Song of Songs is a poetic story about the privileges and responsibilities of physical love. The description of physical love expressed by the king and his bride in Song of Songs 1-4 establishes a framework for marital relations. The author began by describing the bride’s longing to be with the king (Song 1:4). Yet she was nervous, self-conscious, about their encounter (Song 1:5-7). Her nerves were calmed by the admiration of the king, who said, “I compare you, my darling, to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots. Your cheeks are beautiful with jewelry, your neck with its necklace” (Song 1:9-10). The couple came together in joyful and passionate physical union—from which the bride taught the young women a lesson: “Do not stir up or awaken love until the appropriate time” (Song 2:7). Even though the king’s bride knew the joys of being with her lover, she warned her friends that sexual passion must be fulfilled in God’s time.
The king’s bride was ecstatic when she saw the king coming to her after a time of being away. “Listen! My love is approaching,” she said, “Look! Here he comes, leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills” (Song 2:8). Solomon said to his bride, “Arise, my darling. Come away, my beautiful one. For now the winter is past; the rain has ended and gone away” (Song 2:10). Yet, it seems that he had to depart for some reason, and she was left alone at night. Then she had a dream that portrayed her fierce loneliness without him: “In my bed at night I sought the one I love; I sought him, but did not find him…I will seek the one I love. I sought him, but did not find him” (Song 3:1-2). Her dream ended happily, as she found her lover and brought him to the home of her family—the place of her security. From her dream the king’s bride provided instruction once again: “Young women of Jerusalem, I charge you, by the gazelles and the wild does of the field: do not stir up or awaken love until the appropriate time” (Song 3:5). The way that the king and his bride compliment and entice one another during lovemaking underscores their love for one another in all of life. The narrator of the poem exhorted them, “Eat, friends! Drink, be intoxicated with love!” (Song 5:1)
As the storyline of Scripture advances, the themes of sexuality expressed so vividly in the Song of Songs become a matter to be discussed within the broader category of one’s spiritual standing in Christ.
(1) Though marriage provides the means for sexual pleasure, even marriage is to be understood in light of God’s redemptive plan. Some in Corinth had wondered whether, in light of God’s redemptive historical work in Christ, they ought to abandon sexuality and marriage all together. Paul replied in 1 Corinthians 7 that heterosexual marriage provides the framework for sexual expression and in that sense curbs the desires that might lead to immoral behavior. Paul was content as a single man and urged those who would wish to be single to remain as such. But Paul wrote that to be single and immoral would be worse than being married and moral—even though marriage includes spousal commitments that might inhibit one’s freedom to serve Christ and the church. For Paul, God’s revelation of Himself in Christ and the Spirit is to guide decisions about marriage and sexuality. The author of Hebrews wrote similarly in Heb 13:4, “Marriage must be respected by all, and the marriage bed kept undefiled, because God will judge immoral people and adulterers.”
(2) A church’s commitment to Christ and experience of the Spirit is demonstrated by the sexual purity of its members. In the Corinthian church, a man was sleeping with his stepmother. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul confronted the church. Instead of removing the immoral man from among them, the Corinthians were boasting of their freedom from moral constraints (1 Cor 5:1-2). Paul judged the Corinthians’ immorality because it contradicted the purity offered in Christ’s sacrificial death (1 Cor 5:6-8). To those in Corinth who were visiting prostitutes, Paul wrote, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?…Do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit?” (1 Cor 6:15, 19). Paul (Rom 1:18-25; 13:13-14; Gal 5:19-20; Eph 5:1-5; Col 3:5-7; 1 Thess 4:3-8), Peter (1 Pet 4:1-5; 2 Pet 2:10-20), and John (Rev 17:1-6; 18:1-3; 21:8) associated sexual immorality with idolatry and greed.
Song of Songs 5-8
Song of Songs is a poetic love story. Since God has ordained the physical expression of love between a husband and wife, one’s sexual activity expresses their spiritual commitments. In the first half of the Song of Songs, the author describes the royal couple’s passionate union. In chs. 5-8, the author notes that sexual relations lead to conflict and can heal conflict in marriage.
The king arrived in the bedchamber, but his bride was already asleep. “I have taken off my clothing,” she said, “How can I put it back on? I have washed my feet. How can I get them dirty?” (Song 5:3). Rebuffed, the king left and his bride was crushed (Song 5:6). The queen charged her maidens, “If you find my love, tell him that I am lovesick” (Song 5:8). The maidens probed, “What makes the one you love better than another, most beautiful of women? What makes him better than another, that you would give us this charge?” (Song 5:9). The maidens’ questions prompted the queen to reflect on the king’s form. His head, hair, eyes, cheeks, lips, arms, body, legs, and mouth, she told her maidens, were her delight (Song 5:10-16). In the poem, the queen’s description of her husband compelled the maidens to help the queen find her husband and bring him home (Song 6:1).
How would the king reply to the earlier ingratitude of his wife? He complimented her: “You are as beautiful as Tirzah, my darling, lovely as Jerusalem, awe-inspiring as an army with banners…my dove, my virtuous one is unique…Women see her and declare her fortunate; queens and concubines also, and they sing her praises” (Song 6:9). The young maidens replied with cants of celebration for the beauty of the Shulammite (Song 6:10-13), and Solomon again spoke of his desires to enjoy her body (Song 7:1-9). This time she would not deny her husband’s desire: “Come, my love, let’s go to the field,” she said, “let’s spend the night among the henna blossoms. Let’s go early to the vineyards; let’s see if the vine has budded, if the blossom has opened, if the pomegranates are in bloom. There I will give you my love” (Song 7:11-12). Once again, the Shulammite expressed the warning, “Do not stir up or awaken love until the appropriate time” (Song 8:4).
The portrait of enduring love in Song of Songs 5-8 establishes a framework for understanding the endurance of marriage in the storyline of Scripture. Jesus confronted the Pharisees’ casual attitude toward marriage. They cited Moses’ statement that if a man wished to divorce his wife, he had to give her a certificate of divorce (Deut 24:1) Jesus retorted that Moses allowed divorce because of Israel’s sinful hearts (Matt 19:3-12//Mark 10:2-12). In the beginning, Jesus said, God created humanity male and female such that a man would leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife (Gen 1:27; 2:24). According to Jesus, casual divorce displays a mindset that is greedy and ignorant of His coming into the world (Luke 16:14-18).
Commentary Old Testament Song of Songs