December 17, 2015.

Daily Reading: Song of Songs 4-6.

Background: Song of Songs 1-3.

Concepts and Connections.

Chapter 4

The consummation of marriage: The majority of this chapter is dedicated to Solomon’s admiration of his bride’s beauty. He describes her form in such detail that we still blush in parts of the poetry today. There are many metaphors of the brides beauty to the beauty found in nature. It is obvious that Solomon is enamored with the beauty of his bride, drunk with love, as the audience will say in the first verse of the next chapter. To him, she was all together beautiful, without flaw. Would that we learn a valuable lesson from this and apply it to our marriages today! She had captivated his heart with a glance, and he prized her love. As his words get more intimate, there is a growing climax that blossoms into the garden of love, which is representative of the consummation of their marriage. The bride calls him into his garden in the final verse of this chapter and the marriage is consummated, as seen in his response in the first verse of the next chapter.

Chapter 5

1. The second dream of separation: After the marriage is consummated, we get a true sense of the wife’s deep longing for her husband as she has a second nightmare of separation from him. Though she slept, her heart was awake. She hears his voice at the door, but when she goes to open it, he was gone. She searched diligently for him, calling out, to no avail. The watchmen were no help, beating and bruising her; even this did not stop her quest. She calls to all the daughters of Jerusalem that if they find him, to tell him she is sick with love.

2. The bride praises the husband’s beauty: Similar to the grooms praise in the previous chapter, when the audience asks the bride about her beloved, she gives a detailed description of him. She calls him radiant and ruddy, with wavy locks and a polished body. His strength and appearance is valued and shown to be greatly desired by the bride. In the end she calls him her beloved and her friend as she puts his appearance before the daughters of Jerusalem.

Chapter 6

Solomon and his bride delight in each other: “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.” This is a theme verse throughout the song, and it certainly encapsulates the main idea of this chapter. The bride tells the audience that her beloved is in his garden, the garden of love that we encountered in chapter 4, to graze among the lilies. Solomon again praises his bride for her beauty, this time focusing mainly on the beauty of her face. He says that her eyes overwhelm him, and though there are sixty queens and eighty concubines, she is the perfect one. She is the only one of her mother, and even the queens and concubines praise her for her beauty. Though this chapter and the following chapters, we see the maturation of love between Solomon and his bride after the honeymoon is over.

Tomorrow’s Reading: Zechariah 1-8.

Let love prevail.

-Walter