May 26 Song of Songs Biblical Romantic Love

The Song of Songs (In Hebrew meaning the best song) is about romantic love between a man and a woman done in a Biblical manner. It is not a picture of Jesus and the church. The love between a man and a woman is necessary in the Bible because God invented it. It is only fitting that He give us a picture of what it should look like. In the second half of Chapter 4, God gives us an explicit wedding night scene and in v. 5:1, God blesses the proceedings.

The Song of Songs (sometimes called the Song of Solomon) is written as Hebrew poetry. It is wrapped in evocative images, which are very foreign to the 21st century reader. To fully understand what the writer is trying to convey, a serious reader needs to find a good commentary that unlocks all of the imagery.

Yes, there is hot, passionate sexuality in the Song, but there is also loving action and conversation between the lovers. God made sex and sexuality for total selfless release in marriage. Within those bounds, romantic love that includes sex is an integral part of the marriage relationship - and as shown in the Song, so is sexual anticipation between two lovers before marriage.

Sex is to wait until marriage - "Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires" (vv. 2:7; 3:5; 8:4).

Marriage is to be total giving for a lifetime - "I belong to my lover and his desire is for me" (v. 7:10)

I encourage couples that I marry to include a reading of vv. 8:6-7, which is a release of the deepest desires of a woman. I know this to be true, because God told us and he is the Maker.

• Song of Solomon 8:6-7 Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned.