one statement they almost all have in common.
a)
“It is a difficult book to understand.”
i)
And I kept thinking, “Gee, that will make my job
easy!” J
ii)
There are many unique words found in Song of Songs that
are difficult to translate. About 10%
of the Hebrew words in Song of Songs are not found anywhere else in the Bible
as a cross-reference.
iii)
Good scholars disagree on some of the finer
interpretations in the text.
iv)
The first time you read through Song of Songs, you can’t
help but wonder
“Why is this book included in the Bible anyway?”
a)
There is no mention of God whatsoever.
b)
There is no mention of prayer, salvation, redemption, or
any of the other common topics one finds in a book of the Bible.
c)
There is no quotation from Song of Songs anywhere in the
New Testament.
(1)
Yet, some of the word-pictures “painted” in the Song of
Songs is similar to those found throughout the Bible.
d)
Yet it is one of the most loved books by many of the
great Christian writers of the past few centuries. I have heard (second hand) that Dwight Moody and Charles Spurgeon
both consider it their favorite book in the Bible.
b)
The Book “Song of Songs”, also nicknamed “Song of
Solomon” and often abbreviated “Songs” in different Bibles, is a musical drama
between a man and a women.
i)
It is a love story with sexual overtones.
ii)
The characters in this “short musical” are usually
considered the bride and groom, the girl’s family and the “daughters of
Jerusalem”.
a)
Most of your study Bibles will insert who is speaking
before each section.
(1)
For example, if the bride is speaking, the New King
James Study Bible® will
insert “The Shulamite”. That is her
title.
(2)
The Living Bible® will
insert “The Girl”.
(3)
In the original text, those titles are not there.
(4)
The writers of those study bibles put them there for our
reference.
(a)
In fact, not all of your study Bibles agree upon who is
speaking on any one given point.
(b)
Those Bible writers look at the grammar, and make
assumptions about who is speaking.
(c)
All you should remember is in the original text those
names above the text are not there.
5.
Let’s start with what we know for sure about the
Song of Songs:
a)
It was written by Solomon. The same Solomon who was king of Israel after David.
i)
Verse 1 of Chapter 1 says, “Solomon’s Song of Songs” (Songs 1:1, NIV)
ii)
His name is mentioned seven times in the book.
b)
This woman is called, “The Shulamite”
i)
Here is the reference:, “Return, return, O Shulamite;
(Songs 6:13, NKJV)
ii)
The word is spelled with 2 “m’s” (Shulammite) in
the NASB and the NIV.:
a)
One Messianic Jewish commentator pointed out that in the
Hebrew, the root word for the Shulamite is very similar to the word for
“Solomon”.
An acceptable paraphrase of this title could be “Mrs. Solomon”.
(Source: Arnold Fruchtenbaum)
b)
The similarity is often compared in the love they have
for each other. The similarity of the
Hebrew names of Solomon and “Mrs. Solomon” (i.e., the Shulamite). It is as if they are becoming “one in name”.
c)
The only other characters in this play is a female
chorus. Most study Bibles call them
“The Daughters of Jerusalem. We’ll talk
more about these girls later.
i)
There are a few verses that some commentators believe
are friends of Solomon, but at this point, we are getting trivial.
d)
To summarize, the whole play is a dialogue between
Solomon and his bride, with a handful of verses given to a choir, usually
labeled as “The Daughters of Jerusalem”.
6.
Let’s talk a little bit about Solomon himself and this
bride.
a)
We do know that this woman is the only woman Solomon
loved.
i)
Solomon made a lot of mistakes in his life. One of them was having hundreds of
wives. Most, if not all, were
politically arranged marriages with princesses of other countries so to arrange
peace with that country.
b)
It appears that this woman in Song of Songs is the only
woman that Solomon truly loved.
i)
Notice what Moses told the children of Israel about
multiple wives:
a)
Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his
heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for
himself. (Deut. 17:17 NIV)
ii)
Now notice what Solomon did, hundreds of years later:
a)
And he (Solomon) had seven hundred wives, princesses,
and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. For it was
so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; (1st Kings 11:3-4a, NKJV).
(1)
Speaking as a married man, one wife is difficult enough
to please,
I can’t imagine seven hundred! J
(2)
Anniversary dinners must have really been tough. J
b)
Yet, despite all of these women, listen to what Solomon
said about this girl in the Song of Songs:
(1)
“There are sixty queens
And eighty concubines,
And virgins without number.
My dove, my perfect one,
Is the only one, (Songs 6:8-9a,
NKJV)
(2)
Throughout the book, Solomon refers to this true love as
“his dove”. We’ll discuss that
reference when we get there.
