Good morning.
I appreciated the opening this morning in 1 Corinthians 11:24-25. I noticed in the verse prior, verse 23, Paul said, “I pass along to you that which I received from the Lord.” And really, that is all that a man does when he stands up here.
This book is a challenging book. Certainly, what you will hear today, I by no means declare that it is all one hundred percent correct. But I will say, I pass on to you what the Lord has given to me.
So let’s pray.
Lord, thank You for Your love that is just so rich. Thank You, Lord, for Your Word, and Lord, especially for this book.
Lord, I do pray that all that You want said will be said. I pray for those who hear, that You would give them an open ear and a mind and heart to understand.
Lord, I thank You that You call us together, that we assemble in Your name. Lord, we look for You to direct. We look for You to encourage and to explain. We thank You for this privilege, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Please turn to Isaiah 62. Just as a matter of introduction, I would like to read verses 1 through 5.
For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,
And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not keep quiet,
Until her righteousness goes forth like brightness,
And her salvation like a torch that is burning.
The nations will see your righteousness,
And all the kings your glory;
Then you will be called by a new name
Which the mouth of the Lord will designate.
You will also be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord,
And a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
It will no longer be said to you, “Forsaken,”
Nor to your land will it any longer be said, “Desolate”;
But you will be called, “My delight is in her,” Hephzibah,
And your land, “Married,” Beulah;
For the Lord delights in you,
And to Him your land will be married.
For as a young man marries a virgin,
So your sons will marry you;
And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
So your God will rejoice over you.—Isaiah 62:1-5
Our Lord is in the process of building a city, a bride. The thing that stood out to me was this: What is her beauty? He says it is her righteousness.
We all live and see every day the wickedness of the nation. But I want you to remember: even now, as you obey, and I obey the Lord, it is an aroma to Him. He sees your righteousness, and it goes into the city.
He rejoices every day when He sees the collective obediences of each individual Christian. And He glories in it.
He says, once we were forsaken; now we are His delight. Once desolate; soon to be married.
So, when I was asked to share, I had previously been looking into the Song of Songs. I remember several months ago, I had not really finished it, and I said to the Lord, “Lord, if there is something in this book You want me to share, I am willing to do so.”
So when I was asked, I did have three or four other options, but I remembered that prayer. So, Song of Songs it is.
As a matter of introduction, I do have a lot to share, so I am going to leave the introductory part of the book to your research. But it is a book, it is a poem; it is really not a narrative.
I did find this quite difficult in looking through the book. I think more linearly. I want to see the events as they progress one by one by one. But when you read this book, it is very difficult to put the pieces together. Sometimes, it is even hard to understand who is speaking. But it is a poem; it is not a narrative.
It was written by Solomon. It is clearly stated in the first verse. It was written in 965 BC, very early in his reign. Out of 1 Kings 4, we find that he wrote over one thousand and five songs, of which this one is the chief.
But it is a rich love story of a man named Solomon and a Shulamite.
Who was this Shulamite? There are many opinions, and I will leave that to your research as well. I would just tell you that my opinion is that she was a woman from Shulam.
Quite challenging, difficult. But I love what Shulam means. It is a place nowhere mentioned in Scripture. They are really not sure where it is.
Some seem to think that it was a place outside of the Promised Land. These were a group of people that either Solomon brought, or they chose to come into Solomon’s kingdom, but they were mostly laborers. They did not have the lineage or pedigree of the Israelite. So this was a woman who was a laborer.
And Shulam is not her name; it is the place. Shulam means peace, whole, unbroken. I put it together: she was peacefully unbroken.
There are many interpretations to this book. Matter of fact, even by the year 1700, there were over five hundred, and the leaders gathered together in Westminster. They thought they were going to collect the right one and settle this matter.
When they finished their meeting, they basically said, “It is more confusing now to us than it ever was.” So, yes, there are many different ways to look at this book.
Some look at it literally: a man and wife, a husband-and-wife relationship. Certainly, there are lessons for us there. Some look at it purely as an allegory about our Lord Jesus and His bride.
When I was looking at the book, I saw clearly some of both. But probably more I will share today because I love Jesus, and I love seeing Him in this book. I saw Him.
So we will look more today from an allegorical point of view.
As a matter of outline, very quickly, the book has about six different parts. It is the story, or progression, of their relationship:
So I trust, by the Lord’s grace—we are not sure if we will get through them all—but we will press on.
First: courtship. Most of us have courted, and it is a period often marked by nervousness. It is kind of feeling each other out, unfamiliar territory. But it can also be very exhilarating, and this was certainly the case for the Shulamite.
So let us read Song of Songs 1:4-6, just to get a beginning of this courtship.
Draw me after you and let us run together!
The king has brought me into his chambers.
We will rejoice in you and be glad;
We will extol your love more than wine.
Rightly do they love you.I am black but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem,
Like the tents of Kedar,
Like the curtains of Solomon.
Do not stare at me because I am swarthy,
For the sun has burned me.
My mother’s sons were angry with me;
They made me caretaker of the vineyards,
But I have not taken care of my own vineyard.—Song of Songs 1:4-6
It begins with the Shulamite in the palace of the king. As I said, the chronology is not always just verse by verse. She did not start out in the palace. Actually, she started out as a laborer in a vineyard.
Her brothers—she was an only child; she had two stepbrothers—we do not know if her dad died or if he just ran off, but dad was absent. Her brothers really loved her. It sounds like they were mean to her; in some ways, they were strong. But they were very concerned about whether, when she grew up, she would have a man worth having.
So, to seclude her to some degree, they gave her some vineyards to work in. They were not their own; these were Solomon’s vineyards. The name of the vineyard is Baal-hamon, and it means “ruler of crowds.” It also implies multitudes.
So this vineyard was not just a small garden like what you might raise in your backyard. I do not know how much of the vineyard she worked. All I know is that Solomon had many vineyards, and this particular one was large, and she was in it.
So she started in the soiled fields of labor, and she was called to the palace of the king.
This is the first Jesus I saw. Do we not all start out in sin and wickedness? Is it not somehow in our life—each of you knows how the Lord passed by, among multitudes, and He saw you? He asked you to join Him at His banqueting table.
This should resound in your heart to joy and praise.
So the Shulamite, early in her courtship, experiences the grace and bounty of King Solomon, and she begins to praise him.
My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms
In the vineyards of Engedi.—Song of Songs 1:14
Engedi was an oasis. It should not have been there, a place in the desert. It was known for its shrubs, which were so fragrant that when you walked by, you could smell them. After having been in the desert, she saw Solomon like this oasis. How beautiful he was.
Solomon has a large kingdom, and in this courtship she does not just go or stay in one place. She goes different places.
The next place she goes to, she leaves the palace and goes into the woods of the kingdom. She enjoys the stately trees of Lebanon. She looks at them and calls them like the beams of her house and of this courtship. She knows they belong to Solomon, and she is enthralled with all he owns. She looks to him and sees him almost like a stately tree.
I know I am in forestry, and there are trees that the state calls champion trees. It is because of their size and their crown, and they are actually chronicled. Well, to the Shulamite, Solomon was a champion.
But she refers to herself and says, “I am a rose of Sharon. I am just an autumn crocus.” Often, autumn is not really the normal time of year for blooming, so she was a late bloomer. Most all the flowers, as we all know, come in the spring.
But early in our courtship—or earlier in our walk with Jesus—He sometimes just seems too big, and we seem little. But that is normal. Do not stay there.
Now, along the way, there was also a little bit of outside influence. All along through this whole book, you have the daughters of Jerusalem speaking. Solomon ends up saying to them something to the effect of, “Do not hurry love until it is ready.”
I got the picture that Solomon was kind of like, “I have a long journey for this woman, and I am still kind of checking her out. I know you see us as a couple, and I know you get all excited and want to say how beautiful it all is, but do not hurry me. Let my love come forth in the timing that I have set.”
A little word to you matchmakers out there: be careful. Do not push things along too fast.
I know many years ago, in my dating and courtship and so forth, I did experience a lot of talk from what were my wife’s girl and lady friends. I heard an awful lot from them about how she felt, and it did not always sum up what I heard from her. But I was confused.
At any rate, we do need to offer a little bit of restraint when we deal with this thing about courtship. Just do not say whatever comes on the tips of your lips.
All right, read Song of Songs 2:7. This is what Solomon says to the daughters:
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
By the gazelles or by the hinds of the field,
That you do not arouse or awaken my love
Until she pleases.—Song of Songs 2:7
Let Jesus lead. That is the message. Let Him lead.
The male is the leader of the relationship. Now, that may not be what you hear today, but nonetheless, God is the author of marriage. Ladies, let the male lead in the relationship.
