Christ is All!: The Song Of Solomon: Love In Marriage And Love In Christ

For my Mercy . . .

She brought him a tender love, but it only awakened his thirst for higher joys. The devotion she poured into his heart carved out the "larger capacities" that God alone can fill. Henri Talon describing John Bunyan's wife

The greater your longing for love, the greater is your capacity to receive the love from God. Elisabeth Elliot from Passion and Purity

We have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him . . . We love because He first loved us. 1 John 4:16, 19

Because of God's Mercy, I've been thinking about the book of Song Of Solomon more and more recently, and I thought it would be helpful to put together some helpful resources on better understanding it. I view the book as a celebration of marital love between a man and a woman who are submitted to God. And every faithful marriage points to Christ and His Bride, the Church - so the book is also about Christ and the Church. See: Is The Song Of Songs About Sex Or Jesus?

I love how Douglas O'Donnell beautifully captures these two glorious realities of the book as he explains the central focus of the book in chapter 4:16-5:1 of the Song:

After his invitation to intimacy, she gladly accepts and offers an invitation of her own: “Awake, O north wind, and come O south wind! Blow upon my garden, let its spices flow”—now is the time for love to awaken! “Let my beloved come to his garden and eat its choicest fruits” (4:16). He quickly complies. And as he afterwards stops to celebrate their Promised Land-like lovemaking (“I came to my garden . . . I gathered my myrrh . . . I ate my honeycomb . . . I drank my wine with my milk”), their friends applaud this couple’s covenant consummation (“Eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with love!” 5:1).

Here at the very structural center of the Song (5:1), as there are 111 lines from 1:2 to 4:15 and 111 lines from 5:2 to 8:14, is its thematic focus. The Song is about sex! And it instructs through abbreviated narrative and virtuously veiled poetry that sex between a husband and wife should be an act of mutual submission that creates unity. Through lovemaking, her body as “a garden” (4:12, 15) and becomes “his garden” (4:16). As he completely and unreservedly gives himself to her, so she completely and unreservedly gives herself to him.

How Should Christians Think about Sexual Intimacy?

In a fallen world that promotes, and at times revels in, sexual expressions that are selfish and only self-satisfying, the less-than-prudish biblical Song provides an antidote for such damaging idiocy. With modesty and without crudity it invites readers to be “be drunk with love”—to slowly sip the wisdom of God joining together two people as “one flesh” (Matt 19:6). Moreover, this depiction of the unreserved but undefiled wedding bed points the reader, with all its garden imagery, to the intimacy offered in the Lord of Love in whom all desires will be satisfied. Sex is a signpost to the ultimate love between Christ and his church. Only through union with him will Christians experience Eden surpassed and the fulfillment of the promises of the Promised Land. When those united to Christ come to the city of God—a garden-like city with a river with fruit trees—to join in the wedding feast (Rev 19:7, 9; 21:6) they will then see their Savior’s “face” (Rev 22:4) and experience the ultimate ecstasy, what Augustine called totus Christus (“the whole Christ”), that is, “Christ together with his church, who together will enjoy God in the consummation.” (Song Of Solomon Commentary)

Dr. Philip Ryken has written a book about the Song: The Love Of Loves In The Song Of Songs. You can listen to all of his sermons that make up the content of his book here:

1. Prologue: Love Story: I Love You Always, Forever

2. Song Of Solomon 1:1-11: Love Story: You're the One that I Want

3. Song Of Solomon 1:12-2:7: Love Story: Under The Apple Tree

4. Song Of Solomon 2:8-3:5: Love Story: "Me for You, and You for Me"

5. Song Of Solomon 3:6-5:1: Love Story: "Epithalamion"

6. Song Of Solomon 5:2-6:3: Love Story: "Love is a Battlefield"

7. Song Of Solomon 6:4-8:4: Love Story: "The Duet After the Fight"

8. Song Of Solomon 8:5-8:14: Love Story: "I'm Forever Yours"

Dr. Michael Lawrence preached through the whole book here:

1. Love Songs - Love's Delight

2. Love Songs - Love's Invitation

3. Love Songs - Love's Search

4. Love Songs - Love's Consummation

5. Love Songs - Love's Pursuit

6. Love Songs - Love's Desire

7. Love Songs - Love's Strength