Song of Solomon 1:1-4 Amplified Bible
The Young Shulammite Bride and Jerusalem’s Daughters
1 The [a]Song of Songs [the best of songs], which is Solomon’s.
[b](The Shulammite Bride)
2
“May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!” [Solomon arrives, she turns to him, saying,]
“For your love is better than wine.
3
“The aroma of your oils is fragrant and pleasing;
Your name is perfume poured out;
Therefore the maidens love you.
4
“Draw me away with you and let us run together!
Let the king bring me into his chambers.”
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
We Will Sing Your Songs and We Will Rejoice In Thee
Song of Solomon 1:2-4 The Message
The Woman
2-3 Kiss me—full on the mouth!
Yes! For your love is better than wine,
headier than your aromatic oils.
The syllables of your name murmur like a meadow brook.
No wonder everyone loves to say your name!
4 Take me away with you! Let’s run off together!
An elopement with my King-Lover!
We’ll celebrate, we’ll sing,
we’ll make great music.
Yes! For your love is better than vintage wine.
Everyone loves you—of course! And why not?
If this Hebrew love song was modernized, it would be steamier than most romance novels out there!
It is full of passion, desire, pursuit, possession and pleasure.
Like a ballad, it tells the sensual love story of a man and woman, their longing for the day when they can fully give themselves to each other, their wedding (Song 3:11), the consummation of their love, and their love life together.
C.S. Lewis wrote a timeless book called The Four Loves which summarizes four kinds of human love and four Greek words for love:
affection (storgé),
friendship (phileō),
romantic love (eros),
and the love of God (agapé).
The Bible is and should be our authority on the topic of love because love (agapé) comes from God and God is love (1 John 4:7-8).
Even though the love God has for us is a unique and wholly unconventional type of love, the Bible is also our complete authority on all other types of love.
The Four Types of Love
Storgé, or family affection, is mentioned only one time, in Romans 12:9-10.
Romans 12:9-10 The Message
9-10 Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.
Phileō is used many times in Scripture (see example in John 21:15-17).
John 21:15-17 GOD’S WORD Translation
Jesus Speaks with Peter
15 After they had eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than the other disciples do?”
Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus told him, “Feed my lambs.”
16 Jesus asked him again, a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus told him, “Take care of my sheep.”
17 Jesus asked him a third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Peter felt sad because Jesus had asked him a third time, “Do you love me?” So Peter said to him, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.”
Jesus told him, “Feed my sheep.
Agape’ is the word for love used most often in the Bible, being therefore the type of love upon which we should focus the hardest.
1 Corinthians 13:3-10 The Message
3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
8-10 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
That leaves romantic love, or sexual desire.
The Greek word eros is never found in the Bible.
A Hebrew equivalent is found in the Old Testament however.
The Hebrew word, ‘ahabah, is used repeatedly in the Song of Solomon and though it does not explicitly refer to romantic love or sexual desire, in the context of the Song of Solomon, it does.
“Let him lead me to the banquet hall, and let his banner over me be love. Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love” (Song of Solomon 2:4-5).
“Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires” (Song of Solomon 2:7, 3:5, 8:4).
“Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you—if you find my beloved, what will you tell him? Tell him I am faint with love” (Song of Solomon 5:8).
“Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If one were to give all the wealth of one’s house for love, it would be utterly scorned” (Song of Solomon 8:6-7).
Who Wrote the Song of Solomon?
The author of the Song of Solomon, known as the Song of Songs, was King Solomon, son of King David, who reigned over Israel for 40 years (971-931 B.C.).
Solomon is best remembered for his wisdom.
1 Kings 4:32 lets us know that Solomon “spoke three thousand proverbs and his songs numbered a thousand and five.”
He wrote 1,005 songs and the Song of Solomon was his very best, which is why it is referred to as the “Song of Songs.” it is the most excellent of all songs!
This fact is debated by scholars, but it seems as if Solomon is also “the beloved” in this love song.
The Shulamite woman (Song of Solomon 6:13) was likely Solomon’s first wife (though he went on to marry 699 other women).
