Song of Solomon 1:2–2:7 "Simple Life, Simple Love: A Celebration"

Let’s take our Bibles together and turn once again to the Song of Solomon. Last week we introduced this great book of Scripture. Today we begin the Song starting in verse 2.  

Sanja and I got married in Longview, Texas in December of 2000. And within a year, we moved to Chicago for seminary. We lived in downtown Chicago for about seven years total. I went to school and worked. Sanja worked. We lived in a 500 sq. ft. apartment. Alastair was born in Chicago. He slept in the same room as us for the first year of his life (we only had one bedroom). 

We weren’t poor, but we weren’t rich. We didn’t have much, but we had each other. We were young. We were newly married. We were figuring out life together. And we were incandescently happy. 

I can’t tell you how many couples I’ve talked to over the years who have said something similar to that. It’s not as if they were unhappy later in life. That’s not the case. But life gets complicated as you age and start piling up the stuff of earth. And so many couples we’ve known over the years will say, “Ah the good old days. When we had nothing. When we were poor. When life was simple. When we simply had each other.” 

It’s quite a contrast from Solomon in the Bible. Solomon had everything. He had too much. He had enough wives and concubines to fill a large battalion of soldiers. And if you read the book of Ecclesiastes carefully, you realize that didn’t exactly make him happy. 

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But Solomon, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, shows us a better way. Let’s look together at Solomon’s song. Look at chapter 1, verse 2.

    • 2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine;

Wow! Okay! Not your typical book of the Bible. It’s as if we’ve stumbled onto an already developing scene. It’s as if we started watching a movie that has already been running for 30 minutes!

Who’s talking? Who’s this person talking to? Who’s asking to be kissed? And who’s being told to kiss?  

There’s really no way to know, other than to keep reading. But we know from the grammar of what is being said that the speaker is a woman. 

If you have an ESV Bible, you see the heading “SHE” above this verse. That’s not in the original Hebrew. It is helpful that English Bibles do that. If there’s a place in the ESV where I disagree with their assessment of who’s talking, I’ll tell you. 

But I will tell you this, this woman here is the main speaker in Song of Solomon. She speaks more than 50% of the time. She talks almost twice as much as the man. Sometimes that happens in marriage. 

You should also note that because this is Hebrew love poetry, there’s no mistaking the fact at this point that she is talking to her husband... or at least her husband to be! This is not some random woman asking a random man to kiss her. No way! 

I told you last week that there’s no such thing as love poetry or romantic poetry for the Hebrews in the abstract. The only kind of love and romance that they would countenance would be marital love and romance. Anything other than that would be a violation of the seventh commandment (Exod 20:14; Deut 5:18). So this is not a woman speaking to the object of her adulterous affair. And this is not one of Solomon’s brides, or a member of his harem, speaking to Solomon. Not a chance!

Some scholars have noted that “love” here, the Hebrew דּוֹד (dôḏ), could be translated “lovemaking” instead of “love.” If that is true, then this song gets off to an even racier start than we realize. An ancient Hebrew, reading this verse, would immediately think, “husband and wife.” Or in this case, this is a wife speaking to her husband. We don’t know much about what’s going on yet. But it’s at least that. 

Let’s keep reading. Look at verse 3.

    • 3 your anointing oils are fragrant; your name is oil poured out; therefore virgins love you.

In other words, “You smell good. You look good. And your character is good. It’s so good, that all the single ladies out there are jealous of me.”

A person’s name is oftentimes a metonymy of that person’s character and reputation in Scripture (Ruth 4:14; 1 Sam 25:25; Prov 10:7; 22:1; Eccl 7:1; Rev 3:1). So if you have a good name, that means that you are an honorable and righteous person—a man or woman of integrity. 

Oftentimes God is referred to simply by his name (Ps 20:1, 7; 54:1; Prov 18:10; Isa 30:27). We are baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit (Matt 28:19). This woman says of her man, “You’ve got character. You’ve got integrity. Your name has a good reputation. Your name is like oil poured out.” She’s attracted to that. Make a note of that, young men in the room. 

