A bride and groom delight in true love’s bliss.
The physical, romantic, and sexual dimensions of human love can be pushed to two extremes—sensuality and asceticism. Sensuality turns desire into lust. Asceticism turns purity into sterility.
The alternative, captured here in the Song of Solomon, is to recognize romantic love as a gift from God to celebrate, enjoy, and protect. Here we see healthy romance captured in a poem of passion, intensity, imagery, and anticipation. The Song of Solomon offers a positive ideal to pursue, a portrait of married love that is neither obscene nor ashamed.
The Song of Solomon may strike some as an odd book to include in Scripture, alongside works that deal with the ultimate meaning of life and declare themselves to be the very words of God (2 Tim. 3:16). In fact, this issue has kept God’s followers occupied for centuries, and their conclusions have been determined by their interpretation of the text. Many approach this book as an allegory either of the relationship between God and Israel or between Christ and the church. A related approach is to accept the poem as an earthly love story but regard its characters and events as types that portray higher spiritual meanings.
If we take the Song of Solomon at face value, we find a delightful love poem about the pure and powerful affection between a wedded couple. We could argue that it has earned its place in Scripture because it serves as a reminder of what authentic love looks like. God created us, male and female, and the first couple was “naked … and were not ashamed” (Gen. 2:25). It wasn’t until after Adam and Eve’s disobedience that human sexuality was tainted by shame and the potential for abuse (3:8–13, 21).
The Song of Solomon takes us back to the ideal of love as God intended, celebrating the romantic relationship of Solomon and his bride, called the Shulamite (Song 6:13). The poem is candid about physical love, staunch in its advocacy of commitment, devotion, and personal integrity, and beautiful in its expression of the care and gentleness shown by both members of the union.
The poem is cast in the language of agriculture and nature, with imagery that may at first feel unusual or unfamiliar to modern readers. In addition, readers will find a number of speakers besides Solomon and the bride. The Shulamite refers to a group called the daughters of Jerusalem (for example, Song 1:5; 2:7; 3:5), who likely form a chorus that responds to the main speakers (for example, Song 1:8; 5:9; 6:1). The bride’s brothers also indirectly participate in the conversation (8:8, 9).
The Song of Solomon is not the only passage of Scripture to address love’s virtues. First Corinthians 13, often referred to as “the Love Chapter,” describes the unfailing love that should fill our lives as Christians. And Ephesians 5:25–33 discusses the love that men should show their wives—the same sacrificial love that Christ has for the church.
This “song of songs” is traditionally attributed to Solomon (Song 1:1), although the phrasing of the verse could also mean that the song was composed for Solomon. The fact that Solomon wrote 1,005 songs (1 Kin. 4:32), however, testifies to his qualifications to write such a masterpiece. If Solomon was indeed the writer, then this poem would have been composed sometime during his reign from 971 to 931 B.C. The Song of Solomon is set in and around the land of Canaan (see the map at “The Geography of Romance” at Song 4:8).
Key Verses in Song of Solomon
• “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys” (Song 2:1).
• “His banner over me was love” (Song 2:4).
• “Do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases” (Song 2:7; 3:5; 8:4).
• “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine” (Song 6:3).
• “Love is as strong as death, jealousy as cruel as the grave” (Song 8:6).
• “Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it” (Song 8:7).