Solomon’s Song of Songs, A Superlative Love Song

Table of contents

Various titles.  Solomon.  Song of songs.  Criteria met for it being better.  Characteristics of the poem itself.

“The Song of Songs which is Solomon’s.”  Solomon’s Song of Songs 1:1

or “Solomon’s song of songs”

This is the title of the greatest love poem ever written by Solomon.

What does it mean?

“Solomon’s”

“Which is Solomon’s”  as if he owned it, had possession of it.  It is his writing.  He is one of the authors along with the Holy Spirit.

Possible ways of understanding or interpreting the title.   Concerning Solomon.  Solomon as the author.  Given to Solomon.

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Concerning or about Solomon

The title could mean about him, Solomon, a type of Christ for she mentions and talks about him or her “beloved” more than 27x in the Song.   Certainly her beloved is a focus.  And attention is drawn to him in 3:11. “Concerning him.”  If so It would be about him and his love.  Or as a Jew would better understand Solomon, as a king of peace.  Thus a love Song about a Messiah who was know for peace.  Peace with God, peace with his/His people, peace with the nations and peace with his bride.  This is true, the Song illustrates the love of Israel’s third Messiah, a type of Christ, the king of peace, Solomon, to his bride.   The Song does concern Solomon from the brides perspective.

It is a Love Song about Solomon’s courtship and marriage union.

The Song concerns the union of Solomon with the nations, his people and his bride.  The Song is about all the things yet it’s more about the brides experience of the love of a type of Christ, Solomon.  Or concerning Solomon’s love, particularly to his bride.

“Solomon’s Song of songs”

Now lets look at the last three words of the title.  Song of Songs.

Song of Songs means a Song above other songs.

The idea is that of it being of a better nature than other songs Solomon wrote.   What criteria did he use or how did he come to the conclusion that this one was better than the rest?

Since it is a love Song then it is the best love Song Solomon wrote.  Of the Songs about Love that he wrote this one tops them all.  “Solomon’s Song of Songs” could be translated “The finest of the songs that belong to Solomon”.  Of all the love Songs that belonged to Solomon, this one stood out among all the rest.

It has already been rightly explained in the Midrash: “the most praiseworthy, most excellent, most highly-treasured among the songs.”

K and D

Nor can it mean “one of Solomon’s songs;” the title, as it here stands, would then be the paraphrase of שִׁיר שִׁירֵי שְׁ’, chosen for the purpose of avoiding the redoubled genitives; but “one of the songs” must rather have been expressed by שִׁיר מִשִּׁירֵי.

I would agree with KD that Song of Songs doesn’t mean one of Solomon’s Songs but the Song is one of Solomon’s Songs.  Yet just because the Song is one of Solomon’s that doesn’t mean thats what the title means.  The Song of Songs is a superlative love song because the title says so.  The Song of songs is also one of Solomon’s Songs not because the title  say so but because Solomon wrote 1,005 Songs in 1 Kings 4:32,  therefore this would be one of them.

Other superlatives with the same Hebrew construction

A superlative location.

Holy of holies.  There are locations that are holy and there is a location that is holiest.  The holiest of locations here on earth is the Holy of holies.   Where the greatest manifestation of the holiness of God is and is a location where the high priest could get closest to God.  The inner most part in the temple was the holiest.  Entered only once a year.  No other location was holier.

A superlative servant.

Servant of servants in Gen. 9:25.  There are those who serve and there is a servant that serves better than all the others, therefore servant of servants. So he said, “Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brothers.” Servant of servants denotes a servant who is such more than all servants together.

A superlative vanity.

Vanity of Vanities.  “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”  Ecc. 1:2  Here is another Hebrew idiom expressing the superlative.  “Absurd” “Meaningless” “incongruity”   Some things in life are absurd, meaningless, incongruent and vain but life apart from God is the most absurd, meaningless, incongruent and vain of them all.

A superlative love song.

“Solomon’s Song of Songs” illustrates love in marriage better than any other Song he wrote.

This is one Song.

Solomon’s Song of Songs is one complete Song,  not separate Songs put together to make one Song.  Although the Song can be divided into other sections this doesn’t mean that there are multiple songs within the song.  For example there are 4 sections of the Song divided by the same phrase in 2:7, 3:5 and 8:4.  Does this mean that the Song is 4 separate Songs put together to make one Song.  No the title is Song of Songs meaning some Love Songs communicated the idea of love but this one does it better than any other one Solomon wrote.

Nor is it a Song about other songs.  Song of Songs.

Its a wedding Song meant to be sung at weddings.

Virgins often had wedding songs Psalm 78:63.  Sung at Solomon’s wedding.  The feast typically lasted 7 days.  There are clearly 4-5 separate days in the whole Song.  Day 1 they meet. Song 1:2-7,  Day 2 they get engaged 2:8-3:5,  Day 3 they marry 2:6-5:1  Day 4 She learns to give herself completely to him in every way. Song 5:2-8:4 (a guess)  Day 5 Concluding 8:5-8:14

So by day 5 of the wedding the whole Song could have been completed and sung and even acted out the last two days of the feast.

In what a Love Song is, this one has it.  In what a Love song is supposed to do this one does it the best.  The Love Song is better than all the other’s in its content and it ability to communicate the sense of love to the seat of our emotions.

Solomon’s Song of Songs is the greatest love Song of all the love Songs he wrote.  He wrote “1,005 Songs” 1 Kings 4:32, so this one stands above all other 1,004 of them in its ability to communicate the idea of love.  Some Love Songs or marriage Songs give us an idea about love but this one does it better than any other.

The Love Song communicates love in the most supreme manner.  Affecting the whole heart.  Not just the mind but the seat of emotions is affected as well.  It stirs up love.  In a manner that effects the heart in sensing it and the mind in knowing it.  So that both the inner seat of the souls emotions feels it and the mind then knows it.

Do you want to know what it feels like to be loved in the most intimate ways by the greatest type of Christ alive?  The bride in the Song of Songs knew what it felt like and she shares her thoughts and feelings with us so that by our getting some idea of what it felt like to be loved by the greatest type of Christ alive we could get an idea of what it is like to be in a love relationship with Jesus for the feeling is the same feeling yet more delightful.

The Song illustrates love in the most supreme manner effecting both your heart in feeling it and the mind in understanding it, thus inclining your heart to God in every way like never before.  This Love Song is unparalleled.  The Song of Songs is nothing short of the work of an absolute genius, who had unmeasurable wisdom 1 Kings 4:29 and breathed out the Sweetest Love Song by the power of the Holy Spirit that unquenchably burned within him like a “flame” 8:6.

This title denotes its superior excellence.

Imagine a husband and wife.  They are married and it is the perfect marriage.  Someone wrote down in poetry how love bond the two together and they were happier and happier ever after.  Yes,  sounds like a movie or maybe even a play.   Now imagine a marriage better than that.  And a Love Poem that illustrated how their love for each other played out and they were the most excellent lovers. Absolutely Beautiful isn’t it!!  These were songs, but now we go on to study the Song of Songs.  The love Song that stands far above these other Songs of Love.

