Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Beauty of Love as God Intended (Song of Songs) | Thomas R. Schreiner

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The Beauty of Love as God Intended (Song of Songs) | Thomas R. Schreiner · Reformed Thinking

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Reformed thinking. Welcome back to the Deep Dive.
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Today we are tackling well a really fascinating and, let's be
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honest, often misunderstood part of the Old Testament.
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We're going to be looking at the Song of Songs, or as it's
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sometimes called, the Song of Solomon.
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And it is definitely a challenging 1.
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It is so for our guide. We're drawing from excerpts of
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Thomas R Shriner's work, The King in His Beauty, and our
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mission really is threefold. First, we need to get a handle
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on the current scholarly view of the book.
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Then we want to appreciate its celebration of marital love.
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Which is pretty robust and uninhibited.
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Absolutely. And then finally, and this is
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maybe the trickiest part, we need to connect all that to the
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big picture of the Bible through what's called typology.
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And it's a good idea to say right at the start that this
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book has been a real interpretive minefield for
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centuries. I mean, because it's so symbolic
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and so sensuous, people have read it in completely different
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ways. You might have heard it's all
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about Christ in the church, or maybe that it's just a bunch of
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secular love poems. Right, there's this immediate
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tension. There is.
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So our goal right now is to just clear the air and layout what
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the scholarly consensus is today before we get into any of those
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older applications. OK, let's do that.
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Let's start right there in Part 1, Unpacking the consensus
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interpretation of Song of Songs. For a long time, people weren't
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even sure what kind of book they were reading.
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That's the absolute starting point.
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The historical readings are, well, they're all over the
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place. Like what?
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Well, Jewish tradition for a long time read it as an allegory
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for the relationship between Yahweh and Israel.
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OK, then Christian tradition picked that up and saw it as an
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allegory for Christ in the church.
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But then you also had people who tried to read it like a three
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act play. A play with a love triangle.
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Exactly. The classic version was a
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maiden, a simple shepherd boy she truly loves, and then King
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Solomon is the powerful figure trying to win her away.
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That sounds dramatic. It is, but it's not really in
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the text. And then you get even more
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readings. Some try to tie it to ancient
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Near Eastern cultic rites, fertility rituals and that sort
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of thing. It's just been pulled in a dozen
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different directions. So why the big shift now?
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Why are scholars today mostly rejecting all of those older
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takes? The problem, especially with the
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allegories, is that they're almost completely subjective.
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Meaning you can make it say whatever you want it to say.
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You can. If you decide this flower
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represents this virtue, and that animal represents that person,
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you've basically erased the literal meaning of the poem
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itself. Decoding it.
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You are. And Shriner points out that
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scholars like Garrett have made a very persuasive case that we
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should set those readings aside. The modern consensus is,
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thankfully, a lot more straightforward.
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Which is. That this is love poetry.
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It's a collection of lyrical poems.
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It's not a single narrative drama, and it's not a secret
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code book for theology. That does sound a lot simpler,
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but if we reject the dramatic reading, the love triangle, how
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are we sure there are only two characters?
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The names aren't exactly laid out for us.
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That's a fair question. It really just comes down to the
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evidence in the text itself. So there's no clear third
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person. There's just isn't.
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The poems are consistently a back and forth, a dialogue of
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love between a young woman and a man who was identified as the
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King Solomon. There's no part of the text that
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clearly introduces A rival shepherd or a sustained
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conversation with a third party. The focus is laser sharp on
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those two. The maiden and the king.
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The Shulamite maiden and King Solomon, yes.
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So if we know the genre is love poetry and the characters are
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these two, what about the context?
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You said it's a royal story. What in the text tells us that?
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The setting, it's definitely not a humble one.
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We're told right in chapter 1, verse four, that the young woman
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is brought into his chambers. So into the King's private room.
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Exactly. This isn't a shepherd's Hut.
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We also get references to the King's couch, his table, all the
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trappings of wealth and royalty. The whole atmosphere is one of,
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well, courtly romance. And it seems like this is all
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building towards a specific event.
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The source material points to a royal wedding.
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Yes, the arrival of the king described in chapter 3 is It's a
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spectacle. He doesn't just show up, he
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arrives in the wilderness in a magnificent carriage of
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palanquin. And he's not alone.