In this song, “Solomon recounts (1) his own days of courtship, (2) the early days of his first marriage, followed by (3) the maturing of this royal couple through the good and bad days of life” (MacArthur Study Bible notes).
The Song of Solomon stands out in Scripture as the only book that seemingly has nothing to do with God, even though “all 117 verses in Solomon’s Song have been recognized by the Jews as a part of their sacred writings.
Along with Ruth, Esther, Ecclesiastes, and Lamentations, it is included among the OT books of the Megilloth, or ‘five scrolls.’ The Jews read this song at the Passover, calling it ‘the Holy of Holies’” (MacArthur Study Bible notes).
It may seem to have nothing to do with God, but romantic love has everything to do with God!
It is completely accurate to say that God is the inventor and author of romantic love which naturally makes Him the authority on the subject! Therefore, we should care very much about what God thinks about romance and marriage.
How Does This Song Apply To Our Lives
So how can this Jewish love song apply to our lives?
Here are at least two ways:
1. Sexual intimacy is reserved for marriage and should be highly honored and protected.
There is a “charge” given three times in the Song of Solomon, reminding us not to “arouse or awaken love until it so desires” (Song of Solomon 2:7, 3:5, 8:4).
In the context and scripts of the range of modern-day TV shows, Reality TV shows of and from every conceivable “love” angle and ideological spectrum and movies, we will sometimes hear the all too ambiguous advice given unto teens to wait to have sex till “it finally feels right” “until it’s finally the right person.
That’s not even close to what Solomon’s wife is saying at all.
She is expressing her absolute commitment to wait until love can be aroused or awakened in the context of complete commitment and possession!
“My beloved is mine and I am his” (2:16).
Solomon refers to his bride as “a garden locked up,” “a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain” (4:12).
Until marriage, she did not open herself to him (4:15).
This theme of faithfulness and fidelity is all through Scripture, and the reason is that the sacred covenant of marriage is pointing directly to the mystery and covenant relationship between Husband and Wife, to Christ and His Church.
Hebrews 13:4 GOD’S WORD Translation
4 Marriage is honorable in every way, so husbands and wives should be faithful to each other. God will judge those who commit sexual sins, especially those who commit adultery.
Those are strong words!
Why does God care so much about the sanctity of marriage?
Again, it is because it points at His relationship with His covenant people:
Ephesians 5:31-32 GOD’S WORD Translation
31 That’s why a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two will be one. 32 This is a great mystery. (I am talking about Christ’s relationship to the church.)
2. Love and Attraction are Powerful Forces for Good or For Evil.
Solomon left us a beautiful song about the holy love between a man and a woman which points us both to the importance of faithfulness and to the very heart of God and His covenant of love with us.
Sadly though, that is not the only example which Solomon left us.
1 Kings 11:1-4 GOD’S WORD Translation
Solomon’s Idolatry
11 King Solomon loved many foreign women in addition to Pharaoh’s daughter. He loved Hittite women and women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon. 2 They came from the nations about which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, “Never intermarry with them. They will surely tempt you to follow their gods.” But Solomon was obsessed with their love. 3 He had 700 wives who were princesses and 300 wives who were concubines.[a] 4 In his old age, his wives tempted him to follow other gods. He was no longer committed to the Lord his God as his father David had been.
Solomon, known for his vast breadth of wisdom, was also guilty of severe infidelity in his relationship with God.
Sadder than the fact that his heart was divided between hundreds of women, “his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God.”
If there is anything we learn from Solomon, may it be the devastating choice of allowing our hearts to be led astray from our first Love! (Isaiah Chapter 53)
Take me away with you–let us hurry! Let the king bring me into his chambers. We rejoice and delight in you; we will praise your love more than wine. How right they are to adore you! Song Of Solomon 1:4
Most people have someone who they love to be around.
They desire to be with that person all the time.
This is especially true of newly married couples.
They want to be together.
They hate being apart from each other and love to spend all their time together.
Young children often want to spend time with one of their parents, the dad or the mom.
They love their parents and they cannot stand being away from the parent.
The reason that people love to spend time with someone is that they love that person.
Solomon shows a scene of a woman who is eager to be brought away by the king.
