Song of Songs | FES Malaysia

I am surprised when I found such a book like this is in the Bible. This is one of the two books in the Bible where God is not mentioned even once. Another, is the book of Esther. There is no mention of anything obviously spiritual in it from beginning to end. Its graphic description of human sexuality means that it’s one of the books of the Bible that are generally avoided in Sunday School. Not only is it “unspiritual”, but it is also very sensual – involving our five senses; smell, sight, touch, taste and hearing.

The Author

The book was written by King Solomon, who had a gift for writing lyrics. He most probably wrote many songs, including love songs to his wives. Song of Songs tells us that by the time he wrote this he already had 60 wives!

Suggestion on How to Read?

Perhaps knowing the story line of this book will help. Bear in mind that this is a long song written by King Solomon to one of his wives.

Solomon usually retreated from his duty as a king to one of his country estate.
He will relax, hunt and lead his sheep to find green pasture and water.
One day, in one of Solomon’ country side estate, a tenant farmer had died and the farm was passed on to the sons.
The tenant probably had three or four sons and two daughters.
One of the daughters, the grown up child is actually subject of this song.
Since the death of her father, the brothers made her do all the work in the house and most of the time she worked on the farm.
She complained but nothing came out of it. Furthermore her skin became dark as a result of her work outside on the farm. In their culture, before a woman marries, she will be kept out of the sun for 12 months. For that reason, she was conscious of the fact that her dark looks meant that she would probably remain a slave to her brothers for the rest of her life.
One day, while working on the farm, she met one young man.
She had a very good conversation with the man and arranged for more meetings.
After few “dates”, both fell in love with each other.
Finally, the man asked her, if she will marry him. She was so excited and said, ‘Yes”.
But whenever she asked this man which farm he came from, he never told her.
After the immediate “Yes”, the man left to get ready for the wedding and promised to return.
The next few months, were the most exciting time in her life.
But, she began to have nightmares. One night she dreamt that she is running through the streets, looking for her lover. More nightmares followed which spoke of her fear that he won’t come back to marry her.
One day, when she was out in the field, horses and chariots were approaching. So she asked her brother, “Who’s that?”
The brothers said, “It is the landlord, King Solomon from Jerusalem.”
Everyone got ready to bow down, but not her, because she has never seen the landlord. Surprisingly, the man in the chariot is her young lover.
Everyone knows that Solomon already has 60 wives, which meant that she will be the 61^st.
They got married. She was seated next to the King together with his 60 wives. She felt inferior to the rest who were fair skinned.
One day, she said to the King, “I am just a rose of Sharon, I am a lily of the valley.”
But the King reply, that she was a lily among the thorns. As a response, she sang a song to rejoice, “He brought me into his banqueting hall and his banner over me is love”.

This is the outline of the story.

Reflection

The heart of Christianity is our personal relationship with God.

Is not about going to church, reading the Bible or supporting missionaries’ work, but being in love with the Lord Jesus.
We sing hymns because we are in love with our Lord, singing a love song to Him.
In the OT, we find that, God addresses Himself as husband and His people- Israel as His wife.
He is in love with His people even though many times they turned away from Him.
In NT, Jesus is depicted as the bridegroom waiting for His wife. In the last page of the Bible, the bride is eager for the wedding and says, “Come!”
Song of Songs expresses this relationship.

Not only is there a personal relationship with God but He wants this relationship to be public.

Most people see God as the Good Shepherd and so we have a personal relationship or we fall in love with Him. But at the same time, He is King!
We are to reign with Him and be His Queen which means that we are to point to Him as the source of our life and share with Him the responsibility of reigning over the earth.