Those of you who are watching, let Jesus lead. Just let Him lead. He has a plan. If we get to it at the end of the book, the bride sees it, and man, is it beautiful to her when she looks back.
The next place she goes to is what I call the Rocky Mountains of the kingdom. Song of Songs 2:10, 14, and 16.
My beloved responded and said to me,
“Arise, my darling, my beautiful one,
And come along.
For behold, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone.”O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
In the secret place of the steep pathway,
Let me see your form,
Let me hear your voice.My beloved is mine, and I am his;
He pastures his flock among the lilies.—Song of Songs 2:10-16
She gets out of the palace, the banqueting hall, and enters into the kingdom. But it is a rocky place. She does go to the other vineyards and places of beauty, but there are narrow crevices and crags.
We know that she cries out to him and says, “Let me see your face. Let me hear your voice.”
Sometimes I thought of the college students: the comforts of home, the banqueting hall of Mom’s cooking, the comforting love of Dad and his counsel and provision.
I also thought of perhaps the widow, or the wife or husband who is estranged. Home, or that marriage, was your place of comfort, and for some reason it changed. The Shulamite left there, and she went out into this mountainous area.
Just notice: union with Jesus is not learned in the palace, but out in His kingdom.
She experienced difficulty, and she learned that she had to cry out, “Lord Jesus, let me see Your face. Lord Jesus, let me hear Your voice.” We must do the same.
After that, that is when she, for the first time, said, “My beloved is mine, and I am his.” Pretty sounding. Can you say that? Do you really know that all of the Lord is yours? And can you say all of you is His?
She learned that because she left the palace.
Song of Songs 3:1: all of a sudden, the scene changes.
On my bed night after night
I sought him whom my soul loves;
I sought him but did not find him.—Song of Songs 3:1
This was the Shulamite lost in the city. Obviously, there must have been some time elapsed in this courtship. So she goes out searching to try to find him, and she seeks help from the city guards, from the watchmen. She eventually finds him.
A few lessons when we face dark times: she lost him. She just could not find him. Sometimes we have that with the Lord.
How do we respond when we have kind of lost the Lord, or He seems hidden? One: do like her. Keep searching.
You may find watchmen. Let them be helpful, but do not stop with the watchmen. They may have good things to say. But if you notice the story, she said, “Quickly, I turned and saw him.” So she did not stay with the watchmen.
When it is dark, yes, seek counsel. But do not forget the real passion and joy. Do not stop seeking until you find Jesus.
Focus on truth and not emotions. Emotions can be so disparaging. They can so cloud the real truth, particularly who He is, what He has done for you, and His faithfulness.
As the psalmist says, even the darkness is light to Him. He does not reside in darkness.
Then in Song of Songs 3:4, there is another principle the bride gives us.
I found him whom my soul loves;
I held on to him and would not let him go
Until I had brought him to my mother’s house,
And into the room of her who conceived me.—Song of Songs 3:4
Now, that seemed awfully strange. But I thought about the mother-daughter relationship and how, if you have a good mom, there is somewhere you can go and bear your soul. It is okay for you to help and speak to your daughter when she is older; it is not just when they are little. Moms are to be an influence.
She was lost. She could not find her lover. This was kind of a representation of, “If there is anywhere I can go and bear my soul, it is to my mom.”
This is the encouragement to us when we have dark times: bear your soul to the Lord. Let Him be like your mother. Just be honest. Tell Him where you are. Tell Him what hurts. Tell Him what is going on. Tell Him why you cannot see Him.
Again, in Song of Songs 3:5, you get that same message from Solomon: “Do not arouse or awaken my love until she pleases.” I saw in this that the Lord says, “Sometimes My children go through hard times. It is supposed to happen.”
“You cannot do My perfect work and develop this love and bring it to maturity until I see: are they going to call out to see My face? Are they going to call out to hear My voice? Are they going to bear their soul before Me?”
So He tells the onlookers, “Do not push. I know what We are doing here.” Let the Lord lead you even through the dark time.
Lastly, follow the flock when times get dark. They will lead you to the Shepherd. So stay connected to the body. A single sheep can easily fall prey to the wolves.
So we now move on to the marriage procession. We are in Song of Songs 3:6-11. I would like to read verses 6 and 7.
Remember, she just came through this period of being lost in the city, and she does find him. Now we are moving from courtship to marriage. Do not miss the connection.
Sometimes it is that difficulty. Sometimes it is where you have looked everywhere else, and you have talked to everyone else you can talk to, and the Lord is just saying, “Come to Me.”