Okay now image a holy king of peace loving his worst enemy and she is a slave girl.  She overcomes the enmity in her heart against him/Him thus proving her unquenchable love for him.  And the king of peace, beloved son of God, messiah, savior, good shepherd and friend gives himself completely to her greatest holy happiness which is in union and communion with the coming Messiah!!  Solomon’s Song of Songs

The greatest wedding and marriage Song ever written by Solomon.  It stand matchless for the title proclaims that it is the loveliest Song Solomon wrote.  What is it in the Song that qualifies it for such a title?  The superlatives in the Song prove it to be worthy of such a title.  In order to the stirring up of our greatest emotion superlatives are used often in the Song of Songs qualifying it to be a love Song above all others.  Lets look at those superlatives in the Song of Songs.  A superlative husband and a superlative wife, in a setting of the greatest physical and spiritual revival of peace on earth like no one has ever seen before!!!

10 Reasons the Song of Songs is a Love Song that stands above all the rest.

I will give 10 reasons why Solomon’s Song of Songs is worthy of such a title.  How could one Love Song stand above all the other’s?  What is it about this Love Poem that makes it worthy of such a title Song of Songs?  It is a love song.  A love song above all other love songs that Solomon wrote because the title says so, it has the most excellent husband and wife,

Here in the Love Song above all other’s love is exhibited in the most effecting manner for the following reasons.

Superlative lovers with superlative qualities.  Overcome the greatest force on earth!

1. Solomon was a superlative lover.  Yeah a most excellent lover, Solomon is a type of Christ.  Solomon loved his wife as the coming messiah loves His bride.  Solomon is a superlative lover above all other husbands.  (at least in the Song until he sins when he was “old” 1 Kings 11:4.  Solomon, king of kings, a messiah of Israel is a superlative lover, above all other husbands.  Solomon was a superlative husband.  A superlative love Song must have a superlative lover!!  This is an absolute must in a love Song above all others.  A beloved “above all other husbands” in many respects.  Song 5:9  Excellencies of Solomon that qualified him to be a husband above all others.  8 reasons and verses that qualify Solomon for such a title.
   1. Solomon was a superlative type of Christ.
      1. Solomon, king to whom peace belongs
      2. Jedidiah meaning “Beloved of God”
      3. Beloved son of God.  Taken with 1 Chronicles 28:6  he will be a “son to Me” therefore we get Solomon to be the “Beloved son of God”.  Jedidiah 2 Sam. 12:24-25
      4. King of peace, no war during his reign
      5. Sat on God’s throne in Jerusalem 1 Chronicles 28:5
      6. The government of the Nations was on his shoulders
      7. Had a name above all other names.  A superlative king.  King of kings,
         1. He was a superlative king with a name above all other names. “Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you. ¹³ I have also given you what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days. ”  See also Song 1:3, 5:10, 2 Chronicles 1:12
         2. 1 Kings 3:13
            I have also given you what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days
         3. His head is “purest” gold.  Due to Solomon’s greatest wisdom, love and majesty.  His leadership was superlative, therefore “His head was purest gold.”  God’s son, the king of peace had the government of the nations upon his shoulders.
      8. Born king of the Jews 1 Chronicles 22:9
      9. Wisest prophet 1 Kings 4:29
         1. Wrote The Song of Songs, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.
      10. Faithful high priest
          1. Offered the greatest number of sacrifices
          2. Burned Incense like the high priests 1 Kings 9:25
      11. Friend above all others.  He was a superlative friend. Song 5:16
      12. He was a beloved above all other beloved’s. 5:9, thus having a name above all other names.  Above all other husbands and above all other kings.
      13. The greatest shepherd.  The king of peace was the greatest shepherd in Jerusalem thus far.  Ecc. 2:7
      14. Chief among ten thousand Song 5:10
      15. His Love was of a superior nature Song 1:2, 8:6  His love was unquenchable and his wisdom unsearchable and measureless “like the sands of the sea”
      16. He was fulfilling prophecy,  The fulfillment of God’s promises about the messiah were coming true.  The curse was being reversed. Gen. 3:15
          1. He was crushing Satan by spreading peace to all nations.
          2. Satan nipped at the heal of the coming messiah by trying to set up a false messiah to reign over Israel, but Solomon thwarted the plan. 1 Kings 1
      17. Called the Teacher.  Eccl. 1:12
      18. Presented his bride blameless and with great joy on his wedding day. Song 4-5
2. She is a superlative lover with 3 reason why ( there are probably more).
   1. Her mouth was like the best wine.  BEST
   2. Her love is of a transcendent nature. 8:6
      1. Powerful and unyielding. They both possessed the most powerful Love.  Song 8:5-6  Since they both possess the “Flame of the LORD” the most powerful love is on display as they overcome the greatest of difficulties when to become one practically.  So the most powerful love is here on display.  Solomon didn’t die for his wife but he possessed a love that not even death could stop it
      2. Her love had a superlative jealously.   Fierceness, unrelenting, passion, intense. “Jealousy is as cruel as Sheol/grave.”
      3. Her love was unquenchable.  Her love unquenchably completed it purpose.  Her love did not fail.  Her love being from God will have its work in her and will be reciprocated back to God.  God’s love in the heart is effectual.
   3. Her beauty is superlative.  She is the superlative being and object of his affection.  She is “The most beautiful woman” Song 1:8.    Laws of attraction.  The Song is about oneness.  Her matchless beauty is why he loves her so much.  It is God’s love in her that makes her beauty or holiness attractive.  Solomon see’s her as one with God, therefore infinitely beautiful.  She is the most beautiful Virgin bride of God.  “Virgin” Israel Her being the most beautiful of women is the foundation of Solomon’s holy complacent love in and for her.  In a book about union and laws of attraction, having a beautiful woman is good but the most beautiful woman both inside and out is best to illustrate love “the very flame of the LORD”.  This greatest love Song, which is Solomon’s, stands above all the rest has the most beautiful woman both inside and out!  No one can compare with her!  She is absolutely flawless and altogether beautiful 4:7.  Solomon has the most beautiful of all women as his bride despite outward appearances because she is most beautiful both inside and out for she is born again Ez. 36:26 and Song 8:6.
3. The setting of the Song is in the most glorious kingdom ever which is useful for her great inheritance.  Ez. 20:6 “the most beautiful of lands”  flowing with milk and honey.  The greater the inheritance in the beloved/Beloved, the greater the love.  She inherits Israel by become queen from being an enemy sunburnt miserable slave girl 1:6.
4. The strongest desires are fulfilled to their fullest and there will always be more of the same to a higher degree.  Most ardent affections are seen.  Emotions are felt to the highest degree.  “Drink your fill”  Song 5:1. 2:6, 7:3
5. The best illustration or context is used to illustrate God’s love.  Marriage is the best illustration for the best subject of love.  Conjugal  affection is a type of Christ’s love to the church.  God’s love is expressed in a king to his people, a friend loving an enemy or brother to sister, a pastor to his people, King God to Israel and Christ’s love to the church similar to a husbands love to his wife.  Oneness.
   1. Jonathan Edwards  “The more any doctrine, or institution, brings to light of the Spiritual World, the more will it urge to Love and Charity.”  In regards to illustrating God’s Love, there is no other better institution than marriage.  And no better Love Song than the Song of Songs.  “The more spiritual and pure and ordinances are the more communion the saints of God have with God in them. 1.  There is more of the nature of God in them.  2.  There is more of the presence of God in them.  3.  There’s more of the blessing of God in them.”  William Strong Communion with God.
6. The greatest difficulties are overcome.  The greatness of ones wisdom and love is measured by the greatness of the opposition.   Her enmity against him is overcome by his name and love.  They overcome great difficulties in order to be near one another.    They overcome great difficulties which are depicted as mountains in the Song.  They overcome the hardest difficulties in marriage, called foxes, mountains, thorns.
7. Superlatives are all over the Song.  The greatest, most beautiful, most valuable objects, places and times of celebration are used as illustrations of the beauties and excellencies of the lovers.  The most beautiful flowers in the world, most beautiful locations and scenes in nature are often used to heighten the emotions.  Song 2:1  Meaning superlative metaphors are use to compare her beauty to.  You can’t find a tower of Ivory.  The amount of Ivory in a tower is unheard of.  The beauty of her neck is unheard of!“Your neck is like a tower of ivory” 7:4  “Places” and locations where you would feel the most loved are used like “mothers house or room where you were conceived.”  Also a place and time of great joy and new life.  Times and places familiar to all where “at mother house”  time “when conceived”.  Dance of the Mahannaim, a time of great celebration and heightened emotion that causes you to “Dance” after winning war against her enemies of her flesh, the world and Satan.
8. Poetry affects our emotions better then any other style of writing.  Their love, desire, affection and holy jealousy are exhibited to us in the MOST affecting manner!  Most of the Song is in the first person, from the woman’s perspective.  You can easily put yourself in her shoes.  1st person meditations are used so that the truth in the text agree’s with our hearts.  Meaning that the manner in which the Song is structured is of a superlative nature.  Solomon is a genius in how he put the Song together in order for the reader to experience her emotions to the highest degree.
9. Great heights and depths of emotion and love is shared.  In the context of a marriage where the “most” intimate and heightened levels of emotions are shared.  The “Flame of the LORD”.  A vehement flame of zeal.  God’s love is great and immense.  Where on earth is love when shared, when is it at its greatest and highest  points.  Certainly in courtship, engagement and marriage, wedding night, honeymoon , anniversaries, special occasions etc.  In a brother sister relationship you don’t have these highs, in a father son relationship you have great joys and delights, but a husband and wife they share the greatest and most intimate delightful times of any other union.  So also Christ’s union with His Bride has highs and lows and better times of holy communion and expressions of love.  The Song of Songs is in the marriage context in order to see great heights of love on display in courtship and marriage.  And also times of felt separation due to sin are on display in Song 3 and 5.
10. The title itself.  Solomon’s Song of Songs.  The title itself claims that this song is of a superlative quality.  God said it, we believe it.  The Holy Spirit of Truth says that this is Solomons Song of Songs.  Or the Song of Songs which is Solomon’s.  Solomon with his unmeasurable wisdom and guided by the Holy Spirit wrote a Love Song that stands above all the other love Songs Solomon wrote.  This one communicates to our mind and hearts the Love of God, His very Flame better than any other Love Song Solomon wrote.

