Sadly, I often read many commentaries that say Solomon’s Song of Songs is “all” about “erotic love”. Others say it is mainly about erotic love and even others like the puritans say it has nothing to do with erotic love at all and has everything to do with the love of Jesus Christ to the church or is all about God’s love to Israel.
Other’s try to find some middle ground. Surely the Song of Songs is all about love. Love in some form or another shows up over 60x. The Song is a love song set in a courtship and marriage context. How much of the love in courtship and marriage do you think is “erotic”?
If you were to ask a godly wife who had a godly husband “What are the ways your husband loves you?” What would she say? I have asked that question many times and the first thing on her mind is not sex. Usually they mention his great leadership, protection and provision most of all. Yes, sure it is in public when I ask the question so they don’t mention the things that happen at home in private. I do know that we must study the Song of Songs and let it speak for itself. My point is that if you think the Song is mainly about erotic love the you will read erotic live into texts not talking about erotic love and then interpret the wrong. She wants to be shown love from her husband in all its various forms over and over again.
What we all ought to do is to find out what each text is talking about in context and in so doing we will clearly see that each and everyone is right to some degree or another. My main purpose of this blog is to show you that Solomon’s Song of Songs.
- Is not only about erotic love
- Is not mainly about erotic love
- Is not directly or mainly about God’s love to Israel.
- Is not directly or mainly about Jesus’s love to the Church.
Desiring the kisses of a king, Israel’s Messiah
In Song 1:2 is the desire for repeated physical touch of his lips on hers. Meaning she desires “kisses”. At this point the bride is only a woman in the kingdom. They are not married nor are they courting yet. She is only a subject in God’s kingdom with Israel’s newly anointed Messiah on the throne. She also desires to experience erotic love in the future with the king were they to get married expressed in her words “Let the king take me into his chambers” 1:4
I know some translation say “The king has brought me into his chambers” Still she only has expressed a desire for multiple “kisses” in a place where no one else is around because multiple kisses in public weren’t appropriate Song 8:1. “If only you were like a brother who nursed at my mother’s breasts! Then if I found you outside, I would kiss you, and no one would despise me.”
The love of a king
The love in the Song is the love of a king to his people, a king to his queen. And to some degree it is about a king of king’s love to other nations. Song 1:2-4 The context is that of a king. Though a husband is not a king, he is the one in authority in the relationship. His leadership ought to be “pure gold” 5:11, guided by Godly wisdom and motivated by true love.
You have a woman and other women who have experienced the love of a king to his people. The eternal love of God to his people through the king is what the queen of Sheba saw and praised God for it, “Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king to maintain justice and righteousness.” 1 Kings 10:9
Then in Song 1:5-6 you have the love of a born again Gentile enemy slave wanting to be in fellowship with God’s people, the daughters of Jerusalem.
Summary of the love in Song 1:2-4
So you have a woman wanting kisses in marriage. Later in his chambers she experiences his love in sincere sweet conversation, fellowship, shepherding, adoring one another, biblically reconciling differences and sex, of which all are private things meant to only happen in his chambers away from the public. Chambers is were everything goes on in a marriage that is private. Anything that is not public. Things husbands and wives say to each other and do to and for each other in private. Not just erotic things but things that unite them and make the union stricter. We get to see what Israel’s Messiah said and did in the most private and intimate times of their relationship from her perspective.
Love of a shepherd
Song 1:7-8 You have the love of a shepherd of sheep and a shepherd of hearts shepherding the bride to be. No erotic love here. If you love God you will feed His sheep. Solomon the shepherd king gives her advice out his love to her. He leads her by Gods words to peace and rest in Christ. He shepherds her heart. So here is the love of a shepherd to his people.
Love of a friend, brother and sister.
Notice also that 1:7-2:7 is courtship and the proposal starts in 2:8ff. So you also have two holy people on their first date that love each other not only as friends but brother and sister. No erotic love here. The Song in 2:7 expressly prohibits erotic love until the proper time. So you could say one the themes of the book is that erotic love has it’s appropriate time in marriage. The book is about erotic love but thats not the major idea. The major idea is how the love of a king, shepherd, husband and friend 5:16 that drew them together to become one.
The closest thing thus far to erotic love in the song thus far is her desire to be kissed over and over in Song 1:2 and then in Song 2:6 the magnitude of love she is receiving in courtship overwhelms her and she passes out in his arms.
Covenantal love
“My beloved is mine and I am his” Song 2:16. Here they get engaged. Mutual giving of one person to the other. Love gives and desires the good of the beloved. Sure covenant love has an erotic part to it for his body is not his own but is hers and her body is not her own but is his. Also he gives himself to her in love to lead her, to shepherd her, to be her friend, to reconcile differences and prefer one another over themselves.
Loves Glance
Many times in the Love Song they are eye to eye. They both have doves eyes. Love can express itself in the way a couple looks at each other with their eyes. Song 1:15-16 “How beautiful you are, my love. Your eyes are doves” Song 4:9 “With one glance of your eye, you have ravished my heart..”
Love draws closer
Israel Messiah drew his wife closer by his love being more delightful than any other experience. Solomon’s love was guided by unmeasurable wisdom, Solomon’s love in the Song was faithful (I believe Solomon’s wife died before he chased other women). Solomon’s character was flawless in marriage and he was “fully devoted” to God 1 Kings 11:4 Love unites and sin separates. Love draws the affection out of the beloved. “Draw me after you” “Take me away with you” Song 1:4
Erotic Love
You get all the way to chapter 4:5 before you see anything “erotic”. Notice also that this is after they are married in 3:6-3:11. Im sorry but I won’t go much into that because I am a single guy and meditations on such things for any length of time leads me to sin. But there is “erotic” love in 4:5, 5:1 and 7:8.
Other expressions of love
Love preferring the other as more important
Song 5:2-6:3
Love reconciling differences
5:2-7:6 The dance of the Mahahaim is basically a dance of peace and reconciliation.
Love to a sister
Song 8:8-9
The Love Song above all other love Songs, Solomon’s Song of Songs ends with love desiring the presence of the beloved and hating separation. Song 8:14
So you have love from beginning to end. All kinds of “loves” are illustrated, desired and fulfilled.
A husband was to love his wife as God loved Israel. Hosea 3:1. So the love Song illustrates the love God had for Israel because Israel’s Messiah love his wife in the Song as God loved Israel.
The Song only talks about the love of Jesus by way of analogy. A most glorious analogy. You see the love in the Song and argue from the lesser lover to the greater. Israel’s Messiah loved his wife but The Messiah loved His wife Greater for he was “greater than Solomon” Matt. 12:42
Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the Church. Jesus Christ is a loving wise king and so was Solomon before he got “old” 1 Kings 11:4. Jesus Christ was a good shepherd and so was Solomon because he was gifted with wisdom “as measureless as the sand of the sea” 1 Kings 4:29. Jesus Christ is a Friend above all other friends and reconciled us to Himself through his blood. So the Song also illustrates the Love of God to us in that the Father loved the Son, Israel’s Messiah loved his bride, The Son loved the Father, The bride loved the husband/Husband. The Love the Father and Son shared is the Holy Spirit for God is Love. The love the spouses shared in the Song is the Love of God the Holy Spirit which dwelt in both of them. The love in marriage is also a good illustration of the Trinity.
Thank you for your response. ✨
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