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Not at all. He's escorted by 60 mighty men,
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a full military guard. This is a display of power and
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state importance. So this is more than just a
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personal affair. It's like a state wedding.
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It is, but it's centered on this very personal relationship.
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The text says it's his wedding day, and it even mentions the
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crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his
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wedding. So the poems are all about this
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relationship between the king and this young woman leading up
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to and including their marriage. OK, so establishing that
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framework, it's love poetry about a royal wedding is the key
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to unlocking the rest of the book.
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It is because once you see that, you can appreciate what the
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poems are actually about. Which brings us to the content
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itself. This is where the book gets so
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fascinating. It's just complete celebration
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of physical love. Let's get into that in Part 2,
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the celebration of married love and physicality.
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Right. And this is really what makes
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the book so unique and I think so necessary.
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In the Canon, the Song of Songs is a powerful, joyful
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celebration of sexual love, but specifically within marriage.
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That's a critical distinction. It is because it functions as a
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major corrective to some less than biblical ideas that
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unfortunately work their way into Christian thought over the
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years. You're talking about asceticism,
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right? This sort of suspicion of the
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body and the physical world. I am certain strands of thought,
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often influenced by Greek philosophy, created this dualism
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where the spiritual was seen as good and the physical, including
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sex, was seen as base or even evil.
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But that's not a Hebrew idea at all.
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Not in the slightest. From Genesis onward, the created
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world, the human body, and the sexual union inside of marriage
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are all declared to be good. The Song of Songs is maybe the
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high point of that affirmation. It tells us that this part of
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life isn't something to be endured, but something to be
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celebrated with joy. And the way it celebrates it is
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with such artistry. It's never crude.
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Never. The author's touch is incredibly
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delicate. There's no clinical or graphic
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description. Instead, the author paints a
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picture using imagery that appeals to all the senses.
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It's meant to be intoxicating. Can you give us some examples of
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that? How does the poetry make this
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love feel so, well, overwhelming?
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It draws from the best things in the world.
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In chapter 1, love is compared to the taste of rich wine.
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The scent of their love is like a fragrant perfume that fills
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the room so. Taste.
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Smell. All the senses.
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Her beauty is compared to a rare flower, a rose of Sharon or a
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Lily of the valleys, and the joy they find in each other is like
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the pleasure of eating sweet, delightful fruit.
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It's a full sensory experience being described.
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And it's not just about their personal feelings.
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The whole natural world seems to get in on it.
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I'm thinking of the analogy of spring.
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The spring analogy in chapter 2 is just brilliant.
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The lover calls to her arise, my love for behold, the winter is
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past, the rain is over and gone. Winter is the cold, lonely time
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before their union. And Spring is the new beginning.
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It's total renewal. Flowers are blooming, birds are
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singing, the fig trees are putting out fruit.
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The vibrancy of nature is a direct reflection of the
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vibrancy of their love. It's a call to come out and
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enjoy this beautiful new season of life together.
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And within that beautiful setting, the King's attention is
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fixed entirely on her physical beauty.
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He seems totally captivated. Utterly dazzled and the
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descriptions he gave her so specific, he praises her eyes,
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which are like doves. Her hair is like a flock of
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goats cascading down a mountain. A flock of goats?
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That's not a comparison you hear much today.
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No, it's not, but you have to picture it, the shimmering,
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dark, flowing movement. It's an image of life and
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natural beauty. He goes on to praise her mouth,
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her cheeks, her neck. It's a detailed, appreciative
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gaze. And he compares her breasts to
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two. Fawns 2 Fawns, Twins of a
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gazelle that Grays among the lilies.
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Again, it's an image of symmetry, delicacy, and life.
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It's not a cold, static description.
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It's an honest and celebratory view of the female body from
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someone who is just overcome with love and desire.
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It all builds to that one amazing line in Chapter 4.
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The climax of his praise. Yes, you're altogether
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beautiful, my love. There is no flaw in you.
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No flaw in you, that is just absolute.
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There's no room for insecurity or shame in that statement.
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It's total affirmation, and Shriner is quick to point out
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that this isn't some outlier in in the Bible.
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This kind of delight in the physical union of marriage is
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right in line with the rest of the wisdom literature.
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Where else do we see this so clearly?