Women might be attracted to the bad-boy trope for a time. But that gets real old, real fast. Women don’t want to be married to Peter Pan who never grew up. They want to be married to a man who has character and integrity and a good name.   

Look at verse 4.

    • 4 Draw me after you; let us run. The king has brought me into his chambers.

Despite what our modern culture might tell you, this is not something a woman says to a man after a first date. There is no hint here of sexual immorality. This is a woman who wants her man. She sees him like the king. Forget King Solomon! She’s got her own king. And she desires him. 

And then the song moves out of the bedroom. It’s as if the camera pans out of the room. And instead of taking us up close pornographically with what happens next, there’s this voiceover. And the voiceover comes from the virgins who were referenced earlier. 

She said about those virgins, the daughters of Jerusalem, that they admire her and are jealous of the love that she has for her man. And that’s true. But it’s not a sinful jealousy. 

They say, 

    • We will exult and rejoice in you; we will extol your love more than wine;

And then another voice says, possibly the narrator, 

    • rightly do they love you.

Rightly do the virgin daughters of Jerusalem love you. The word “they” here is plural. “They” refers to the virgins. But the “you” is singular referring to the man. 

Go ahead and write this down as #1 in your notes. The first thing that we see in the first three verses of this song is a celebration of...

    • 1) The goodness of monogamous, heterosexual love in marriage (1:2–4)

I wish I didn’t have to clarify this first point with the word “monogamous.” But that needs to be said. People in Solomon’s day especially needed that. 

And I wish I didn’t have to clarify this first point with the word “heterosexual.” But people in our day need that. Like I’ve said before from this pulpit, the Bible is an equal-opportunity offender. It transcends cultural contexts. In Solomon’s day, polygamy was culturally acceptable. But that’s not God’s way. In some cultures in Solomon’s day promiscuity through the use of prostitutes was culturally acceptable. The world’s oldest profession. But that’s not God’s way.

Similarly in our day, we’ve got our own cultural values that transcend this. We embrace sex before marriage, sex outside of marriage, pornography, promiscuity, homosexuality, voyeurism, and other expressions of sexual sin and sexual immorality. That’s not God’s way. God’s way is one man and one woman in the covenant of marriage enjoying love and lovemaking as God intended it. And that’s what the culture should celebrate.

And that’s what the virgins here in Song of Solomon are celebrating. Look at verse 4 again.  

    • We will exult and rejoice in you; we will extol your love more than wine;

Wine to the Hebrew... that’s like one of God’s great gifts (Ps 104:14–15)! These daughters of Jerusalem extol monogamous love (or “lovemaking”) in marriage as better than wine. Now that’s saying something!

And notice, the virgins never celebrate Solomon and all of his wives and concubines. Yes, that’s in the Bible. But it’s not like God ever says it’s a good thing. In fact, Solomon’s actions are directly in conflict with what God told kings not to do in Deuteronomy 17: 

    • “You may indeed set a king over you whom the LORD your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother… And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold” (17:14–17).

Solomon’s actions are directly in conflict with that. They are also in conflict with Genesis 2, where God said that a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife...  not his wives! (Gen 2:24; Matt 19:4–6). In this way, Song of Solomon is a kind of mea culpa for Solomon. He writes about a better way than what he experienced. 

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Let’s continue with the song. Look at verse 5. 

    • 5 I am very dark, but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.

Okay, now we’re getting some biographical material on the main character in the song. Now we find out something about her. She’s dark, but lovely. And she’s talking back to the “daughters of Jerusalem.”

They said to her husband in verse 4, 

    • we will extol your love more than wine;

And she says back to them in verse 5, 

    • 5 I am very dark, but lovely,

Duane Garrett has imagined this as a kind of opera where there are different singers on the stage. The woman is the soprano. She’s the main voice. And the daughters of Jerusalem are singing back and forth to her like an antiphonal chorus. 

We also have a man in verse 8. And we also have a narrator who I’ll refer to as Solomon. More on that in a moment. 