(a)
To give you a hint, doves-as-a-bird, mate for life!
(3)
When Song of Songs was written, Solomon had “only” 60
wives.
(a)
1st Kings said he added others after this
true love.
(b)
This could warrant a discussion on the topic of “long
term love vs. living in the emotional moment.”
c)
The commentaries are full of theories on who this woman
is.
i)
Many of those theories are interesting, but none are
provable.
ii)
None of those theories have any good application to our
lives, so I’ll move on.
7.
When you hear sermons or read commentaries on Song of
Songs, there are multiple levels on which you can read this.
a)
Most of them are either literal interpretations
or allegorical (figurative) interpretations.
b)
Let’s start with the literal interpretations.
i)
One can not ignore the reality of the sexual literalness
of Song of Songs.
ii)
A common misconception is the Bible is “anti-sex” for
the purpose of pleasure. There is no
mention in any of this love making that the intended purpose of the interlude
is to make babies. It is about the love
this couple has for each other and expressing it physically.
iii)
God designed marriage to glorify that pleasure He
designed for us.
c)
Next comes the allegorical (figurative) interpretations.
i)
Jewish commentators, naturally, compare Solomon and his
bride with God’s love for the Jewish people.
ii)
Christian commentators, naturally, compare Solomon and
his bride with God’s love for the Christian church.
a)
Since I happen to believe Jesus is God, I’ll talk about
this one throughout the study. J It is natural
and I believe Scriptural to give this interpretation.
b)
Since Song of Songs was written long before Jesus came
the first time, one can respect the Jewish arguments for their interpretation.
iii)
What is important to see, is that our love for our
husband or our wife stems from God love. Like all the other gifts God gives us, we can draw upon God’s
strength and God’s love to have the ability to love our spouses, physically,
emotionally, and the giving of our time and our ourselves.
a)
I’ve often heard the perfect marriage is where two
people spend their lives trying to “outdo each other” in pleasing each other.
b)
That type of love stems from the type of love God has
for his people.
c)
That source and strength can be drawn upon to have a
healthy and happy martial relationship.
(1)
By the way, I’m speaking of the ideal here. Like all other humans,
I have my faults and my shortcomings.
(2)
I would love to have a better marriage. As a couple, my wife and
I have our problems like all other couples.
(3)
What I have found is, is the times I have drawn upon
God’s strength through prayer, that my marriage shines the best. The happiest and greatest times in my
marriage have come from when
I sought God first for a better marriage.
d)
That is why so many commentators compare the verses of
Song of Songs to our relationship with God.
(1)
Is Song of Songs about physical love between a man and a
woman? Yes, of course.
(2)
The reason Song of Songs is “biblical”, despite its lack
of any good Godly terms like “prayer” and “salvation” is that this book is
about the love relationship God desires of all of his children. A ideal bond between a man and his wife is
what God desires as a relationship between God and you (and me!)
(3)
That doesn’t mean God wants to physically make love with
you. Physical lovemaking is just a way
of expressing our deep desire to be with another person. It is a way of saying how much I want to
make the other person happy.
(a)
God loves us with an eternal perfect love. God wants great things for you and wants us
to be happy, through the good and bad times of life. That happiness stems from having a relationship with God.
(b)
The Song of Songs is just an example of how to show some
of God’s love through our marriage.
8.
It may interest you to know, that in Hebrew, there is no
word for “bachelor”.
a)
Through most of history, through most cultures,
marriages were arranged by the parents.
This included the religious Jewish culture.
i)
Therefore, many parents, figuring that they are smarter
than their children, took it upon themselves to arrange for a husband or a wife
for their children.
ii)
Yet one of the privileges of being a king was to choose
one’s bride.
b)
It does not mean that everyone should be married or that
divorce is a sin.
i)
Divorce is never listed in the Bible as a sin.
a)
I would say divorce is frowned upon, but never included
in any of the
“sin lists” found throughout the New Testament.
ii)
What you can find in the story of Adam and Eve and in
the 10 commandments (“honor your mother and father”) is that God desires
marriage.
iii)
Paul himself taught in 1st Corinthians,
Chapter 7 (to paraphrase) that marriage is not for everyone. He recommends in that same chapter that if
your heart is to marry someone, to go do so.
a)
In Paul’s first letter to Timothy, Paul even counsels
young widows to re-marry. (See 1st
Timothy 5:14).
b)
Paul’s theme in 1st Corinthians Chapter 7 is
that we are “all” married to Christ.
Yet some can also express that love through marriage, and others who are
single dedicate themselves more fully to serving Christ.
iv)
The reason God instituted marriage is that it gives us:
a)
A model for how God wants to have a relationship with
us.
b)
Through God’s love we can have a healthy
relationship.
v)
On a related topic, as of the date of this writing, I
have a young daughter.
a)
Every night my wife & I pray for my daughter’s
future huband.