Imagine Solomon as the greatest type of Christ alive, singing the Song of Songs in the Holy of holies because he was a servant above all others guided by unmeasurable wisdom and on fire with a Love to God that is unquenchable.

Characteristics of Solomon’s Character that made his “name” so pleasant.

• Wisdom.  Solomon had more wisdom than any other husband.  Solomon possessed unmeasurable wisdom 1 Kings 4:29,  we see an unmatched wisdom on display in the Song as he so skillfully loves his wife.   What’s his is hers, therefore she gets a spiritual shepherd of her heart who has unmeasurable wisdom to guide her closer to God faster and more intimate than she could ever think or imagine.  Solomon the husband in the Song is perfect in all he did in the marriage.  His name was like perfume poured out.  At least what is written is snapshots of Solomons courtship and marriage.   All of his life is not here in the Song but Solomon loved his wife as Christ would love the church for since Solomon was the greatest type of Christ to have lived thus far, so Solomon is  in the Song of Songs is the greatest husband above all others Song 5:9.  The greatest love Song ever written has the greatest husband ever in it so that the greatest love can be seen and felt when properly meditated on.He excelled greatly in philosophy as knowledge of nature, as appears by 1 Kings 4:33, “And he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes.” He greatly excelled in his knowledge of the nature of the human soul. He excelled in his prudential knowledge of things as related to man’s good and happiness. He excelled in a knowledge of men and manners, as appears by his books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. He excelled in a practical genius, because it is spoken of as one thing wherein he showed his wisdom, that he made so many songs; 1 Kings 4:32, “His songs were a thousand and five.”But yet if there was any one part of wisdom wherein we can say he chiefly excelled, it must be politics, or his skill in the art of government. For this was especially that wisdom which Solomon asked of God when God bid him ask what he should give him; he asked [for] a wise and understanding heart, that he might judge the people and know how to “go out and come in” before them [2 Chronicles 1:10]. He excelled in knowledge of things wherein the welfare of a community consisted, and in a discerning of the means for obtaining it. He knew what tended to the mischief and misery of a people, and what to their prosperity, which he discovered by many passages relating to these things in his books of Proverbs [and] of Ecclesiastes, among which is our text: “For the transgression of a land many are the princes thereof: but by a man of understanding and knowledge the state thereof shall be prolonged.”
• Majesty.  Unmatched in greatness and majesty.  The king that sat one the throne of God in Jerusalem was unsurpassed in majesty.  King of kings, Solomon’s throne room, where he sat on the throne of God as His representative in Jerusalem was unmatched in majesty, none was like it 2 Chronicles 9:19  Tis the most majestic love of a king of kings to the most beautiful woman Song 1:8  Superlatives.  We are looking at where the Song of Songs uses superlatives so that we could see why Solomon was chief among ten thousand. Clearly it is his wisdom but his majesty was like no other as well.  And the extent of his love to all nations.  Solomon had a name above all other names.  “King of kings” 2 Chronicles 9:26
• Love.  His love was superlative
  1. More delightful.  He had a more delightful love 1:2-3.  His love is more delightful than any other experience.  Therefore the bride wanting it all the more, over and over again!  She desired to experience Love the “very Flame of the LORD” Song 8:6 from God through Solomon to her over and over again for it was more delightful than not experiencing it.
     Psalm 63:3 “Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.”
  2. His and her love was “unquenchable”  Song 8:5-6  The lover desires and will get a stricter and stricter union with the One they love.  Love desires the strictest union with the object of its affection.  According to each ones capacity.
  3. Death couldn’t stop it.  It’s never-ending.  There love for each other is forever.
  4. The greatest intensity of love.  A most vehement flame of zeal.   8:6
  5. A greater love is on display.  Love to an enemy of God.  She came from the worst and lowest background ever to being queen of Israel.  From the lowest position to the highest.  Herein is another display of God’s love to her through her union with Solomon.  The greater gracious love of a Holy King to an enemy slave girl but born again Ez. 36:26 with Song 8:6.  No greater love has someone than this that you die for your enemy.  Solomon loved his once enemy bride because she was now his friend.  Greater love is manifested when an enemy is shown love and grace.   She was an enemy of God and His kingdom thus she was an enemy of Solomon who sat on the Throne of God 2 Chronicles. Greater love is on display when one loves an enemy verses a good person. Solomon is a superlative lover.