But let’s pick up the details of this woman who is autobiographically telling us about herself. 

    • 5 I am very dark, but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.

In other words,

    • 5 I am very dark [like the tents of Kedar], but lovely, [like the curtains of Solomon]

Feel the parallelism here. Kedar is a reference to an Arab Bedouin tribe. Their tents were made of tanned animal hides and were dark in color. Those tents had to be tough to withstand the rigors of wind, sand, and heat in the desert.

Solomon’s curtains on the other hand were colorful and beautiful and lovely. So she’s saying here, “I’m tough as nails, but I’m also pretty.”

Look at verse 6.

    • 6 Do not gaze at me because I am dark, because the sun has looked upon me. My mother’s sons were angry with me; they made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept!

In ancient society, where people had light skin, or olive-colored skin in the case of the Hebrews, darkened skin was a sign of hard labor. It wasn’t like in our day where people go off to the tanning bed to look darker on purpose. That would be inconceivable in ancient Israel. And if you were a woman of privilege, you would stay indoors and away from the sun. That was true even in Victorian era England. 

But this woman is not a woman of wealth or privilege. And she’s not like the princesses in King Solomon’s harem. I bet those ladies never had to work a day in their life in the vineyard! 

But this woman, the Shulamite, works the field. She takes care of her family’s vineyards. And her lousy older brothers were tough on her, “Get out there and work, little sister!” This is like a Cinderella love story, except the stepsisters are replaced by brothers. 

And the result of this is her testimony here: 

    • but my own vineyard I have not kept!

In other words, “I don’t look like a beauty queen. You might think of me as a catch, daughters of Jerusalem, but I don’t think of myself that way. I’m lovely, yes. But not as lovely as I could be.” 

Queen Esther, if you remember, had twelve months of beauty treatments before she was presented before King Ahasuerus (Esth 2:9–12). This woman’s had nothing like that. In fact, she’s had to work the farm. Who’s got time for beauty treatments when you’ve got to milk the cow and prune the vines!

But this woman does have something that she’s proud of. Look at verse 7. 

    • 7 Tell me, you whom my soul loves,

Who is she talking to here? Who’s this “whom” in verse 7? I’ll give you a hint, the “you” here is singular. She’s not talking to the daughters of Jerusalem in verse 7. 

Who’s she talking to? She’s talking to her man!

    • 7 Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon; for why should I be like one who veils herself beside the flocks of your companions?

Okay, now we get a sense of who the other main character is in this song, this drama. And it’s not Solomon. Solomon wasn’t a shepherd. Solomon’s dad, David, was a shepherd. Solomon wasn’t.

And this relationship has all the hallmarks of a rural, hardscrabble existence. She’s working the fields. He’s tending the sheep. If this is a description of their courtship, which is possible, then they aren’t living high on the hog. 

And she says in verse 7 basically, “I want to come to work with you. I want to be near you. But I don’t want to be around your lousy friends.” Has a wife ever said that to her husband?

In ancient society, not just in Jewish society, married women and women of marriageable age would wear a veil or a head covering in public. Rebekah put on a veil before she met her future husband, Isaac (Gen 24:65). It was a display of dignity and propriety. But you wouldn’t need to wear a veil if you are alone with your spouse.

And so she’s saying here, “I want to be alone with you. I don’t want to have to put on my head covering in public. I don’t want to be around a bunch of sweaty, smelly, shepherd men. Just tell me where you are.”

And now the man speaks. And this guy is a charmer. I mean that positively. Look at verse 8.

    • 8 If you do not know, O most beautiful among women,

She sees herself as sun-scorched and homely. She says about herself, “I haven’t been able to take care of myself like I want.” But he says, “No, no, no, sweetie! You’re beautiful. You’re the most beautiful among women. Solomon can have his Moabite and Ammonite and Edomite princesses. You’re my princess! You’re my one and only.” 

    • And then he tells her what to do. Look at the middle of verse 8.follow in the tracks of the flock, and pasture your young goats beside the shepherds’ tents.