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Proverbs chapter 5 is the classic example.
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The father is advising his son. Rejoice in the wife of your
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youth. Let her breasts satisfy you at
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all times. Be intoxicated always in her
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love. The message is consistent across
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the Canon. This is a good gift from God
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meant to be enjoyed passionately and exclusively within marriage.
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That focus on exclusivity really sets the stage for the next part
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of the story, because it's not all celebration.
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There's a real tension here. So let's move to Part 3.
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Virginity, hesitation, and the restraint of love.
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Right, because while the love is celebrated, the book is also
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very realistic about the transition the maiden is making
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the king. Wants her completely.
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He does. He calls for her to be his
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bride. He says her beauty has
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captivated him, but before the marriage is consummated, she's
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still separate. And this is where we get that
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famous metaphor, the garden locked and the fountain sealed.
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Yes, in chapter 4, verse 12. It's one of the most powerful
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images in the book, and it's a clear reference to her
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virginity. A garden is meant to be enjoyed.
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A fountain's meant for drinking, but hers are locked up, sealed.
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So her virginity is presented as a treasure, something protected.
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Exactly. It's not a deficiency.
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It's a protected, exclusive space that the king longs to
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enter. He wants to come and do his
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garden and enjoy its fruits. The longing is immense.
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But this isn't just a physical transition for her.
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The book describes a pretty intense psychological journey.
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It does. There's a section in chapter 3
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where she's searching for her lover in the streets at night.
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It's often read as a dream sequence describing her fear
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about losing her virginity. So she has this dual feeling,
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longing and fear at the same time.
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A deep duality. She longs for the intimacy, for
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the embrace that will enter aloneness, which is a theme
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going all the way back to Genesis.
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But at the same time, giving up her virginity is, well, it's
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irreversible. Once that line is crossed,
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there's no going back. There is no going back.
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She knows that once she surrenders herself to him
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completely, her old life as a single maiden is over forever.
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And that's a scary thought, even when it's what you long for.
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And it seems this all comes to a head on the wedding night
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described in chapter 5. Chapter 5, verse one is widely
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seen as the consummation of the marriage, and again, the
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language is all sensory and symbolic, he says.
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I've come to my garden, I've gathered my myrrh.
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I've eaten my honeycomb. I have drunk my wine.
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So it's not a description of the ACT, but of the result, the
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enjoyment, the satisfaction. It's the ecstasy of it.
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He's finally partaking of the garden's fruits and his call to
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his friends, eat friends, drink and be drunk with love confirms
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that this is a moment of shared communal celebration of their
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union. But the source material says
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what comes next is jarring. After this moment of ecstasy,
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she has a feeling of repulsion. How does that make sense?
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It's a. Moment of incredible
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psychological realism. Shriner suggests that she's both
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thrilled by the act and at the same time almost haunted by the
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loss of her virginity. Thrilled and repulsed.
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Yes, because she has just undergone a permanent identity
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altering change. She's no longer just herself.
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She's now the King's wife, his lover.
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A new world is opened up, but the old one is closed forever.
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It's the vulnerability that comes with becoming 1 flesh.
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But that initial shock wears off.
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The later chapters show the relationship solidifying.
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They do that. Anxiety fades, and what replaces
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it is a deep assurance of his love for her and her love for
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him. She moves from hesitation to
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bold declaration. She praises his strength and his
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beauty. Which leads to that other famous
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line, the counterpart to his praise of her.
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I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine.
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That's in Chapter 6. It's a statement of mutual
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possession, of belonging. The relationship is secure now
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and the physical union is reaffirmed as something
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delightful, like delicious fruit and aged wine.
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OK, before we go any further, we have to talk about that refrain
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that pops up three times in the book.
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Do not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.
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What is that all about in a book that's so passionate?
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That refrain is the book's ethical anchor.
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It's the great word of caution. Shriner explains that this
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warning is there precisely because love, marriage and
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sexual union are so powerful and so irreversible.
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And it's directed at the other women, the daughters of
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Jerusalem. Yes, it's wisdom being passed
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on. The message is essentially,
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don't rush this. Don't play with these powerful
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emotions. Don't awaken this kind of love
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before the proper time, which the book clearly defines as the
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context of a secure covenanted marriage.
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That's a call for patience and preparation.
