While I'm pretty familiar with the book, I learned something new as I read it this time. My past studies were primarily focused on a godly relationship with a man, but this time I read it through the lens of my relationship with the Lord.
"The most striking feature of the Song of Songs is it's eroticism. The Song is a collection of romantic love lyrics in which sexuality is pervasive and explicit. But if the most striking feature to certain modern exegetes of the Song is its eroticism, the most striking feature in the history of its interpretation is its devotionalism.
As far back as we have any evidence, both Jews and Christians have read it as a description of the devotional life - the life of meditation and prayer." Eugene Peterson, Conversations, pg. 1013I, too, have read it through modern eyes and have thought of it primarily as a text on relationships with the opposite sex, but I was intrigued as I considered its commentary on a relationship with the Lord. It certainly put verses like these in a different context for me:
You've captured my heart, dear friend. You looked at me, and I fell in love. One look my way and I was hopelessly in love. (4:10)
He's one in a million. There's no one quite like him!...Everything about him delights me, thrills me through and through. (5:10, 16)So, today I'm reading, not with my delightful husband in mind, but with my Lover and Friend in my thoughts:
My lover is mine, and I am his (2:16)
"What I'm saying to you...is this: I love you. I delight in you. I will do whatever it takes for you to enter into the exquisite, life-defining pleasure of the communion My Son and I enjoy. I invite you into the feast of love...
The human writer of the letter did not have My Son in mind as he recorded the song. I did. I always do. Read Solomon's song as a rich expression of love between an ancient king and his bride. But as you read, let your heart (and your right brain) soar into the joy of the love between My Son and Me, into the wonder of My Son's love for you, and into the hope of your communion with Us in that love." 66 LL
2 comments:
I was a little surprised that we were reading Song of Solomon all in one day, but this morning I so enjoyed taking in this whole love letter in one sitting. It reminded me college (when we still hand-wrote letters!) and I would receive a thick envelope in the mail from a boyfriend I hadn't seen during the summer. Of course I'd sit down and read the whole thing in one sitting...and then sneak away to read it again.
Reading this Song at this stage of my life, an odd verse stuck out to me - "...I had no time to care for my own face" (1:6). That's how I often feel - my age is showing up on my face. All the late nights, the lack of skincare products, the sun damage, the squinting, the gain and loss of pregnancy weight, the terrible cries - it's all there on my face. Eric doesn't seem to notice it...much. But even more, my lover, God, sees it all as beautiful, desirable, lovely.
In The Sacred Romance,
John Eldridge has a great chapter using 6 biblical metaphors in ascending order to describe our relationship with God. You know them:
1. Potter/ Clay....molded by God.
2. Shepherd/Sheep...God guides us along path.
3. Master/Servant...Benevolent God looking out for our interests.
4. Father/Child...Full rights and full love in His House.
5. Befriender/Friend...Calls us His Friend and invites us to walk with Him.
6. Lover/Beloved...Highest level of initmacy. Invited to be lovers!
Far too long, I was stuck in the Master/servant relationship and the Father/child. He longs for His Beloved just as I am. And for me today, it was fighting back tears from being offended by my child as I confronted him. You see, I wasn't like David who didn't need the response of his child to love his son and love God. I wanted a different response way too much. Blessed & Grateful for Rom 2:4 the Kindness of God that leads to repentance. And our Lover beckons just as I am.
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