Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love. His left arm is under my head, and his right arm embraces me. Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires. (Song of Solomon 2:5–7)
THE POWER OF LOVE. The woman is overwhelmed, literally sick with love. Love has often been described as an experience of insanity or drunkenness, in which we do things that afterwards we regard with horror or shame. So the woman warns “those who are as yet unmarried about the dangers of stirring up such feelings before their time.” Here then is another perspective on not having sex before marrying. She urges them not to allow such feelings to rise to great height before marriage “not because sex is dirty or insipid, but precisely because it is so beautiful and potent” and is “intended to bond two people inseparably together for life by its unique and overwhelming power.”130
Reflection: Considering either your own experience or those of friends, think of ways that the unleashed power of sexual love led to foolish behavior or other wrong decisions.
Prayer: Lord, you made our feelings, yet they often cloud judgment. Don’t let my feelings and attractions—and repulsions—keep me from loving and serving you and my spouse. Amen.