When He sees you come to Him, He knows now true marriage is ready. There is more He will show to you, the bride, in this relationship.
So he does get extremely excited.
What is this coming up from the wilderness
Like columns of smoke,
Perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,
With all scented powders of the merchant?
Behold, it is the traveling couch of Solomon;
Sixty mighty men around it,
Of the mighty men of Israel.—Song of Songs 3:6-7
So we have the royal procession. Solomon spent great time to personally build this palanquin, this bridal car, this traveling couch, this traveling throne large enough to almost lie down in.
The daughters of Jerusalem spent much of their talents decorating the inside, the curtains that covered it. It made me think of how the husband, the king, wanted the bride to be so fully adorned, so fully prepared for the wedding of a king.
Now, I cannot say that my wife had much of a bridal car. I owned a 1966 Ford truck, and it was big as a tank, and I think it weighed as much as a tank. I thought, “Now how am I going to take my bride away in that?”
Her father and mom were very gracious. They had this big Bonneville—was it a Bonneville? Is that what it was? All right. Power windows, power steering, leather seats. I mean, it was everything my tank truck was not.
So I certainly said, “Yes, this is what my bride and I will ride away in.” And we did. We traded it later for a little old Honda to travel to the honeymoon.
But anyway, the point is this: the Lord wants to share His riches with the bride. He withholds nothing.
The other thing is that He is jealous over you, and He is prepared to defend you. Solomon had sixty of the mighty men around this traveling couch.
Just know the Lord is so jealous over the love you have for Him and that He has for you, that He will—and is prepared to—defend you.
Could I get somebody to read John 17:24, please?
Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, and to see My glory, the glory You have given Me because You loved Me before the creation of the world.
—John 17:24
The Lord is very anxious. So much so that in that High Priestly Prayer, He asked the Father that we could join Him.
Do not lose sight of that. It is true, and it will happen.
We will have a whole new body, prepared and adorned unlike the one we have now. But that prayer will be answered. He does look forward anxiously to seeing that we join Him with His Father in His kingdom.
So we move on to the next section: the marriage consummated, Song of Songs 4:1-5:1. What we have here is intimate fellowship.
You are altogether beautiful, my darling,
And there is no blemish in you.—Song of Songs 4:7
This is a period where the procession is over, all the food and regalia are finished, and they are just with each other.
Time does not allow us to go through the whole section. It is really the whole of chapter 4, the dialogue between the two. But I do want to say the groom mentions eight different things about the bride: her eyes, her hair, her teeth, her lips.
The other thing I noticed when I read this was that the bride, when she speaks to the groom, speaks in ways similar to what he spoke of her in the courtship. It looks like now the bride has taken on some of the same beauties of the groom.
Is it not interesting that just being with Jesus makes you like Him? So let His fragrance be your fragrance.
That was pretty evident in the loving talk and description of the husband and wife to one another. I have almost noticed—I do not know if it is true all the time—but I have seen older couples where they almost begin to look like each other.
Maybe they eat the same bread and sleep the same hours. I do not know what it is. But what I saw here was that there was a reversal of descriptions, and I think it was because of the things they had shared and endured together early in the courtship, through the period of being lost, the searching, the finding, and finally the wedding.
Also, Song of Songs 4:16:
Awake, O north wind,
And come, wind of the south;
Make my garden breathe out fragrance,
Let its spices be wafted abroad.
May my beloved come into his garden
And eat its choice fruits!—Song of Songs 4:16
She refers to herself as a garden. Earlier in the description of herself, she was an autumn crocus. Now, in marriage, she is more than just a single flower. She is a garden.
As you walk with the Lord and find out who He is, and He tells you who you are to Him, hopefully you will find that you grow in your admiration—or He grows in His admiration of you—because you are not just a single flower. You become a garden because you have let Him work and till the soil of your garden.
That is the hard part. This is a period of separation, what I call fellowship broken. Look at Song of Songs 5:2 and 6.
I was asleep but my heart was awake.
A voice! My beloved was knocking:
“Open to me, my sister, my darling,
My dove, my perfect one!
For my head is drenched with dew,
My locks with the damp of the night.”I opened to my beloved,
But my beloved had turned away and had gone.
My heart went out to him as he spoke.—Song of Songs 5:2, 6
This period, some people call challenges in the marriage or whatever. But when I looked at some of the rest of the book and the references to springtime, there is evidence this happened a little later. We do not know how much later—at least a year; it could have been several years. They were married.