She’s in charge of vineyards, but she’s also in charge of goats. This lady is industrious. 

    • 9 I compare you, my love, to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots.

That might not seem like a compliment—calling one’s wife a horse—but it is! A horse to the ancient Hebrews was a rare, powerfully built beauty. And a horse among Pharaoh’s chariots was like a Ferrari or a Lamborghini in today’s world. What he’s saying to her here is, “You, my love, are choice! You’re a rare and beautiful creature.”

Look at verse 10.

    • 10 Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels. 11 We will make for you ornaments of gold, studded with silver.

Verse 11 is the “daughters of Jerusalem” talking. And they say, “We’ll accentuate your beauty. We’ll make sure you look beautiful even though you’ve had to scratch out an existence in the field and can’t do beauty treatments. We’ll make you look good with ornaments of gold studded with silver.”

Go ahead and write this down as #2 in your notes. The second thing that we see celebrated here is the...

    • 2) The beauty of committed partners in marriage (1:5–11)

Before Sanja and I started dating years ago, I got some good advice from some married friends. They said, “Don’t just go out and wine and dine her. Don’t make every date this elaborate, unsustainable experience. Spend time together in ordinary ways. Run errands together. Do laundry together. Have a meal of bread and soup. And if you guys can have fun and enjoy each other’s company in that setting, then you’ll enjoy each other through half a century of marriage.”

And you know, I found that to be some of the best wisdom I received as a single man. Not that there aren’t times for wining and dining and romantic getaways. That’s important too. But life can’t always be like that. And some couples start their relationship in the artificial Petri dish of fine dining and elaborate dates, capped off by an expensive wedding. And then five years later, you’re doing dishes, changing poopy diapers, and trying to get enough sleep at night to survive.

What’s remarkable about this description of this Shulamite shepherdess and her shepherd beau in chapter 1 is just how unremarkable their existence is. It’s especially unremarkable in ancient Israel. And yet, they love each other. And yet, they want to spend time together. And yet, he says of her, “O most beautiful among women.” And she says of him, “[O] you whom my soul loves.” They don’t have much, but they have each other.

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Let’s keep going. Things are going to start to heat up in verse 12. 

    • 12 While the king was on his couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance. 13 My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh that lies between my breasts.

These two might live a simple life without a lot of elaborate pleasures. But they know how to get romantic when the time comes.

The scene totally shifts in verse 12. They were just out in the fields a moment ago. But now, they are in the bedroom. “The king is on his couch.” That’s not King Solomon. That’s the king of the house. And his queen smells good. 

    • my nard gave forth its fragrance.

Nard or spikenard is a kind of ancient perfume like myrrh or frankincense. But myrrh came from tree resin. Spikenard came from the oil of an aromatic plant. It actually comes from the underground stems of the spikenard plant. 

Spikenard (Latin: Nardostachys jatamansi) [Click to View]

It makes you smell good. And it stimulates a man’s olfactory sense. A good smell, as most of you know, is a potent aphrodisiac.

Her statement in verse 13 is deliberately suggestive. She treasures her beloved. She is close to him now. As close as a pouch of myrrh that lies between her breasts. 

Look at verse 14. 

    • 14 My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of Engedi.

Okay, let me help you with that. That’s more complimentary than seductive. Engedi was a lush oasis in the middle of the Judean wilderness, next to the Dead Sea. 

The Oasis of Engedi [Click to View]

Its springs supported abundant vegetation and agriculture despite the surrounding desert. Henna blossoms were rare in the desert. This is like finding a desert rose in the middle of West Texas.

So she’s saying here, “I’ve found a needle in a haystack. My beloved is one in a million. I’ve found my knight in shining armor.” 

And by the way, henna blossoms smell wonderful. Here’s a picture of a henna blossom, a כֹּפֶר (kō·p̄ěr) in Hebrew.

