Song of Solomon - A Love Poem
February 10, 2013 | Anita Retzlaff
Grace and peace to you from God the Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus the Christ. Our trek through the Bible takes us to the Song of Solomon today also known as the Song of Songs. Many things about this short book are unusual. It is attributed to the authorship of King Solomon as in the first verse it says, “The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s.” Then without interruption we hear the voice of a young woman saying, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine…” (1:2) That doesn’t sound like the utterance of King Solomon who had hundreds of wives and concubines. In fact much of the book is written from a woman’s perspective; again, an unusual occurrence in the bible.
But most unusual of all is the absence of the mention of God or anything vaguely religious. There is nothing in the Song of Solomon about God or even a story about the Hebrew people. This is a treatise on love; an extended love poem which focuses entirely upon a man and a woman who desire each other’s company and intimacy. So, the obvious question is: why would this love poetry become part of Holy Scripture? What place does it have in the Bible? When I was looking for hymns in our worship hymnal there were no songs that referenced the Song of Solomon. I was actually somewhat surprised at this because if anything this kind of poetry, rhapsodizing eloquently of love, could be comfortably expressed in some form of hymnody even if it is not used with any frequency in our preaching. But maybe the content is just too racy.
The Song of Solomon is about feelings, about desire for intimacy and as such is the only book in the Bible that deals in this medium. It directly relates love to sex. It is truly risqué! The woman in the poem says of herself at the outset, “I am black and beautiful.” (1:5) This flies in the face of all ancient Hebrew convention. The woman is obviously a foreigner speaking unashamedly about her beauty and her desire for her shepherd lover that most definitely falls outside of the arranged marriage practises of the time. Again we wonder how it is that this explicit language and risky relationship is a part of our scriptural heritage.
And yet consider the beautiful language that is used to describe and express human love. Again and again this man and this woman refer to each other as their “beloved.” Isn’t that a wonderful word, an exquisite sentiment about one’s partner? Beloved. To speak of anyone as beloved, parent or child or friend, is a tribute to an intimate and valuable relationship. The love poetry of the Song of Solomon displays the highest expression of connection possible in human relationships. There may be something very God-like about this language and sentiment after all.
And beauty! The description of the garden-like setting of this poem is filled with lush images. “The voice of my beloved! Look, he comes, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills… my beloved speaks and says to me: “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.” I don’t know about you but that gets my blood flowing! It is paradise described almost like that of the garden in Genesis; the pure beauty of undefiled beginnings.
And that is just the beginning of beauty described. Physical beauty, the human body - of God’s creation - comes into very clear focus in the Song of Solomon. This is the part that we might have some shyness about: that we are hesitant to hear and to accept as biblical. I had been looking for an image for the bulletin cover and found a simple and beautiful line drawing of a man and a woman embracing. The image may have caused some offense so I didn’t use it. The bodies were naked though the artwork was tasteful. Maybe this love poetry is in the bible because love, sexuality and intimacy are of God and though human beings often misuse sex and misunderstand its power our bodies are nevertheless a great gift of creation. In that vein it is not inappropriate for us to value this discourse on love and romance reflecting the longing and desire of human beings for physical intimacy, for sexual closeness.
Most recently I have used portions of this poetry in wedding ceremonies; my own included - some 20 months ago. Sarah Unrau and Mackenzie Fast also chose lines of poetry from this book as their scripture text for their wedding service. They read through the Song of Solomon and chose parts of it, some of which are printed in the bulletin this morning. Today, however, I have asked them to read other parts that have not been included in wedding ceremonies and probably have not been read in worship - at least in the hearing of most of us present today. They will be reading from chapters 7 and 8 which are portions not printed in the bulletin and they will be reading from the translation of Eugene Peterson’s The Message. I invite you to imagine these words in the context of God’s creative purposes and God’s intent for human beings to delight in the physical and the sensual. (Mackenzie and Sarah read Song of Solomon 7:1- 8:4)
Erotic love is like playing with fire! It is good. It is created good but must be contained within certain limits. Having heard the very personal, intimate description of the physical expressions of love that Sarah and Mackenzie have just read, we are wise to be careful, aware, of the power of sexual attraction. From the words of the poet we may consider at least three realities about the sexual expression of love; it is timely, it is mutual and it is very, very strong.