Solomon’s Song of Songs in the Bible is the Greatest love song ever written because the title says so and the contents of the Song prove it to have no equal. Like holy of holies.  Used when it is intended that a thing shall be very strongly expressed and the certainty of it.  in the Hebrew, in general denotes the strength of expression.

The use of marriage as an illustration of love is the best illustration.  The greatest Love Song uses marriage to the greatest type of Christ to illustrate love, the very flame of the LORD.

Solomon titled this God breathed Love Song,  “Solomon’s Song of Songs.”   Some form of the word love is used more than 60 times in the Song, so clearly this is a love Song.  This Love Song stand above all other love Songs.  It is superlative in nature.  No other love song compares to this one, especially in its ability to communicate God’s Love to our whole heart enabling us to discern the Spirits work in our hearts the very flame of the Lord Song 8:6.  The Song of Songs has no equal!!!  Line up all the love Songs.  This Songs communicates God’s love to both our understanding and our feelings better than any other love Song.   We are talking about Solomon’s Song of Songs.

Jonathan Edwards on Solomon’s Song of Songs. The name by which Solomon calls this song confirms me in it that it is more than an ordinary love song, and that it was designed for a divine song, and of divine authority; for we read, 1 Kings 4:32, that Solomon’s “songs were a thousand and five.” This he calls the “song of songs” [Canticles 1:1], that is, the most excellent of all his songs, which it seems very probable to me to be upon that account, because it was a song of the most excellent subject, treating of the love, union, and communion between Christ and his spouse, of which marriage and conjugal love was but a shadow. These are the most excellent lovers, and their love the most excellent love.2

( I pray that I could do this Song more justice than what it has been typically giving it, and pray that someone else furthers my work and joyful labor of love in the LORD!  Amen!)

Superlatives in the Song of Songs and other places in Scripture

Other than the song itself, things superlative in nature are places can be more holy, sights can have degree’s of loveliness or beauty. Emotions in greater heights, depths, lengths, and widths, tastes and good and evil all have degree’s of existence.  You see its not just that one place is holy and another is not, but that a one place can be holier than another.  And one thing lovelier than another, yet both lovely.

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Places are superlative in the Scripture

The  Holy of Holies

The Holy of Holies is a section of the temple that was holier than any other.  Nearness to God.  Of all holy places this place was the holiest.  Holiness meaning free from all evil.  Set apart.  Whatever the essence of Holiness is the Holy of Holies is a place in the temple that is holier than the rest.  It stands out in holiness.   Holiness has degree’s and some places are holy but the inner sanctuary was the holiest.

The greatest manifestation of the Holiness of God is seen represented in the inner sanctuary of the Temple.  The “beauty of the Lord” that the Psalmist wanted to see Psalm 27:4  (sacrificial system, priesthood)  understanding God’s Holiness in bringing us closer to Him in Christ in way constant with who He is.  God is free from all evil, immutably pure and holy.

There is a time when the altar was holier than another time.  Ex. 29:37

Height of heights

The Song is meant for you to argue from the lesser Christ to the Greater Matt. 12:42.  Solomon was a type of Christ in many ways, but Christ wisdom on display in the salvation and sanctification/beautification of the soul.

God is infinitely higher than our greatest thought, even your greatest most highest thought of God is but a spec of who He is.

Highest Heavens

1 Kings 9:27, Deut. 10:14

Heights in the song are used to illustrate overcoming great difficulty proving their love for each other.  He is skillful like a gazelle on the mountain tops.  And she produces spices on top of the mountains.  Th Song brings our minds delightfully to certain locations in order to communicate the superlative nature of the difficulty.  Getting over object is hard.  Getting over a mountain top is the hardest.  The grandeur of the mountain and the skill of the husband to overcome and catch the foxes that are ruining their relationship from blossoming are the idea’s meaning to be communicated at the end of Song 2

Sights

God is the Loveliest of lovelies

Whatever is lovely in nature God has an infinite degree’ of it and is perfect in Loveliness.  He is The Lover above all other lovers.  It points us to Christ’s eternal love to us by seeing God love work through Solomon to his/His bride and what makes her happiest is to experience his love over and over again “because his/His love is more delightful than wine”  Song 1:2

Principles have degree’s of truth.  Principles aren’t just black and white, black can get blacker and white can get whiter.  Its not that one object is lovely and another repulsive.  Its not like one person is just lovely, but that different objects can be lovelier than others. There can be one being lovelier than other.  One star brighter than all the rest and all the other stars shining in varying degree’s of brightness.  The brighter the holy star the greater the glory and loveliness is.  The bride of God is “the most beautiful of women” Song of Songs 1:7

How lovely is a slightly budded rose amidst so much green, but lovelier still is the rose in full bloom!  There is a beauty in a slightly budding rose that makes it lovely and enflames or joy in anticipation of the lovelier full bloom displaying all its beauty or moral excellencies.

Grow in your understanding and delight in Christ’s eternal love for you.  This is the same as to say “Grow in your experience of Christ.”  Sometimes called “Christian experience”

A Beauty above of all beauties is on display in the Song

She is the “most beautiful of women” Song of Songs 1:8  Fearing rejection he helps enable her to be swift and fearless by assuring her of what he think about her appearance.  He truly see’s her as the “most beautiful of all women.”  United to Christ she is forgiven and the “Lord is her righteousness” .   It is her moral excellency that is so beautiful.  Her holiness which consists in her Love to God the very Flame of the Lord in her Song 8:6

In her heart is Peace, Hatred of sin. Degree of knowledge of God and love and delight in Him.  Oh, so morally beautiful, she surely is!

Emotions have degree’s of excellency as well!

Heights of Emotions make for a good love Song!  I mean imagine a love Song with none of the lovers having a great degree of love to the object of its affection.

Greater Love with more delight Song 1:2 Delight above all other delights better than wine, the greatest pleasure of pleasures.

Heights of the greatest delight are shared between the two to greater and greater degree’s but there are some mountaintop experiences of revelations of our Lord Jesus Christ when meditating on the Cross, with humbler, righter lower views or idea’s of ourselves than before.  Song 2:5-6, 2:16, 5:1

Tastes can be better

Spiciest, sweetest

People Can be greater than others.

Servant of servants  Gen. 9:25

King of Kings

Most regal in authority and rule, guided by unmeasurable wisdom.

Leader above leaders Numbers 3:32

Valuation, estimation and preciousness has degree’s as well.

Evils (for lack of a better category)

Extreme evil, great wickedness Hosea 10:15

Futility of futilities, utterly meaningless Ecclesiastes 1:2

Most supreme deformity. Ugliest of uglies.  Most filthy of filthiest

The greater the stigma is to overcome then the greater is Solomon’s skill to love her.  A greater love can be seen.   One that overlooks moral stigma’s.

Image it, think about it for a moment.  The title of a book about love, the very flame of the Lord, in the Bible that is titled “The Song of Songs”.  Obviously this is a love song therefore this Love Song is better than all others of it kind and nature.   Once before called “Canticles” now Solomons love Song stands above all the rest as Solomon’s Song of Songs.   Solomon is the author.  Do you want to know and experience through a type of Christ the Love of God, the “Flame of the LORD” Song 8:6 in marriage to such type of Christ.   The Song will communicate to your heart both the idea and sense of God’s love better than any other love Song PERIOD!  Then set your heart a flaming for your Lord and God.  Ever getting hotter and brighter for the glory of God as we behold Him in His Son.

