Song of Songs 4
A HIGH CALLING

I love the way the lover describes his bride. She might sound a little bit weird if we take the descriptions to literally – hair like goats, eyes like doves, neck like a tower, lips like a ribbon, and so on, but almost every one of the descriptions given have some sort of relationship to either the tabernacle and its service, or the newly built temple as it was in Solomon’s day.

Doves, sheep and goats were all used in the sacrifices. Goat’s hair was used as one of the coverings of the tabernacle. Pomegranates were used as decorations in various places around the temple. Scarlet ribbon or cords were woven into the decorative curtains. The gold shields that Solomon made are placed in the context of the work he did while making the temple. All these are used in the lover’s description of his bride. The lover in the song saw in his bride the holiness of a temple fit for God.

Solomon may have been the original lover, but this is also a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and us. Paul compares us to the temple, when he says, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives among you?” (1 Corinthians 3 v 16). And Peter says, “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2 v 5).

If we are God’s temple and seen as someone holy and beautiful by Jesus Christ, let’s live up to that high ideal.

May our loves be beautiful in the eyes of our Lord this week.

With love in our Lord
Robert

The Story of the Song Of Solomon

Struggling to read the Song of Solomon? Check out The Story of the Song of Solomon, by Robert Prins. In this short booklet, Robert tells the story of the song to give us context to the words of the drama we read in our Bibles. Find out where to get your copy at www.thinkythings.com/purchase/ or click on the ‘books’ icon below.