When I read Song of Solomon (Song of Songs) this week, I didn’t know what to expect. Song of Solomon is a book usually avoided because of the explicit sexual references, but here I was, reading it for a group discussion.
At first glance, it’s, for lack of a better word, eccentric. It’s oversaturated with metaphor and imagery, comparing the lover’s hair to goats, teeth to sheep, temples to pomegranates, neck to a tower, and I could go on and on. A lot of us got lost and confused in the almost superficial physical comparisons of the lovers.
However, behind the colorful comparisons is a deep and passionate love. Many think that Song of Solomon is about the love of God for us, and I think they’re pretty on point. There was a verse related to this that stood out to me:
“I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth? It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go… ”
Song of Solomon 3:2-4
Most of us give up looking for things after 5 minutes of searching. What kind of love would have you keep on searching for someone, much less in a city full of people? The love of our Good Shepherd, who would leave the 99 to seek out the 1 lost sheep. The love of our Heavenly Father, who gave His son so we could be with Him for eternity. The love we have for our Lord, the love that keeps us seeking His face, even when we don’t always feel Him there.
Sometimes it does feel wrong to read the intimacy in Song of Solomon, but that passionate love and intimacy is what our Father in Heaven has for us, despite our flaws and shortcomings.