Solomon wrote 1005 Songs 1 Kings 4:32.  This Song not only stands above all the others Solomon wrote but also Moses and other Songs in Scripture, this is Solomon’s Song of Songs.  Meaning not only is this the greatest love Song in existence anywhere but also stands above all other songs.

If you are saved, then you will have, like the bride in the Song, you will have a yearning for the closest most personal intimacy with God through union with the greatest messiah.  We know that to be Christ the Messiah, but in the Old testament they were types of Christ but not Christ.  They were messiah’s but they were not The Messiah.  The Bride wants to marry the king to whom peace belongs so that she could be nearer to God in Love.  Now that was Solomon at her time, for Solomon was the greatest type of Christ to be living at that time and any time before,  Thats why all the maidens wanted Solomon Song 1:3-4 but for us this is Christ!

If you have that burning desire for love intimacy with Jesus Christ then this Song will do it for you better than any other!  It has back and forth extremely intimate and holy conversations.  Communion of the Bride with Solomon the lesser but most glorious messiah to have lived thus far.  Imagine you talk to Christ, He answers back, and you praise Him, He adores you and back and forth!  The intimacy you desired with Christ is all right here!!  And as intimate as you desire to humble yourself it will get more and more intimate.

This just blows my mind!!   Imagine what Hollywood would do with something like this?  What would writers do if they knew the formula for a perfect love song?  I am going to attempt to pull out what I see as the key components of this Love Song that makes it the best of the best of Love Songs.

This Love Song stands above all other Love Songs it is Solomon’s Song of Songs.  Just as the holy of holies illustrates a location can be holier than another so also one love Song can be better at communicating the idea of love to our whole heart thus we get a sense of His love better than we would by reading any other love song.  The Song of Songs uses an unusual marriage context to illustrate Christ love to his bride.  A Holy King of Israel union with a born again enemy of God, sunburnt slave girl.   Love to ones enemies is where love is greatest on display.

The Song of Songs is described as “treating of the divine love, union and communion of the most glorious lovers, Christ and his spiritual spouse, of which a marriage union and conjugal love… is but a shadow.”  Jonathan Edwards.

So we see how Solomon loves his wife.  This is a shadow of Christ’s love to His Bride.  She married Solomon, a messiah, a lesser Christ and he sanctified by his love or rather God loving her through Solomon by the power of the Lords flame Song 8:6.

So I asked the question “What would the contents of a song have to be in order for it to stand above all the rest?”  What is it about the Song of Song that makes it better than any other love Song? not only are divine truths declared most worthy to affect us, but they are exhibited in the most affecting manner in the heights of holy love in courtship and marriage because they are similar to the heights of communion with Christ during the growth of a believer in union with Christ through various stages of Christian growth as the woman also matures in her marital duties.

I would like to explain in further detail the 7 reasons why the Song of Songs is greater than any other.  I will attempt to explain key truths contained in Solomon’s Song of Songs that make it worthy of having this superlative title.

1.  Solomon’s Song of Songs in the Bible is the greatest love song ever written because the title says so and the contents of the Song prove it to have no equal.
2. The Love they share is superlative in nature due to it being the infinite Love of God “the very flame of the LORD” at work in the hearts of both Solomon and his bride. There is no greater love than God’s Love so this Song must and is about God’s love. A superlative love song can’t have a common love binding them.  A worldly love is selfish. but a holy love is from the “very Flame of the Lord.”  Song 8:6   This love is one of a kind, infinite, can’t be bought, unstoppable etc.
3. Solomon in the Song of Songs is the greatest husband to have lived thus far.  The greatest love Song ever written has the greatest husband ever in it so that the greatest love can be seen.  There is a sufficiency in Solomon to satisfy all her desires.   They both desire to please each other.  Solomon is portrayed as perfect and she grows in her love to God and Solomon as Solomon loves her as Christ loves the Church.  Two most excellent lovers are in the most excellent love Song.  Solomon is portrayed as perfect in the Song so the husband wanting to be like Christ can see the example in how Solomon loves his wife in different situations.  You can look and see what a wise husband does with the one he loves in various ups and downs of life, therefore a husband perfectly loving his wife in the ups and downs of marriage is on display, helping to make the Song of Songs stand out above all the rest in its illustration of how a husband ought to love his wife.  I mean we are made in his image.  It is being renewed in the hearts of believers. The Song of love communicates to our minds a greater understanding of God’s love to us through a mediator by allowing us to experience His Love like never before. (properly meditating on the text)  In this way we get a greater idea of God’s love and love Him more.  Experience of God’s love in a covenantal relationship through a mediator/husband is God’s choice illustration for helping us understand His Love.  Mainly by letting us argue from the lesser christ to the greater Christ Matt. 12:42 in order to get a higher view of Christ and a right use of types in the Old Testament.   Husbands love their wife as Christ loved the church.  When an idea and feeling is hard to communicate to our hearts and that idea is communicated then the means  used must be excellent in proportion to its ability to communicate love.  Meaning the Song of Songs and the Holy Spirit is the means God uses to help us both understand and feel or experience God’s love.  Or in the words of Song 8:6, we experience the “Flame of the Lord”.   This Love must be felt in order to be understood correctly thus we desire more of it. Song 1:2  She wants to experience more of God’s love through Solomon.  This love is not just emotional but also includes both mind, knowledge and understanding of God.  Or said another way it includes the will, emotions, feelings and desires.So the greatest Love Song not only has the greatest type of Christ to have lived thus as the husband, lover, friend, shepherd, promised messiah, son of David, prophet, priest, and king of kings.  Solomon is not just one of my husbands, beloved’s or friends.  Solomon was chief among ten thousand Song 5:12.  He stood above all others.  He was distinctly unique and had a name above all earthly names.
4. The greatest love Song stand above all the rest because Solomon has the most beautiful of all women as his bride despite outward appearances because she is born again Ez. 36:26 and Song 8:6.  Her being the most beautiful draws out his/His holy affection or love to her.  Laws of holy attraction.  Her moral beauty is delightful to behold in action.  “Your love is more delightful than wine” Solomon says to his bride,  “How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much more pleasing is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume more than any spice!”  Song 4:10
5. The greatest Love Song uses the context of marriage to the greatest type of Christ to illustrate love, the very flame of the LORD.  “Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church”  Ephesians 5.   In marriage some of the greatest heights, lengths, depths and breath of love and intimacy are experienced.  Whereas any other love context would pale in comparison.  Yes we see a father loving a daughter or son, but  a husbands love to his bride is much more intimate and experienced in many ways that a father can’t do.  Or a mother or neighbor or relative etc.
6. They overcome the hardest difficulties in marriage, called foxes, mountains, thorns.  Herein is love seen on display, therefore we can see how a wife loves her husband and how a husband ought to love his wife as Christ loved the church.  A husband role is to be the greatest type of Christ possible.
7. The greatest similes, illustrations, types and metaphors are used making the Song of Songs worthy of such a title.  Myrrh is often used because it was so valuable and desirable to have that people were willing to die in order to harvest it in the middle of the desert.  The most valuable and precious jewels are used to illustrate how precious and valuable they are to each other.   The tastiest food are used to communicate delight and enjoyment.  The best of spices to illustrate the precious fruits of her love.  The most beautiful places in nature are used.   Superlative metaphors are used to heighten your religious holy emotion of love.  Having felt it then you have a better idea of it!!  Oh to know the love of God through a deep intimate relationship with Christ as we flee from sin and fearlessly run towards God.