As Sarah read, “Don’t excite love, don’t stir it up, until the time is ripe—and you’re ready.” This admonishment is repeated three times within this poem. (8:4, 2:7, 3:5) Be careful! There is a time for love and its physical expression. For many of us who have been around the block a few times I think we know this to be true – from our own experience, from watching others and from various forms of media expression over the years. Our society has used sexual attraction to sell things. Sex has become almost an extracurricular activity. It is not an expression of commitment for many but rather a source of entertainment and a measure of popularity. In this way the physical expression of intimacy instead of bearing the ultimate gift of two people to each other becomes a watered-down experience of what is meant to be the most intense and intimate communication possible.
Herein is the danger. The most luxurious and seductive interchange between two lovers may take place at the wrong time – usually too soon. God’s intent for safety and commitment in love can be easily violated and people hurt, intimidated, abused. Timing is important. Deep trust and connection, commitment and mutuality are desirable as a base on which to build the more risky and uncharted experience of physical intimacy. Otherwise sexual expression may be personally destructive. For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven. “Do not stir up or awaken love until it is ready.” Premature experimentation with sex before a solid emotional relationship is secured may lead to huge disappointment, even shame, regret. It’s like having dessert before the main course. Even a beautifully grilled and succulent fillet mignon may taste flat if you fill up with crème brule first. Dining savvy, at least in this part of the world, would dictate that dessert is the culmination of a fine meal. There is a physical and emotional logic to the particular order of things. God desire for us to enjoy life in its fullness implies the matter of timing.
Love is mutual. “My beloved is mine and I am his.” We tread on sacred ground and I mean this sincerely. Truly God’s spirit of love finds expression in mutuality. So when it comes to sexual expression, lovers possess the other in a way that no other human interaction affords… and it is a spiritual experience. Such possession is healthy only in the context of safety and trusted self-giving! Outside of mutual sexual encounter and intimacy, possessing another person is exploitive and a violation. The young lovers in this poem are on fire for each other. That is obvious. They are playing with the fire of self-surrender which exposes vulnerability of the deepest sort. And vulnerability is what must be protected and secured as lovers, those beloved, are drawn into the full force of the power of love.
And love is powerful! “…love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave,” Scripture relates. “Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.” (8:6-7) Last Sunday when the CMU Men’s Choir shared with us in worship a couple of the young men shared stories from their lives. Scott Feick actually quoted this scripture text referring to the love of God as powerful and fierce, so strong that it overcomes our human propensity to choose deathly things. And so there is a connection I think between the images of love’s power in a sensual relationship and love’s power flowing from God’s creative presence.
Many of you can attest to the deep pull, the visceral fire of a love relationship in its initial, heady days of fierce attraction, of yearning and helpless distractibility. One is so consumed with “the other” and such longing lets loose that everything else pales in importance. Come on, even if you won’t admit that this has ever happened to you, many can recall the annoying behaviour of someone else in love! The point being that the power of love and attraction is the strongest emotion we will likely ever feel. That pull, that fierce desire indicates that in this other person we have found our treasure. And so, to read of the potency of physical attraction and love in the poetry of the Song of Solomon, we are given a template for the possibilities of longing and desire for the eternal, for the divine.
That is not such a stretch of the imagination for we confess that we find our treasure in God, in the Creator who gave us life and breath. And we are told throughout scripture that God’s love for humanity is stronger than death, that God has put a seal upon our hearts and that we are God’s beloved. So I think that it is appropriate for us to take from these images of fierce passion a means of describing all of the love relationships in our lives; lovers for each other, parents for their children, good friends for the community and believers for their God. We are given permission to yearn for God, to long for deep attachment to the Eternal and to imagine that God’s love for us will never be extinguished or in any manner drowned out. Thanks be to God for the ways in which we are reminded that we are loved. AMEN