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Total patience, because this isn't just a physical act.
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It requires A wholehearted surrender of your entire life to
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another person. It marks the end of your
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childhood, so the book is warning against rushing into
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sexual experiences or even marriage before you are truly
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ready. There's a related idea later in
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chapter 8 about the little sister.
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If she is a wall, they'll build on her, but if she's a door,
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they'll enclose her. That's a perfect application of
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the refrain. If the young woman is a wall,
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she's strong, she's protecting her virginity, she's exercising
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restraint. She can be built upon.
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But if she's a door open, available, maybe a bit reckless,
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then her family or community needs to step in and enclose
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her, protect her from her own impulsiveness.
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So it's all about waiting for the right time when the covenant
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is secure. You can't undo these choices, so
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you must wait for love to please for the time to be right.
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Which brings us to the very nature of that love.
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Let's move to Part 4. Love's nature.
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Spiritual, physical, and paradasiacal.
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The book doesn't just describe Love's effects, it defines what
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it is in almost supernatural terms.
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It does. The book bills to this
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incredible definition. In chapter 8, verses 6:00 and
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7:00, the maiden pleads with them.
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Set me as a seal upon your heart.
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For love as strong as death, jealousy as fierce as the grave.
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It's flashes or flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord.
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Strong as death, That's that's intense.
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It makes love sound unconquerable.
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It's meant to. Death is the one thing no human
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can resist or escape. The poem is saying that true
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covenantal love has that same kind of inexorable, unstoppable
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force. And the very flame of the Lord
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is that suggesting this love is divine.
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It's certainly suggesting its origin is in God.
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This isn't just a fleeting human emotion.
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It's a passion that reflects something of God's own
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covenantal passion. And it's a love that can't be
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destroyed. Many waters cannot quench love.
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Neither can floods drown it. No amount of suffering can
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extinguish it. And wealth can't buy it.
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Not at all. If a man offered for love all
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the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised.
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It's priceless. So this love is deeply
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spiritual, a permanent bond, like a seal.
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It's a spiritual bond that makes a person willing to suffer for
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the one they love. The seal is an image of
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ownership, permanence and security.
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But we have to be careful not to swing the pendulum too far and
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focus only on the spiritual right That would be falling back
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into that same dualism the book fights against.
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That's the crucial balance to maintain.
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Shriner really makes this point well.
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The Song of Songs is not just about the physical, but it uses
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the physical to teach us about the spiritual character of love.
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Marriage is where you are completely vulnerable, where you
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surrender yourself totally to another person, and that act of
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surrender is profoundly spiritual.
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And our source material connects that human experience of
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surrender and being known to the ultimate experience of being
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known by God. Exactly.
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Knowing God is the ultimate redemptive experience.
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All other redemptive experiences we have in this life, including
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the deep knowledge and love within a marriage, are real and
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good. But they are also
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foreshadowings. They are echoes of that ultimate
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reality. Which is why any attempt to make
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marriage a purely platonic spiritual thing just doesn't
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work with what the Bible teaches.
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It's completely at odds with the biblical witness.
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The delight and the ecstasy of the physical union are presented
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here as the very essence of marital love.
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The wisdom path isn't to deny the body, but to rejoice in the
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gift of sexuality within the covenant.
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So the book stands as a firm rebuke to any mindset that sees
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sexuality with suspicion or guilt.
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A powerful rebuke. It reminds us that God designed
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this and it is good. The biblical path is to rejoice
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in the wife of 1's youth because this love is meant to be fully
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realized when 2 become one flesh.
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And this passion also has a protective function.
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The right passion shield you from the wrong passion.
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That's the practical wisdom of it.
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A healthy, satisfying passion within marriage demands
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fidelity. It acts as a shield against
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lust. When a husband and wife are
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captivated by each other, the desire to look elsewhere
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diminishes. Paul says something similar in
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First Corinthians. He does.
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He tells married couples not to deprive one another precisely to
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guard against temptation. Trying to live without this
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passion to suppress it is unwise and ironically, can open the
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door to the very sins you're trying to avoid.
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So the book really does celebrate a woman's surrender of
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her virginity within marriage as a good and holy thing, pushing
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back against any idea that asceticism is a higher calling.
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It's a full throated celebration of the conjugal life as a gift
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from God to be cherished and enjoyed.