LISTED BELOW ARE MY OTHER THOUGHTS I THOUGHT NOT SO ORGANIZED OR NOT TO THE POINT SO WELL.  I MAY DEVELOP THESE IN A BETTER MANNER LATER.

1. It is a Love Song set in Poetry!!  In poetry the greatest expressions of love can be more easily conveyed.  Using a marriage context allows for greater expressions of love that otherwise would be difficult to just explain.  The heights of emotion in courtship are likened to the heights of a new born babe drink up the milk of the Word of God.  The poetry is also in the first person which allows for a feeling of romance and love being in the air, better than a narrative of just stating facts.  Although the song does state facts for context purposes like Song 3:6-11 and other places, the majority of the Song contains the sweetest conversation between the two most excellent lovers in poetic language from the brides perspective so wether you are Israel, a bride, a believer or the bride of Christ then you can easily mediate on the text and put yourself in her shoes and feel what she feels, do what she does, get the praise from the greatest type of Christ to have lived as you put yourself in her shoes when Solomon praises the noble character of his bride, is not her noble character the same as ours?  Are we not all of the same Spirit, same “Flame of the Lord” Song 8:6, Ephesians 1:13
2. A dream state is used to convey higher emotions.  3:1, 8:1.  The mind can’t think or feel high enough,  whatever the highest thoughts we can have of the Love of God in Christ, it is infinitely lower than the Truth. “If only you were a bother..”  This puts the mind into a mediation, a thought process that helps us understand her feelings by meditating on her meditation, fantasy, thoughts and dreams.
3. Meditation is made easy.   Herein is the genius of Solomon and the Holy Spirit. As I briefly said above but now make it a point to stand on it’s own as a reason why this Song of Love is greater than any other Song is the fact that it is often in the first person.   Love is better understood by being felt, then the mind and heart knows the love of God.   If we put ourselves in her shoes and think upon who she feels and why she feels this way then the mind of any believer will immediately see an illustration of how some things are similar about how a husband loves his wife and how Christ has and is loving me.  Much of the whole Song is from the woman’s perspective so you can easily meditate on the text from her perspective.  Love is better first felt than better understood.  By feeling loved and loving God back we experience His Flame of love.  You can easily imagine what she is thinking and feeling by putting yourself in her situation. Her thoughts can easily be yours.  As she experiences God’s love through Solomon a type of Christ so also we experience greater love from Christ!! Or if your feelings are a certain way then what should your thoughts be in order to draw you closer to God?  The Song will help balance your religious emotions as you put yourself in her shoes.  except for some verses that help out the context like Chapter 3:6-11.  Love is better understood by being felt or tasted then the taste gives us a better idea of what experiencing God’s love tastes or feel like in different situations of courtship and marriage.  Much like we can own Psalm 51:1-4.  Better meditation on the text.  Ability to see and feel things from her perspective and let Solomon guide you by His Word.  Christ in him, the Wisdom of God, unmeasurable wisdom  1 Kings 4:29 “Now God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of mind, like the sand that is on the seashore.”
4. Greater conviction comes from arguing from the lesser messiah to the greater Christ/Husband.   The greatest love Song must behold before our eyes a Great Lover.   Ideas of Love are communicated to our minds.  We get an idea about God, who He is and what He is like, and what He has done is doing and will do, the works of God we praise Him.  A beloved above all other’s.  Yes Solomon was a beloved above all other’s and her own matchless description of Solomon in Song 5:10-16 singles out Solomon as Chief among ten thousand!!  Yeah, line up 10,000 of the best husbands in the world and Solomon was chief!!   You could even say or better said as she says Solomon was the best “friend” and “beloved” in Song 5:16.  Not enemies but friends and her was her “beloved” the one dear to her heart.  She loved him.   She loved him dearly, he was so precious and dear to her heart she would give her life in order to have him near her.  Like a sachet of myrrh resting closer to her heart.  The Love Song is a illustration of how the flame of the Lord brings a married couple closer to Himself and each other.  The Song is designed to be argued from the lesser lover to the greater Lover, Christ.  Matt. 12:42.   A view of the greater Christ will have a greater tendency to stir up the flame of Love to God thats in the heart of every believer.   Some authors, mostly puritans, just take Solomon out and put Christ into the text and say a “greater than Solomon is here” in the Song of Songs.   Although Solomon is a type of Christ and I would say the closest one to being “The Messiah” that ever lived.  To put Jesus Christ our heavenly bridegroom in place of Solomon is  is hermeneutical suicide.  You find the idea or principle of love in the text then argue from the lesser husband, shepherd, king, bridegroom to the greater Husband, King, Shepherd and BridegroomThe text was meant to be argued from the lesser christ to the greater.  Matt. 12:32.  She was united to a messiah that loved her, in a greater sense, how much more so are we to desire intimacy with Christ.  The greatest Love Song brings to light what is going on in the heart of a believer and Jesus Christ due to their union and holy communion or lack thereof.
5. A superlative Song having a superlative husband.  Solomon the husband the most excellent lover had a name above all other.  King of Kings, King to who peace belonged, sat on the throne of God 2 Chron. 9:8  etc.  She believes and her description of Solomon also proves that her husband, friend and lover is better than any other beloved.  Song 5:9-16  Therefore the Song of Songs has the superlative husband in it.  Solomon is a better lover than any other husband and she lays out his matchless description in order to humble herself in His absence so that she desires him more.  Solomon is the most excellent lover.  This superlative Love Song has two superlative lovers both showing and growing in their affection for one another.  The most excellent lovers in the most excellent Love Song.
6. The perfect example of the phases the bride goes through.  Her growth in love in on display.   She goes through 4-5 distinct phases of intimacy or levels of closeness or degrees of oneness due to union with one another in the very Flame of the Lord Song 8:6.  Although the bride is spotless and no flaw in her by the end of Chapter 4 she is not standing out among the rest until chapter 6:8-9 and isn’t fully mature.  By the end of chapter 8 she still is fully mature in her love to God and Solomon. So in the greatest love Song you have a king who’s love stands out among ten thousand and you have a queen who’s glory, moral beauty and excellencies that outshines 6o queens Song 6:8.
7. The description of the love they share is described in Song 8:6-7.   This is no ordinary human love.   The love they share is a transcendent love coming from God and is compared to the “very flame of the Lord”, unstoppable and unyielding in its purpose in holy marriage., for them to be one as They are One.
8. Greater love is manifested when an enemy is shown love and grace.  Solomon is for God, she was recently against Him.  She was an enemy of God. Greater love is on display when one loves an enemy verses a good person. Solomon is a superlative lover.  King to whom peace with God and man belongs, therefore she didn’t fear punishment from Solomon.  I wish I knew them all but I will do my best to list why Solomon was the best king/husband lover.  What is it about Solomon from the Song that makes him Chief among ten thousand?
   1. Humility. The greater the humility the greater the love.
   2. Solomon is king of kings.  Its a love coming from the greatest height of royalty and authority on earth!  The royalty and majesty of his love is more than any other lover.
   3. Solomon’s unmeasurable wisdom set him above the other beloveds.
   4. Solomon set his love on shall a say a woman who according to outward appearances was difficult to have a holy love of complacency in. So a greater love is on display because of the difficulty to overcome their enmity.  Having a sunburn meant you were an enemy of God.  She was an enemy of God. Not only a sunburnt enemy that had to labor outside, but she was a nobody.  Usually kings would marry princesses in order to make alliances like Solomon did with pharaohs daughter.  But here in the Song she was not a princess but a shepherdess and vinedresser.  Both of which she was neglectful in her duties plus she worshiped a false God.  The only thing good she had going for her on the outset of the Song is that she had “the very Flame of God in her.”  She was born again then desired a closer more intimate relationship with Solomon, chief wise man among ten thousand wise men.  The chief among ten thousand courts and marries a slave woman who was in debt.
   5. The freeness of Solomon’s love makes it stand out.  It could not be purchased or earned.  Song 8:7
   6. The constancy of his love.
9. Due to the Song having great heights of enjoyment, love, delight and happiness a greater love can be understood and felt.  There is no other institution by God other than courtship and marriage where feelings can reach such intimacy and intensity.
10. Love expresses itself in action.  The duration and intensity of her love grows expressed in the degree of difficulty overcome to be near him.  Mountains represent great difficulty and she was on top of multiple mountains producing spice.  She obeys the king proving her love by being fruitful or rather producing spices during multiple times of ups and downs of life without fail in Song 8:14