I specifically pray that God will give her “a man after His own heart”. Further, I pray that God will give all us
(me, wife, daughter) discernment to recognize who that man will eventually be.
(1)
My counsel to my daughter will be to find a man who
loves God more than he loves her.
That way, he can draw on God’s strength to love her as God
desires.
9.
Well, enough introduction J, let’s take on Verse
1: Solomon's Song of Songs.
a)
The title is in the Hebrew.
b)
It states the author, and among the 1,005 songs Solomon
wrote (again, see 1st Kings 4:32), this is the Song of Songs.
10.
Verse 2: Let him
kiss me with the kisses of his mouth--for your love is more delightful than
wine.
a)
Now the dialogue is started.
b)
We can logically assume in the first few verses that
this is the “bride” speaking.
i)
We know this because it says “Let him” kiss me.”
c)
Let’s get back to the speaker, who is the bride. Again, most of your study bibles will have
titles above the verses. Those are not
in the original text, so it is the writers of that study bible making
assumptions about the speaker.
d)
The Book opens with the desire of the girl to be
kissed by Solomon.
i)
Reading the verse in context of the rest of the chapter,
it appears the physical lovemaking has not begun yet.
ii)
The bride’s love for Solomon desires the kiss of
Solomon.
iii)
Throughout history, kissing is a sign of affection
between a husband and wife.
iv)
There is a principal here about letting the guy lead.
a)
You may think I’m making too much out of that, but I
believe most women, romantically, want men to lead.
v)
It is also a word picture of our relationship with
God. It starts with God choosing
us, and never the other way around.
a)
But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved
by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved
through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the
truth. (2nd Thessalonians
2:13, NIV)
e)
Next, the verse says “for your love is more delightful
than wine”.
i)
We will discover in a few verses that this girl works in
a vineyard.
a)
That means grape growing and winemaking are her life.
b)
Yet, she is saying “I love you more than my work, more
than my occupation (listening guys? J).
ii)
Wine is biblically associated with joy. It is usually mentioned in joyous occasions
in the Bible. Jesus at the wedding
feast in Cana turned the water into wine (Gospel of John, Chapter 2). The chapter describes this as a feast and
celebration. The “best man” of the
wedding commended the wine that Jesus changed from water. Again, the point is simply that wine is
associated with joy.
a)
Here, the bride says your love is more delightful
than wine.
f)
Throughout this study, I’m going to go back and forth
comparing these verses to God’s desire in our martial relationship and with our
relationship with God himself.
i)
In both cases, God desires our love for our spouse and
our love for him to be greater than the joy from wine, to be greater than our
occupational calling.
a)
It should be the greatest desire of our heart.
ii)
I should also talk here about my view on Christians and
drinking.
a)
Christians have debated for centuries over the
appropriateness of alcohol.
b)
The Bible strongly condemns being drunk. Paul says in 1st Corinthians 6:10
that drunkards will not be admitted into heaven.
(1)
The question is whether “drinking” is permitted.
c)
So where does one draw the line?
(1)
Personally, I would rather err on the safe side. J
(2)
I believe Christians should drink as much wine as they
want.
(3)
The question then becomes, “how much wine do you
want?
(4)
If you have the joy of the Lord, the answer should be
little to none.
(a)
A common theme of the Bible is the joy of our
relationship with God, the joy brought by love is much greater than anything
alcohol or any other pleasure in life can give us.
d)
That leads us back to this verse in Song of Songs, “for
your love is more delightful than wine”.
(1)
That means we shouldn’t be drunk because Christians are
not supposed to be drinking. That is
doing it for the wrong motivation. Our
motivation should be out of the love for God and the desire of love in our
martial relationship the love of anything else should be an very inferior
comparison.
(2)
To paraphrase, “why would I want wine when I have your
love?”
11.
Verse 3:
Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes; your name is like perfume
poured out.
No wonder the maidens love you!
a)
The sense of smell can be one of the most powerful
sensations one can have.
b)
Let me put this into an illustration that men can
relate to.
i)
To a man, there is few scents as wonderful as a steak
cooking on a barbeque.
a)
Or the smell of bacon cooking, or popcorn cooking.
ii)
That aroma attracts us, and makes us hungry for that
item.
c)
Women feel the same way about a man’s smell.
i)
Most men don’t use cologne. A few use too much. J
ii)
I would suspect most single men use it far more than
married men do.
iii)
Married men figure, “why should I use this stuff, I have
already got a wife?” J
a)
Let me start by saying, “wrong attitude”.