There are also a few commentators who say that she is at the house of her mother again, in the cottage. So I called this a period of separation, more definitely on the bride’s part, not the husband’s.
Again, the husband is hurt, and he is still seeking full openness from his bride. She cannot find him. She searches the city, and then she gets beaten by some watchmen.
It is interesting: the daughters of Jerusalem—I am not real sure what changed with them, but maybe it was this period of unknowing or separation—they start coming to her and saying, “What is so great about him? Why are you so torn up that you cannot find him or that he is not with you?”
Somehow, in the imagery of him knocking on the door, it does clearly state she did not answer because she had already finished her day’s labors. She was kind of dirty, had already gotten all cleaned up, and some commentators say she had her nightgown on and had taken her makeup off. She was in bed.
I think the husband was so torn over the fact that something disturbed her. I do not know if he had been away on business—who knows? But she needed to go spend some time with Mom.
I think I see it or understand it better that he is knocking on the door of her mother’s house. She wants to get up, and as we have read, she finally decides, “Oh, I want him. I am going to get up.” And he leaves.
I want to speak a minute to any of you, or perhaps friends you may have, who have experienced separation. I have just three simple things.
One is: leave them a present at the door.
When the husband left, some think he left her favorite perfume at the door. I do not know if that is true or not. But the one thing she commented on was that when she went to the door, she could smell his fragrance on the door handles.
I think all of you know that the olfactory senses produce memories. When she went to that door, whether she had a gift or not, I do not know.
The message to friends who may be going through separation is this: be ready to give a gift. Let it be the fragrance of Christ that will produce memories, hopefully enough to trigger them out of whatever has caused them to leave the marriage.
The other is: give them time. It is apparent through the book, because there is a reunion. The reunion is not now. It appears that Solomon went back to his palace.
So give them time. Lastly, forgive them. Forgive them.
The other thing is, be prepared. Not all have been with Jesus in the rocky crags. Not all have called out to see His face and hear His voice.
The daughters of Jerusalem—you might get the naysayers—say, “What is so great about it? Why are you wanting Him so bad?”
Well, I never did read where they went into the rocky crags with Solomon. They did not have to learn to hear His voice.
So, fellowship restored, and we will wrap this up. Song of Songs 6:4:
You are as beautiful as Tirzah, my darling,
As lovely as Jerusalem,
As awesome as an army with banners.—Song of Songs 6:4
There is also a point where they are pictured in almost this traveling couch again, or chair; it is called a chariot.
What happens? I think the king sends her a letter or a messenger. This first verse I just read is a letter of encouragement and a description of her beauty in its fullness. She gets the opportunity to read it.
It encourages her enough to leave Mom’s house. Of course, the answer she gave to those daughters of Jerusalem is, “Where is this great husband of yours?” “Oh, I know where he is.” She describes where he is, specifically in the garden.
So she goes to a different place, kind of the nut orchard and a couple of places she goes to. The way it is written, it is like she was just going to certain places. I think the letter really encouraged her and helped her. She went to some of the places they had gone before, just kind of remembering. It was going to be of great help to her.
Well, what I saw here was that Solomon is there. Is it not comforting that Jesus knows where to find us?
She knew where he was. I am not sure if that is where she went, but he knew where she was. He went there, and when she saw him, all her troubles—we do not know really what they were—were gone.
She gets up on the chariot, and they ride past the palace court. There is a section in here where the ladies and those in the palace say, “Oh, come back, come back, come back, O Shulamite.” They had missed her in the kingdom.
But they are going out on a second honeymoon. That is for you to read the rest of the story in Song of Songs 7 and 8.
The Lord is so gracious. He knows how to strengthen the wounded heart. He knows how to send the right messenger with the right words at the right time to encourage you, to bring you out of that point where whatever it is caused you to either turn away from the Lord or just seem cold.
But He knows, and it is clearly illustrated in this book.
So in closing, I leave you with four charges:
Let us pray.
Lord, Your love is lavish. It is everything we need. Lord, it causes us to be excited; it causes us to rejoice.
Lord, we at times kind of get cold, and the cares of this world rise up, and we just do not sometimes want to answer the door.
I pray that this book and the words You have shared here will bring encouragement to that one who might seem a little cold. Lord, show them that You know where to find them.
Give them, Lord, the words that will cause them to return to Your joy. Lord, take them along on another journey that is sweeter than the one before.
We do love You and praise You and thank You, in Jesus’ name. Amen.