(This is a work in progress but I thought it would be okay to put what I have so far, I keep editing this because I haven’t found a good way to organize all my thoughts yet)

1. Marriage is God’s first and best institution designed to reflect His Glory.  Due to both man and woman having God’s image upon them they are capable of glorifying God.  The love Song that is better than any other is set in a kingdom marriage context intentionally in order for it to
   1. illustrates a better tastier love, more delightful Song 1:2
   2. illustrate’s how “the very flame of God” Song 8:6  operates at the heights, depths, lengths and width’s in God’s kingdom with the king of peace ruling with unmeasurable wisdom, loving righteousness and hating wickedness due to that transcendent burning flame within.
      1. In Courtship emotions are heightened, first date, conversation, dinner, night out and emotions so high in the banquet house where his banner over her was love she faints in his arms.
      2. The greatest love to the most amount of people during his reign as king of king, all the earth heard of his/His fame.  The height of Solomon love or greatness of it comes from the fact that he was the greatest man to have ever lived so far.  Though Solomon was a lesser Christ, he was the greatest type so far.  “The chief among ten thousand”
   3. illustrate the breath and length of Gods love as well
   4. illustrate the sanctification of the believer by the husband
      1. Sanctification of his wife is the job of the husband Ephesian 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.
         1. Through loving her
            1. By having a name above all others Song 1:3
            2. By using his unmeasurable wisdom primarily for her spiritual good.
   5. At least one of the lovers would have to be perfect?  right?  I think so,  either way,  the unmeasurably wise king of peace perfectly loved his once enemy wife. At least in the Song Solomon never sins.  The king of peace metaphorically kisses the bride over and over again and does not stop.
   6. She becomes blameless and flawless  out of his perfect love and faithfulness to his promises.
      1. Believing the lesser Christ to be who he was always, the king to whom peace belongs.
      2. Obeying him as king/King.  (in her obedience to God she obeys her king/one in authority over her)  “I am my beloved’s and his desire is for me.
      3. Obeying him as good shepherd  Song 1:7-8
      4. Desiring only to experience his/His most delightful love  Song 8:6, 1:2

This title should grab your attention because the title says The Song of Songs is the best!!  The best things are always nice to watch and learn.  Watching the best dancer, skier, swimmer, gymnast, artist, singer etc really is something beautiful to see.  To see someone skilled at the highest level of any certain skill is most beautiful to watch.

Other than sights that are most beautiful you also have places that are holier than others.  Moses at the burning bush.  The holy of holies in the temple.   And just as the sun can outshine all the stars, so also the Song that the king to who peace belongs wrote about his courtship and marriage to an enemy slave girl and the two become one due to the unstoppable very “Flame of the LORD” making their union ever stricter/more intimate.

Rather than watching the Song unfold you meditate on the text as if you were the bride,  in doing so you feel what she feels and think what she thinks and ponder why is she feeling, thinking or doing this?  You can enter her world as to how she felt being loved by Solomon, the lesser Christ.  Line up all the God breathed Songs about God’s Love “the very Flame of the LORD” Song 8:6 and this Song stands out among all the rest in what a Love Song is made up of and what it’s effect on the heart of a believer!

The purpose of this blog is to learn as much as we can about what the title means and why it was given the title Song of Songs.  The text should be translated Song of Songs but some translators tried to put what they believed to be their meaning of Song of Songs as the title like

New Living Translation
This is Solomon’s song of songs, more wonderful than any other.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Solomon’s Finest Song

International Standard Version
The Most Beautiful Song by Solomon.

NET Bible
Solomon’s Most Excellent Love Song. 

GOD’S WORD® Translation
The most beautiful song of Solomon.

Obviously this is a love song.   Love or some form of the word shows up about 60 times in 8 chapters.  It is a love Song set in poetry between two lovers.  Solomon and his bride.  How love the very flame of the Lord brings peace between enemies and binds them together as one.

A need clearly and unbiasedly examine the nature of God’s greatest love poem to sinful man.  the Song of Songs communicates love to the heart better than any other Song.  Both the true idea and taste of love to the whole heart enflaming it to further degrees of holy love til the heart agree’s “I am all His, and no doubt at all about His Love for me Truly Truly I say to you, His desire is for me.”

The degree of love is measured by the difficulty one would go through for your beloved/Beloved.

Examples of overcoming great difficulty and enmity because peace belongs to him.  If you are in a covenantal relationship with Solomon he will make you more beautiful.

Our first question is “What does the title mean?”  If we knew what the title meant then we would know the purpose of the Song.  Below are characteristics of the Song of Songs that make it better than any other love song.

