Day 204

True Love

Read: Song of Solomon 1-4

The Song of Solomon is called the Song of Songs or Canticles, and may have been written by Solomon or about Solomon. It describes the love of a bride and groom, and in so doing places God’s approval on the physical aspect of marital love. In trying to find why it should be included in the Bible, the Jews allegorized it to represent the love between God and Israel. Some Christians followed this line by seeing in the book a description of the love between Christ and his church. There are passages of Scripture which compare God’s love for Israel and then for the church in terms of the love between husband and wife, but there is no reason for not taking the book at face value as describing the love which should exist between a married couple.

A difficulty in understanding the book is that it appears to be a dialogue between the bride and the groom with a chorus provided by “the daughters of Jerusalem,” and it is necessary to determine when the speech changes from one person or group to the other. The book has enriched our own language and literature by providing such attractive lines as “I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys” (2:1), which in a hymn is used to describe Christ, and “the little foxes, that spoil the vineyards” (v. 15), which shows how little things can spoil wonderful relationships.

PRAYER
Father, fill the hearts of husbands and wives with unselfish love for each other. For Christ’s sake. Amen.