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That clarity on the physical and spiritual allows us to make the
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final, most important connection.
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So let's turn to Part 5, the canonical connection, a
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foretaste of glory. How does this very human story
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fit into the grand story of the Bible?
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This is where we see the books ultimate purpose.
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The entire story is framed with language that is meant to remind
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us of one place in particular, the Garden of Eden.
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It's a love story set in paradise.
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In periodical terms, yes. Think about it.
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There's no mention of death until the very end.
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The man and woman are described as young, beautiful, flawless,
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untouched by sickness or the effects of the fall.
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And the setting is all about new life, spring, blooming flowers,
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budding trees. It's all imagery of ideal,
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innocent love, Shriner says. It's meant to be like the love
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of Adam and Eve before sin entered the world.
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Marital love at its best is a harkening back to paradise.
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It's a taste of God's original good design for a husband and
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wife. OK, so if it Harkins back to
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Eden, it must also point forward to the new Eden.
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Precisely. It's a foretaste of the glory to
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come. The joys described here are
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fleeting on earth, but they point to an eternal joy in the
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new creation. Now we have to be really clear
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here on how we make that connection.
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We rejected allegory. You said the right way to read
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this is typologically. What is the difference?
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It's a critical distinction. Allegory is subjective.
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It imposes a secret meaning on the text, saying the Lily is
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this, the mountain is that. Typology is different.
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It recognizes real historical patterns that God put into the
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text and into history. So it's about the big picture,
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not decoding every little detail, right?
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We don't have to make every verse about Christ.
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Instead, we see that the story is about a King, Solomon, the
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son of David and his bride. Solomon, as the great king of
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peace and wisdom, is a historical type, a foreshadowing
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of the ultimate king, Jesus Christ.
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And the New Testament makes that connection explicit.
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It does. The New Testament tells us that
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Christ has a bride, the Church. Ephesians 5 is the key text for
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that. So the earthly royal marriage in
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the Song of Songs points typologically to the ultimate
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heavenly marriage between Christ to his people.
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So the intense, beautiful love story here is a signpost.
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It's pointing to a greater love story.
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It points directly to the marriage supper of the Lamb we
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read about in Revelation. The physical and emotional
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delights of human marriage are a real created good, but they also
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serve as a sign of the joy and intimacy that will be
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consummated in the new creation. They are a sign of the gospel.
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And this wasn't a new idea, was it?
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The Old Testament already used marriage as an analogy for God's
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relationship with Israel. Yes, but often in a negative
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way. In Jeremiah or Hosea, Israel's
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portrayed as an unfaithful wife. The Song of songs is different.
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It shows us the ideal. It shows what the relationship
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is supposed to look like. It points forward to a day when
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the bride of Christ will be perfectly faithful, and the joys
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of that union will surpass anything we can experience here.
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It will be an eternal union, and the bride will be presented to
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her husband without spot or wrinkle, holy and without
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blemish. So to sum this all up, Song of
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Songs is, at its most basic level, love poetry celebrating
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the goodness of marriage in the human body.
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But it's balanced by the serious caution to wait for the proper
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time. Right.
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And it describes this love in Edenic terms as a taste of
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Paradise Lost. And that taste of paradise
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points us forward. Human marital love, as wonderful
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as it is, is fleeting. It points to a relationship with
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the greater King that will never end.
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The pleasures between a husband and a wife are the closest
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analogy we have on earth to the eternal delight of Christ's
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relationship with the Church. So what's the final thought for
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us to take away from this? What does this mean for you, the
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listener, right now? Well, the book taps into our
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deepest human longings, doesn't it?
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The longing to be fully known, fully loved, and to be told
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there is no flaw in you. By linking that kind of total
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acceptance and delight to Christ's relationship with the
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church, the Bible is making an immense promise.
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A promise of satisfaction. Complete satisfaction.
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It's promising that God's people will one day see the King in his
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beauty and that knowing him will be all satisfying.
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Think about it. The most intoxicating joy, the
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most complete surrender, the most beautiful love described in
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this book, all of that is just a shadow.
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A shadow of the joy of finally seeing the King face to face.
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That is a satisfying thought to end on.
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Thank you for walking us through this.
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My pleasure. We invite you to join us next
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time for another deep dive right here.