She is in a hurry to have it happen.
Her friends also realize the value of this relationship.
While this may be meant to be just a relationship between a man and woman, it can also represent the relationship between a person and God.
God is always seen as the ultimate king. Jesus is called the King.
The believer in Jesus should have a desire to be with God in the most intimate of places, not just in the public open spaces.
The intimate place shows the relationship at its very highest level.
Often believers are too easily content just to be with God on Sunday in church, but will mostly ignore Him going through their busyness the rest of the week.
Their heart is really not in the relationship, but just on getting out of hell.
When one realizes how much Jesus (The King) has done for him, he will also desire to be with God immediately.
He will not want to wait for a later time, but wants to spend time getting to know God more and more.
The relationship with God will take priority over any other relationship or action.
When you take a look at your life, when you take a look at your spouse, take a long look into your bathroom mirror, who do you want to be around more?
When you read, study and pray over the Word of God for His Children, what questions of God and His Love are you asking, what answers are you seeking?
Are you seeking just to make friends friends on this earth, with this earth and to have a worldly good time, even though you already know it is only temporary?
Or is your heart’s desire to be with God?
Or is your heart and soul looking to embrace, to live the truth of God’s Love?
John 3:16-17 New American Standard Bible
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him.
Seek to get to know the intimacy of God more and more in the intimate places.
These are the very private places of your life, in the very quiet times of prayer and bible study and Koinonia Fellowship – Get to know His great love for you.
I pray today that you will come to know the intimacy of Jesus alone as your Lord and Savior; that you will know God’s most intimate love for you; and that you will seek to spend more time with God; and that God will be your one true love above all others.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 40 The Message
40 1-3 I waited and waited and waited for God.
At last he looked; finally he listened.
He lifted me out of the ditch,
pulled me from deep mud.
He stood me up on a solid rock
to make sure I wouldn’t slip.
He taught me how to sing the latest God-song,
a praise-song to our God.
More and more people are seeing this:
they enter the mystery,
abandoning themselves to God.
4-5 Blessed are you who give yourselves over to God,
turn your backs on the world’s “sure thing,”
ignore what the world worships;
The world’s a huge stockpile
of God-wonders and God-thoughts.
Nothing and no one
compares to you!
I start talking about you, telling what I know,
and quickly run out of words.
Neither numbers nor words
account for you.
6 Doing something for you, bringing something to you—
that’s not what you’re after.
Being religious, acting pious—
that’s not what you’re asking for.
You’ve opened my ears
so I can listen.
7-8 So I answered, “I’m coming.
I read in your letter what you wrote about me,
And I’m coming to the party
you’re throwing for me.”
That’s when God’s Word entered my life,
became part of my very being.
9-10 I’ve preached you to the whole congregation,
I’ve kept back nothing, God—you know that.
I didn’t keep the news of your ways
a secret, didn’t keep it to myself.
I told it all, how dependable you are, how thorough.
I didn’t hold back pieces of love and truth
For myself alone. I told it all,
let the congregation know the whole story.
11-12 Now God, don’t hold out on me,
don’t hold back your passion.
Your love and truth
are all that keeps me together.
When troubles ganged up on me,
a mob of sins past counting,
I was so swamped by guilt
I couldn’t see my way clear.
More guilt in my heart than hair on my head,
so heavy the guilt that my heart gave out.
13-15 Soften up, God, and intervene;
hurry and get me some help,
So those who are trying to kidnap my soul
will be embarrassed and lose face,
So anyone who gets a kick out of making me miserable
will be heckled and disgraced,
So those who pray for my ruin
will be booed and jeered without mercy.
16-17 But all who are hunting for you—
oh, let them sing and be happy.
Let those who know what you’re all about
tell the world you’re great and not quitting.
And me? I’m a mess. I’m nothing and have nothing:
make something of me.
You can do it; you’ve got what it takes—
but God, don’t put it off.
Lord, my Heavenly Father, allow me to receive Your most intimate love for me and to share that level of intimacy love with all those who are my neighbors, Just as Christ loved the Church so are we to love all. In Christ Jesus Holy and Precious name I pray!
Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 