Henna Blossom (Hebrew: כֹּפֶר [kō·p̄ěr]) [Click to View]

So he says to her, “You smell great.” And she says back to him, “No, you smell great.” Her olfactory sense is charged. His olfactory sense is charged. Are they speaking literally or metaphorically? I don’t know. Maybe both. 

And then he says something in verse 15. He’s not going to be outdone in compliments by his wife.

    • 15 Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves.

Doves symbolized purity and tenderness in the ancient world. Eyes like doves are eyes that are soft and gentle and lovely. And eyes are the window of the soul. So these eyes are gentle and inviting to him. 

Look at verse 16. This is the woman talking back to the man. 

    • 16 Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful.

“You’re beautiful, darling!” 

“No, you’re beautiful, sweetheart.” 

“You’re delightful, my love.” 

“No, you’re delightful.”

What is this? This is mutual admiration and affection leading towards consummation. 

Because look at the end of verse 16. 

    • Our couch is green;

Hello! What does that mean? It means that the couch... or the marriage bed... or the sofa, if you like... is ready to fulfill the creation mandate of Genesis 1. They’re ready to reproduce. They’re ready to procreate.

 And notice, there’s nothing crass or smutty about this. There’s euphemism. There’s suggestive language. We know what they’re talking about, but their talk is cloaked in poetry and discretion.

Look at verse 17.

    • 17 the beams of our house are cedar; our rafters are pine.

In other words, we’re enjoying intimacy in the safety of our house. And our love for each other is like a house made of oak. This house is strong and stable. This is not a house made of popsicle sticks. 

By the way, sex outside the safety and covenant of marriage is wildly overrated in our world. It’s not as gratifying as some people make it out to be. A one-night stand can actually be pretty unsatisfying.

I’ve seen research my entire life that suggests that married people have more frequent and satisfying sex than unmarried people who sleep around. Hollywood won’t tell you that or present that in their movies. But I’ll tell you that. 

Let’s keep going. This is getting interesting. Look at chapter 2, verse 1.

    • 1 I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.

Notice her entire demeanor has changed from before. She was down on herself before. But now this woman feels celebrated. “I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.” She sounds like Maria in “West Side Story.” “I feel pretty, Oh, so pretty!”

The Sharon Plain is a fertile plain along Israel’s Mediterranean coast. It was a place where roses or wildflowers like the crocus and narcissus were common. And lilies were common in the valleys. She says I am a rose of Sharon. I am a lily of the valleys—perhaps indicating one of many. 

The man affirms her beauty. But he modifies what she says. Look at verse 2.

    • 2 As a lily among brambles, so is my love among the young women.

You’re not just a lily in the valleys. You’re a lily among brambles. 

Lilies (or lotuses), as most of you know, are soft and beautiful and fragrant. Brambles are not. Brambles are noxious, thorny weeds. And this man isn’t insulting the other women of the world. Not really. He’s just saying, “You’re the one for me, darling. All the other women of the world might as well be thorns. Because you are my rose. You are my lily.” 

And she responds in verse 3 with an appropriate masculine metaphor for him. 

    • 3 As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

She’s the lotus of the valley to him. He’s a big, strong, fruitful, shade-giving apple tree to her. She rests underneath his limbs. She delights in his protection. She’s comforted by him. And his fruit is sweet to her taste. 

If that last statement seems a little sexually suggestive, that’s because it is. Look at verse 4.

    • 4 He brought me to the banqueting house [literally the house of wine], and his banner over me was love.

When I was a kid, we used to sing a song that went like this. This was at the Baptist church I grew up in. 

    • “He brought me to his banqueting table, His banner over me is love.”

It was a fun song that was meant to celebrate Jesus’s love for us. And I’m fine with that in theory. I advocated last week for the literal/typological interpretation of this book. That’s consistent with that.  

But it wasn’t until I was older that I realized, “O wow, this is in the Song of Solomon.” And also, we sang “He brought me to his banqueting table.” We didn’t sing, “He brought me to the house of wine.” That wouldn’t have gone over well in a Baptist church in Sunday school. 

