Song of Solomon
Song of Songs tells a story about love, longing, passion, and waiting through a collection of songs about a bride and a groom. People often think this book is only about sexual intimacy or only a metaphor for our relationship with God. The beauty of this song, and why it is the called the greatest song ever written, is that it is about both. Only when we are intimate with God can we be properly intimate with anyone else. Only when we give holy love to others are we truly living in God's holy love for us.
Ultimately, though, Song of Songs is about absence and longing. There are constant warnings to not awaken love until the proper time mixed with seasons of the groom's absence that leave the bride desperate and alone. This longing is meant to frame what is our common experience of God's presence. Yes, there are times of beautiful intimacy where we feel close to God. But there are also seasons that seem to interrupt that intimacy with doubt, absence, and a sense of longing.
Our sense of longing and feelings of absence, shows us that God knows they exist and is drawing near to us to bring healing and satisfaction in the person of Jesus.
At a Glance
Overview
NIV Bible Song of Solomon Introduction
Traditional wedding celebrations in the Middle East cast the bride and groom in the roles of a king and his queen. The festivities include love songs and also special songs that praise the physical beauty of the bride or the handsomeness of the groom. The custom has a long history and is reflected in the anthology of wedding songs we know as the Song of Songs. The individual songs may have been used repeatedly in marriage celebrations and eventually gathered together, just as the psalms were collected after years of use in worship. The title Solomon’s Song of Songs can be taken to mean that King Solomon, a renowned composer (see 1 Kings 4:29-34), was the author of its songs. However, it could also be a reference to Solomon as the kind of glorious king the groom represents.
The songs are arranged to tell the courtship story of a man and woman, of their marriage (described as a royal wedding) and its consummation, and of the beginning of their new life together. After a short introduction the book presents six episodes, each typically ending with a reference to the friends of the man and woman. This may refer to others attending the wedding to join in the celebration. Together the songs celebrate the delights of married love and the beauty of the human body, using vivid imagery from the natural world to show that these things are part of the creation that God declared very good.