1. The Song of Songs.  No one would argue that God’s love is better than any other love from an other being.  God’s love is superlative above all other loves, this is why the Song compares the holy love shared between the two as “the flame of the Lord”  Song 8:6.   Common love between two non-believers is selfish and definitely is not the kind of love illustrated in the Song.  To have a love above all other’s it would have to come from God, be something of God and be returned to Him for in this way love is made complete among us. 1 John 4.   The major theme of the Song of Songs is love, and that love is “the very Flame of the LORD” Song 8:6.   The Love a believing couple share and delight in is the very Flame of the LORD, when experienced to the greatest intensities is better than any other experience.
2. A greater love must be on display in the Song of Songs in order for it to be worthy of the title.  Greater love is on display when we love our enemies.  The bride was an enemy of Solomon who gets the flame of the Lord in her and marries Solomon.   Although she rebels sometimes in the Song, Solomon still loves her despite her sinful actions.  Herein is a great love on display.  Showing love to enemies.  Greater love has no one than this, that he lay his life down for his freinds who were enemies..
3. Set in poetry.  Like the rarest diamond on a pure gold ring are the words of love set in poetry.
4. The overall scene of the whole known world was that of Love and peace during Solomons 40 year reign.  Israels growing blessings and peace on earth was because of God’s special love to Israel.  Though for God’s enemies/gentiles who continued in wickedness were enslaved.  Love and peace was in the air.  God came down to dwell with man in the temple and there was peace on earth.  It was the highest point of physical and spiritual prosperity.
5. The heights of love must be on display (either in the text or by argument/reasoning)
6. The love in the Song cant be bought Song 8:6.  A lesser cheaper love could be bought.
7. The depths of love between the two must be understood
8. The most excellent lover must be king Solomon, chief among ten thousand.  Solomon , the king to whom the glory belongs who brought the peace of God to the ends of the earth because he possessed unmeasurable wisdom and the Flame of God.
   1. The extent or breadth  of God’s love reached the nations
   2. The depth of it is on display in extreme depths of pain proving the depth of His Love to God and sinful man.
   3. Coming from the highest heaven.
   4. The length of that Love is everlasting
9. The bride would have to be a heroine as well.  True love is not one sided.  First she hated God and Solomon then she was born again and desires Solomon.  He overlooks the greatest evil stigma a sunburn could have and calls her the most beautiful of women.  Sometimes when the fire is hot she is swiftly pursuing Him like a mare in battle Song 1:8 and 6:12.  Overcoming some of the greatest obstacles in life in order to be near her husband/Husband.  What good is a great perfect lover husband and king loving his wife but not returning love to him.  It is fit and proper to adore him Song 1:5 there proper expressions of their love would follow.  Love to Solomon because Solomon first loved her and drew her closer by his love, God’s love to Solomon’s bride.  It was through Solomon that the bride experienced the love of God.  Song 1:2, 8:6, 2 Chron. 9:8
10. They see God’s love to His people pictured in a type of peaceful world wide blessing during the reign of The Messiah.  This is the extent of God’s love during Solomon’s reign, it went out to all the nations.

The Song of Songs is the title because it illustrates the Love of God, the very “Flame of the LORD” in a Kingdom marriage context.

Marriage is an institution designed by God to reflect His Glory.  God’s image consisting in His idea of Himself love to and delight in Himself written on their hearts reflecting His Glory.

The Song illustrates how God called us closer and woo’d us closer through our union and communion with His beloved son/Beloved Son in spiritual and physical marriage.

Reasons the Song of Songs communicates the Love of God to the whole heart better than any other Song.

Jonathan Edwards said “The more any doctrine or institution brings to light of the spiritual world, the more will it urge to love and charity.”

1.  No other institution on earth can illustrate emotional highs and depths of intimacy more than courtship and marriage!  Intimacy.  Clearly the Song of Songs has intimacy at its heights and depths in love, communication, physical intimacy and a mutual sharing of holiness consisting in Love to God due to the very “Flame of the Lord” burning hotter all the way.

The Song of Songs, as its title suggests (1:1), claims to be the best song on married love ever written. It is superior to all other love poetry, and so we must give full heed to it.

Balchin, J. A. (1994). The Song of Songs. In D. A. Carson, R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, & G. J. Wenham (Eds.), New Bible commentary: 21st century edition (4th ed., p. 619). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press.

Thoughts while I wrote

In order to enter the closest most intimate relationship with Christ in the Holy of Holies you must repent and behold the Beauty of beauties, King of Kings, Servant of servants, Teacher of teachers and LORD of Lords in His most loveliest act of all which had no greater height, depth, width or length to it at all, the dying Love of  Jesus Christ our Savior.  Behold, The Lover above all lovers at the cross bearing the full force of Infinite Wrath on behalf of the most unworthy sinners.  Amen and Amen!

by human marriage union in love makes them ever after more one with each other.  Love the Very Flame of the LORD shared between them binds them together even more strict than before.

147. Solomon’s Song. The name by which Solomon calls this song confirms me in it that it is more than an ordinary love song, and that it was designed for a divine song, and of divine authority; for we read, 1 Kings 4:32, that Solomon’s “songs were a thousand and five.” This he calls the “song of songs” [Canticles 1:1], that is, the most excellent of all his songs, which it seems very probable to me to be upon that account, because it was a song of the most excellent subject, treating of the love, union, and communion between Christ and his spouse, of which marriage and conjugal love was but a shadow. These are the most excellent lovers, and their love the most excellent love.

Mr. Matthew Henry, in the introduction to his Exposition of this book, says,

“It appears that this book was “taken in a spiritual sense by the Jewish church, for whose use it was first composed, as appears by the Chaldee Paraphrase, and the most ancient Jewish expositors.” In the same place he says, “In our belief, both of the divine extraction and spiritual exposition of this book, we are confirmed by the ancient, constant, and concurring testimony, both of the church of the Jews, to whom were committed the oracles of God, and who never made any doubt of the authority of this book, and of the Christian church, which happily succeeds them in that trust and honor.”

John Mac Arthur

John Owen

Song of Songs

Song of Solomon

Sometimes called “Canticles” during the puritan age.

Other notes

It seems Jonathan Edwards uses language that intimates differing degree’s of perfection when talking about the difference between the perfect union of the saints with God on earth and the “More” “perfect” the union in Heaven.  “the souls of the saints do not die when their bodies die, but are received to a state of happiness in more perfect union and communion with God” Jonathan Edwards

Interpretations of the Song of Solomon are many, but may be broadly divided into two classes. the typical and the literal. The typical approach sees in the Song a picture of divine love, the basic theme of the Bible. Indeed, the Bible often compares God’s love to the most intimate of human loves – that of a man and his bride. In the Old Testament, God’s love for Israel is so described in Jeremiah 2. 1-3, Ezekiel 16 and 23 and Hosea 1-3, whereas Christ’s love for the church is seen in the New Testament using the same metaphor in 2 Corinthians 11. 2, Ephesians 5. 25-32 and Revelation 19. 6-8. Further, adultery is often used to picture spiritual departure from God; it is even used allegorically by Solomon in Proverbs 1-9 to picture the path of the person turning from God’s ways. Significantly, the only other love-song in the Bible, Psalm 45, is quoted in the New Testament and applied to the person of Christ, thus showing that such a typical treatment of love is valid.

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Characteristics of the poem.

Enduring.  Powerful.  Priceless. Pure.  Holy.  Masterpiece.  Profitable.

Psalm 19

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Questions

How is intimacy between Solomon and his wife similar to that of Christ and each believer?

Although the principles are courtship can be used in courtship.  Mentioning the Song of Song and even the study of it may cause emotions to be to soon.  We are warned to not arouse or awaken certain thoughts and feeling until the proper time.  Meaning talking about the wedding night when your not even engaged would not be wise.

I wonder that if Solomon wrote 1,005 love Songs and this one is the best then he would have to have gotten better at writing or this was either the first love Song with his first wife and Solomon actually did and said everything in the Song.  I mean why would Solomon have to write and rewrite the same Song until it was perfect and the perfect one was inspired?

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