Look at verse 5. This is the woman still speaking with her husband. And she says, 

    • 5 Sustain me with raisins; refresh me with apples, for I am sick with love.

Raisins or “raisin cakes” are love enhancers in the ancient world. And apples have sexually suggestive undertones. She’s not asking for a picnic. 

When David brought the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem, he sent all the people home with raisin cakes. That was so that they might procreate together and grow the kingdom (2 Sam 6:12–19).  

    • 6 His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me!

Verse 6 is the language of passion. It’s the position of lovemaking. These two lovebirds essentially melt into each other’s arms. They are enjoying the gift of sex that God has given them. And they are happy in each other’s embrace. 

And then the scene closes. Then the tone completely shifts. And in verse 7, she’s not talking to her husband. She’s not extolling his virtues. No!

She turns to her admirers... she turns to the unmarried women who are desirous of what she is experiencing with her husband. And she lectures them. She warns them. 

    • 7 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

“I call you to an oath!” “I challenge you!” 

    • by the gazelles or the does of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.

“Until it desires!” “Until it’s right!”

In other words, “What I have right now is worth waiting for, ladies. Solomon can have his wives. And other people can have their sin and their little thrills. But this is worth waiting for.”

Go ahead and write this down as #3 in your notes. The third thing that we see here is...

    • 3) The delight of lovemaking in the context of marriage (1:12–2:7)

The story is told that first-century Jewish rabbis actually warned young men of their congregation not to read the Song of Solomon until they were thirty. I understand why rabbis in the first century, and pastors in the twenty-first century might suggest that. But I think that’s a mistake. The delight of lovemaking in the context of marriage needs to be communicated to both young men and young women. In fact, there’s good reason to suspect that the primary audience of this ancient book was indeed young, unmarried women, the virgin daughters of Jerusalem.

Let me reiterate, church, what I’ve said already in this series. Desire is not demonic. Eros is not evil. Sexual intimacy is not insidious. Sex... lovemaking... baby-making... this is God’s gift to us, and this is presented in the Bible as a delight. The context has to be right. The expression of sex has to be right. And when it is, it is holy and good and God-honoring. 

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Sex! Love! Marriage! Romance! Companionship! Partnership in marriage. These are good things for the church to teach and uphold. 

One of the great privileges that I have as a pastor is to do weddings for our church. Weddings can be stressful. And they can be emotionally charged. But they are also fantastic. A man and a woman vowing to one another and to their family and friends. I can’t think of a better event to be a part of. And oftentimes I’m the person in the wedding leading the couple through their vow-making ceremony.  

But one of the things that I’ve always done as a pastor is try to communicate that something more important than the marriage itself is being foreshadowed in the marriage covenant. As amazing and as powerful as earthly marriage is, it is eclipsed... it is surpassed... by an even greater marriage. 

And every time I do a wedding ceremony, I always ask the couple if they would allow me to share the gospel during their wedding. And every time, the couple has graciously agreed. And I’m thankful for that. Because weddings often bring people who have never heard the gospel.  

And the gospel is this. I want to close with this. Let me tell it like a love story. The King of the Universe was separated from one of his beloved subjects—a woman. This woman was captured and held captive by the King’s great enemy, a dragon. And she was lost forever. But the King sent his beloved son to go and slay the dragon, rescue the damsel in distress, and bring her back to his father King. And the beloved son not only rescued this fair maiden, but he also married her and brought her in to share in his kingdom and the kingdom of his Father forever. 

Let me say that again, but let me say it without the fairy tale flourish, because this isn’t a fairy tale. God the Father sent his son to save humanity that was lost and separated from him. God the Son came to earth, died on a cross as an atoning payment for the sins of people like you and me. And the Son, after rising from the dead, says, “Believe in me. Believe in my death. Believe in my resurrection. And you will have eternal life.”

That is the gospel. That is the true and better marriage for eternity that earthly marriage foreshadows. And every single person in this room...young, old, rich, poor, married, unmarried, widowed, divorced... has an opportunity to participate in that marriage that will never end. 

Bow with me in a word of prayer.