The Bride Confesses Her Love

  

 

Songs of Solomon

Chapter 1

December 24, 2022

 

The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's.  The Bride Confesses Her Love

She  Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!  For your love is better than wine; your anointing oils are fragrant; your name is oil poured out;
therefore virgins love you.  Draw me after you; let us run. The king has brought me into his chambers.

Others  We will exult and rejoice in you; we will extol your love more than wine; rightly do they love you.

She   I am very dark but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem,
like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.  Do not gaze at me because I am dark, because the sun has looked upon me.  My mother's sons were angry with me; they made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept!  Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon; for why should I be like one who veils herself beside the flocks of your companions?

Solomon and His Bride Delight in Each Other

He   If you do not know, O most beautiful among women, follow in the tracks of the flock, and pasture your young goats beside the shepherds' tents.  I compare you, my love, to a mare among Pharaoh's chariots. Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels.

Others  We will make for you ornaments of gold, studded with silver.

She   While the king was on his couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance.
My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh that lies between my breasts.   My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of Engedi.

He  Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful;
your eyes are doves.

She   Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful.  Our couch is green; the beams of our house are cedar; our rafters are pine.

This is one book in Scriptures I’ve put off in that my first desire is to run to Commentators, to have understanding.  It is very early in the morning and once more I cannot sleep, so I’ve asked the Lord to teach me what I need to understand, and how to put those thoughts into my understanding.  I will now try to sleep and pray that the Lord opens my small mind to the insights of this book.

How could the wise man who lived on the earth, who came from a dad & mother, have 700 wives, and 300 concubines?   Solomon it is believed was around 20 when he began to reign as the third king of Israel, and he was over the kingdom for 39 years, making him around 59 at his death.  How we know this about Solomon he was the wisest man to live on planet Earth, but he like all of us messed up, first it was the daughter of Pharaoh, then he married as well Moabite, Sidonian, Edomite, and Hittite origins.  1 Kings 11:1,  “King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites.”  We find in 1 Kings 11:4, “For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away to follow other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of his father David had been.”  Solomon began as a seeker of God, but his flesh and lust for sex and other things stole his heart, and he did not finish strong.

This is why I need to understand how the Songs of Solomon can be applied, for I understand it is breathed out by God's Spirit.  Maybe we can learn that a believer and an unbeliever will never become one, and that is God’s plan for marriage.  2 Corinthians 6:15-16, “What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?  What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” 

 

The Song of Solomon is a poetic example of love and marriage.  When two people, a man and a woman enter into a marriage relationship, love is the glue that overlooks the selfish act of the other mate.  If marriage was based on the physical it is going to be a rough marriage.  If it is based on wealth, or status that is also in for a bumpy road.  But when a marriage is a husband who loves his wife and is willing to put her needs above all else, it will last.  As we look at the Song of Solomon, remember it is poetic, and based on two lovers, and their marriage.  

 

 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice