Song of Solomon — Zac Poonen

The Song of Songs and God’s Design for Marriage

Now, we come to the third book that Solomon wrote, the Song of Songs or Canticles as some people call it, and some people are embarrassed to read this book, but I believe that that's because we've got so many wrong ideas of the place of sex in marriage from the world.

This book, as I see it, basically teaches two things. The first is that the sexual relationship in marriage is essential, God created it, and he said after creating it and telling Adam and Eve to multiply, he said in Genesis 1 .31, it's very good.

And if God says it's very good, I don't want to listen to any second opinion on the sexual function that God created and pronounced very good in Genesis chapter 1. But we also see here, this is the first thing which I'm trying to emphasize, is that love must be coupled with that sexual relationship, otherwise it is not right.

Any sexual relationship without love is demonic, satanic, belongs to hell. And that is unfortunately what we see a lot of in the world. That is completely evil. See, God has created something and the devil has misused it.

God created the atom, but the devil can use it to make a bomb to destroy people. And whereas it can also be used to give electricity to a whole city. God created that from which dynamite is made. But you can use dynamite to kill people or you can use dynamite to blast a rock to build a foundation for a house.

Many things, a knife, a knife can be used to cut meat or vegetables, it can be used to kill a person. So what God has created, sex, can be used in a bad way or a good way, like all the other things God has created.

And we shouldn't think that it's always bad, that a knife is always used only for evil purposes. No. A knife is a very useful instrument in a kitchen. And when God has created something, you remember when Peter saw that vision of a sheet coming down from heaven and God had to tell him one word three times, what God has cleansed, don't call unclean.

And I would say that to you also, that when God has created something and says, very good, we have no business to say it's unclean. What the world does with it is unclean. The murderer taking that knife and killing somebody, he is unclean.

The knife itself is not unclean. He has used that knife for a wrong purpose. And when the world uses the sexual function wrongly, then of course it's evil. But otherwise it's a very holy, it's not only good, I would say it's holy, pure and binds a husband and wife together.

Appreciation and Communication in Marriage

And in this section, I mean, I would really encourage husbands and wives to read this to each other. Song of Solomon, it's a wonderful book. You know, it expresses appreciation in our Indian culture, unfortunately, husbands and wives don't appreciate one another.

They just take each other for granted. And then, of course, in India also husbands and wives have sex, as we all know, but they don't appreciate one another sufficiently. It's a very sad thing. And Song of Solomon, or Song of Songs, teaches the necessity of appreciating one another.

Very very important. And the importance of communication, of speaking to one another in marriage in a loving way. All these things are in this book. And very practical advice. And also it's a very realistic book.

It shows that there are times when there are ups and downs, like in marriage, feelings will go, but the love remains and how, you know, these up and down feelings can be overcome and how revival can come in a marriage.

Very very down to earth, realistic, practical. The second thing about, the first is, as I said, marriage relationships and sex and marriage and communication and love and all that. The second thing that Song of Solomon pictures is Christ and the Church.

And I would say we must see both as we read this book. You can read it through in one way as a husband-wife relationship, and then you can read it through another way as Christ-Church relationship, and in both cases you can get a lot of profit.

And I would encourage you who are married to read it through, husband and wife, as a husband-wife relationship story. And all of us, married or unmarried, can read it through as Christ and the Church story.

And there's a lot in that. I remember, it's one of the first books I studied in my Christian life when I started studying the Bible, and I was alone on a ship, just baptized a few months earlier, far away from all contact with believers for weeks on end.

And I studied this book about 40 years ago, and it deepened my devotion to Jesus immensely. And I learned in those days, because I didn't have contact with believers, to trust in the Lord and to love Him and to rest in His love for me.

And that deepened my walk with the Lord, and I've always valued this book since that time. It's a picture of Christ and the Church. It's called a song. And I want to point you to a verse in Revelation 14, verse 3 in this connection.

Revelation 14, verse 3 says about those who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. And those who follow the Lamb wherever He goes, it says about them, they sang a wonderful new song. And no one could learn that song except this group of people, this 144 ,000, the Bride of Christ, those who follow Him.

See, like a bride who follows the bridegroom wherever He goes, they are the only ones who can learn this song. You can follow this Bible study for the next 50 minutes or so, but you won't learn the song until you follow Jesus.

If you follow Jesus, you can learn the song. And you've got to learn it on this earth. It says they learned it on earth. Before they reached up, they learned it on earth. Now is your time, brother, sister.

Ministry is not everything. Let me give you my testimony. After preaching for 38 years at least and serving the Lord full time for 34 years, my devotion to Christ is the basis of all my ministry. My ministry would be zero the moment my devotion to Christ goes down.

This relationship with Christ described in Song of Solomon is the basis on which your service for the Lord, whether evangelism or teaching or whatever you do, social work in Jesus' name, medical work, planting churches, whatever it is, this relationship with Christ should be the basis of your ministry.

This is a song we've got to learn. It is a song that Jesus sings to us, the bridegroom singing to the bride. And it's also a song that through the Holy Spirit in us, we sing to the Lord. It's the opposite of Ecclesiastes.

In Ecclesiastes, it's knowledge, knowledge. Here it is love, love. And many seek knowledge, but the Lord seeks for those who love. It's only then that our knowledge is useful. And in the song, Song of Songs, we see there's a growth of love.

The Growth from Infatuation to Mature Love

In the first chapter, we see the beginning of love. We could say it's like infatuation. A lot of young people today, when they say they are in love with each other, it's actually not love, it's infatuation.

Love is very selfless. If you want to see the purest expression of love in the world, it's not what you see in the cinema screen, it's not what you read in the romantic novels, it's not even what you see in a boy and a girl who love each other, so-called love each other.

The purest form of love that you can see on earth is the love of a mother for its helpless child, particularly when that child is sick, how that mother sacrifices everything. All these young couples who say they have fallen in love with each other, they won't do like that.

As long as everything is going well, we love each other. But a mother's love is not like that. The purest, the love which is closest to God's love is the love of a mother. And that is how God's love is.

And when a husband and wife can love like that, they have really understood love. But that takes time to grow to that maturity. In the beginning, we are selfish. We want something from the other person.

The man wants something from the girl, the girl wants something from the man. The man usually wants sex and the girl usually wants security. But they want something. It's a selfish type of thing. That's how it begins, infatuation.

But it must grow to love. In the same way, in our relationship with the Lord, it begins with, Lord, I don't want to go to hell. Can you heal me? Can you bless me? Can you give me prosperity? Or at least can you anoint me so that I'll be a mighty preacher?

See all this is selfish love. But when you mature, you say, Lord, I don't need anything. I don't need property. I don't need money. I don't need health. I don't even need a ministry. I have you and that's enough.

How can you get more out of my life? Not what I can get out of the Lord, but what the Lord can get out of me. That is maturity. In an immature, infatuation type of love, a girl is thinking, what can I get out of this man?

And the man is thinking, what can I get out of this girl? And the believer is thinking, what can I get out of the Lord? Now when Jesus came to earth, he didn't think, what can I get from man? He thought, what can I give to man?

That is mature love. And that's the mature love we finally come to in Song of Solomon chapter 8. But in the beginning, we come to the Lord for going to heaven, for healing, for blessing and so many things, for ministry perhaps.

But finally we come to the place where we love the Lord for who He is. Whom am I in heaven but Thee? There's nothing on earth I desire beside Thee. Thou art enough. I don't care for ministry, health, wealth, prosperity, nothing.

So keep that in mind as we move on. Verse 1, it is Solomon's song. That means it is primarily Jesus' song to us, not our song. First, we love Him because He first loved us. We did not love Him first. Because He first loved us, because He sang the song to us, we sing it back to Him.

And in the initial part, as it says, it talks about falling in love. It says here, there's no name mentioned. It's assumed this person, this bride is so taken up with the bridegroom and says, your love is better than all the wine on the earth.

And your name is like, how pleasing is your name, verse 3. I'm reading here from the New Living Translation, which is an advancement on the Living Bible or a further development of it. And some of these verses are a little clearer here.

That's why I read from it. I want you to see one thing here. It says here, draw me and we will run after you. Verse 4, love does not push, it draws. And there's a difference between pushing and drawing a person.

You know, like a magnet draws iron filings to itself. I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto myself. The Lord never pushes. Is that all you want to go? Okay. He goes ahead and draws us. The good shepherd always goes in front of the sheep.

And a husband must always go in front of his wife to draw her, not push her, say, why aren't you doing this and why aren't you doing that? And why aren't you doing the other thing? Like out in the world.

But to go ahead is an example. You find some fault in your wife, be a good example so that she can follow your example. So that's one very important thing that applies even in our human relationship. And it says here in verse 4, my king.

The bride calls her my king. And from that, I want to mention this, that you have to know Jesus as your king before you can know him as your bridegroom. You cannot know him as bridegroom if you don't know him, first of all, as king and you are totally subject.

And that's the reason why many people do not enter into this love relationship with their Lord. They do not know him as king. We read also here about the daughters of Jerusalem or women of Jerusalem in verse 5.

The Bride, the Half-Hearted Believer, and Acceptance by God

Now the women of Jerusalem, I would say, refer to the half-hearted believers. They are in Jerusalem, but they are not the bride. They are not in Babylon, they are in Jerusalem, but they are not the bride.

They want to be part of the church, but they are more taken up with healing and ministry and preaching and teaching and activity and Bible study and things like that. They are not taken up with devotion to Jesus.

They are believers, they don't do any terrible things, but the Lord is looking for those who have the heart of a bride, who are devoted to him and whose service comes out of that heart of love. So those are the women of Jerusalem.

And she tells them, I am dark, but the Lord has accepted me. I am dark and beautiful. See, that has a number of things that we can learn from that this bride felt that she was unattractive. You know, the Bible says that God has chosen the poor of the world.

Not many mighty, not many clever, not many good-looking people. Some of us feel, oh Lord, I am not so capable like other people, I am not so intelligent, I can't speak like others, I can't do so many things, I am so limited.

This is exactly how this bride felt. I am dark, I am unattractive, I am not from a very educated background, I am a little foolish and I do so many things wrong. That I am dark could comprise a whole lot of areas where we feel ourselves inferior to others.

You know how a dark person feels inferior to someone who is very much fairer. An ugly person feels inferior to a beautiful. And God has chosen the ugly person. God has chosen the dark one. There were many prettier women of Jerusalem.

But the bridegroom picks on this dark one. That is Jesus. Only Jesus would do that. Because he looks for qualities of the heart. Not appearance and gift and capability and all that. And we got to learn a lesson there.

This is what the Lord looks for when he picks out someone to be his servant. All your natural abilities, background, family background, accomplishments are not really of any value to God. It is the heart of devotion that he looks for.

And he says, so even if I am dark, in the Lord's eyes I am beautiful. That means there is a sense of acceptance. See, a lot of married women suffer because they don't feel that their husbands really rejoice in them.

I rejoice in my wife. And I hope all your husbands do. I think it is very important that your wife knows that you rejoice in her. And the same way we as believers don't realize that the Lord rejoices in us.

Zephaniah 3 .17 says, the Lord your God in your midst is mighty. He shouts over you with shouts of joy. He is so happy to have you. Do you realize that? Do you realize that when you are accepted in Christ, God is so happy to have you?

It is very, very important. This sense of acceptance. I am ugly maybe, but I am beautiful in God's eyes. See that combination. That is so important to understand. Verse 6. Don't look down on me, you beautiful fair city girls.

Because she is like a village girl. You know, uncultured. These refined city girls of Jerusalem look down upon this girl who has come from the villages. But that girl from the village is the one the bridegroom has chosen.

The bridegroom has bypassed all these smart, charming city girls and chosen that village girl. That is how he has chosen you and me. Praise God. So he says, don't look down on me. That means the other believers maybe look down on this person.

And maybe other believers look down on you in your life. Don't get discouraged. Ezekiel chapter 16 is another beautiful chapter that describes how God picks up the rotten, the one that has fallen by the wayside.

Keeping One’s Own Vineyard

Okay. One of the verses here. It says, verse 6. They made me the keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept. Now we could apply this this way. The other vineyards are my ministry. My vineyard is my life.

My walk with God. And this is a common mistake that many, many preachers and servants of God make. They keep the vineyards, but they don't keep their own vineyard. They are busy in activity. This vineyard, that vineyard, I've got to go here, I've got to do this, I've got to...

But their own vineyard, their close walk with the Lord, they have not kept that. That is like a wilderness. And they're always thinking in terms of statistics and activity. I brought so many people to the Lord and I did this here and did that there.

Remember, this book right at the beginning warns us against that. You keep your own vineyard first. Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 4 .16, take heed to yourself and to your teaching. Thus you will save yourself and you will save those who hear you.

It's a very common mistake that people make. Verse 7, there are two things she looks for here. Where are you feeding your flock and where do you make them rest? There are two things the Lord needs to give us, food and rest.

And that's what she's looking for from the Lord. And notice here, the king praises her in the bridegroom. Verse 15, how beautiful you are, my beloved. But I believe we need to hear words like that from the Lord to ourselves, expressions of appreciation that the Lord really delights in us.

I believe wives need to hear that from their husbands, expressions of appreciation. A wife looks for security just as much as a husband looks for sex. And both are right. It's right for a wife to give her husband the sex he needs.

It's right for a husband to give the security that a wife needs. See, we can talk about these things openly because these are spiritual things. And so often the devil is the only one who talks about these subjects.

And godly men in the pulpit don't speak about it. The result is all the people have only heard what the devil says. And I decided many years ago that I'm going to speak very openly about these things from the divine standpoint so that we have a proper understanding of God's view on these subjects.

So that's the beginning of love. It's a lot of infatuation and a lot of delight in the fact that God's accepted me. I'm so blessed or my bridegroom has accepted me. That's all. It's all how I feel. Infatuation is always like that.

But that's OK in the beginning. But then we read from chapter 2 to chapter 7, the growth of love, till finally it culminates in chapter 8. We'll come to that. In chapter 2 we see right on to chapter 7 there are ups and downs.

There are times when feelings go. And here in verse 1, this is the bride speaking. I am just a rose in Sharon. I'm just a lily in the valley. Now I'm sorry to disappoint some of you, but that does not refer to Jesus Christ.

Like we sing in a lot of songs. We call Jesus the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley. But that is not scriptural. It is totally unscriptural. It's the bride saying to the bridegroom, I'm just an ordinary rose in Sharon.

There are thousands of roses in Sharon and I'm just one of them. I'm just an ordinary lily in the valley. But the bridegroom says, yes, that may be true. But you're a lily, verse 2, in the midst of thorns.

A whole lot of thorns. All these fair, attractive women in Jerusalem. They're good looking on the outside, but they're like the Proverbs 11 .22. It says about like the pig with the golden ring on its nose.

They are attractive, but like thorns. But in the midst of that, you're a real lily. So there's that expression of appreciation. Verse 4, he's brought me to his banquet hall so that everyone can see how much he loves me.

I believe we must always recognize that the Lord brings us to his dining table. He brought the prodigal son right up to the table. And Jesus was very frequently sitting with his disciples around the table.

And this table speaks of fellowship primarily. You know, when you're sitting at a table, you're not doing ministry. You're having fellowship. When you sit together, you're eating together, talking together.

And the New Testament places a great emphasis on that. It's good. Later on, the bride goes to the bridegroom to the fields. But don't ever attempt going to the fields before you've sat at table with him.

Throughout the scriptures, you'll find this emphasis. Fellowship first. Adam's first day fellowship, then go to work for six days. The bride sits at the banquet hall. We're going to have a celebration.

And sit at the table and she says, Oh, feed me with your love for I'm utterly lovesick. It's a beautiful expression. I'm lovesick. That means the world is no longer attractive to me. Jesus is everything to me.

The tremendous expressions of devotion in this song, which if you apply to Jesus, you find your relationship with the Lord deepens. And the world you find is no longer so attractive. Verse 7 is a wonderful verse which applies to marriage.

I mean, boy-girl relationships as well. Promise me, oh, women of Jerusalem. Verse 7. Not to awaken love until the time is right. Don't awaken. Don't try to stir up love until the time is right. Don't try to stir up emotions.

Hang on. Don't let your suddenly falling in love. Like they say, love at first sight. Hang on there. Be a bit careful. Particularly in boy-girl relationships. It's very, very important that we don't get taken up by emotions and feelings.

Keep those emotions under control. If you want to be a godly young man or a godly young woman. You may have feelings, but don't let those feelings just take over and lead you off in a direction which afterwards you will regret.

It happens very, very often. So many people, young people, called by God to a unique ministry in their teenage years. And the devil's got his eye on them. Said, that fellow is going to be a danger to my kingdom, the devil says.

That girl is going to be a danger to my kingdom. How can I destroy them? Get them married to the wrong person. He does that. And I know numerous cases like that. India has lost godly homes because godly people did not get married to godly people.

So, don't stir up love until the time is right. Wait. Infatuation cannot wait. Must have it now. Sex. People who are after sex. I like that. I must have it now. I can't wait till I get married. That's the devil always.

Whereas, those who are godly can wait. They have a control over themselves. And be very, very careful, dear young people, whenever you see some feelings arising in you towards someone whom you are attracted towards, spiritually or physically, whatever it is.

Be very careful with your feelings. Don't awaken that love until the time is right. Until you are within about six months to a year of the possibility of getting married, I don't think you should ever awaken love in your heart.

It can cause you serious problems in your study of the scriptures, preparation for the lord's work. Many people cannot study the scriptures because they are always daydreaming about somebody. You may not be thinking evil, but you just can't concentrate on what the lord is trying to say to you.

So, this is very practical, this book. And verse seven. Verse eight, sorry. I hear him. My lover comes leaping on the mountains and speaking of the way the lord comes to us. I want you to see here verse fourteen.

The bridegroom says, my dove is hidden in the rock. Like we sing in that song, rock of ages cleft for me. It's a beautiful picture of our being hidden in Christ. Now, verse fifteen is what I want you to notice.

Catch the little foxes quickly before they ruin the vineyard of your love. For the grapevines are in blossom. I think this is a word from the lord to us. There are little foxes, you know the big foxes we can easily see.

But the small teeny weeny baby foxes that creep into the vineyard and eat up the vines, the grapes. The little, you know in married life, it's not the big calamities, the husband hitting his wife with a stick.

Those things and all we may avoid. But it's the little irritations, little sharp voice there. Those little foxes are the things that destroy a marriage. Catch those little foxes, the little irritations of daily life.

Catch them, throw them out of the vineyard. Your marriage is like a vineyard, your marriage is like a garden. Preserve it like any farmer would take care of his put scarecrows to drive the crows away, drive the foxes away.

In the same way, your relationship with the lord is also similar. Little, little things, little sins. It's not the big sins, it's not adultery and murder that drive us away from the lord. It's the little, little, little things that come between us and the lord that can ruin our relationship with him.

Catch them and drive them away. In chapter 3, she says about the time when she lost that sense of his presence. One night as I lay in bed, I yearned deeply for my lover, my lord, but he didn't come. So I said to myself, I'll get up and roam the city searching for him.

She was seeking for those feelings of his presence. And my search was in vain. The watchman, the watchman in this book referred to other preachers. Like the preachers in the book of Job, who don't know God but who know all the facts.

They could even be elders in churches who don't know that devotion to Christ that this young one who loves the lord is seeking for. He goes to some older person in his church for advice and that chap does not have a devotion to the lord.

How can he guide you? So the watchman, she goes to the watchman and I said to him, have you seen him whom I love so much? They couldn't guide you. It's a very sad thing that it's very difficult to find now many older people who can guide you in this life of devotion to Christ.

They can teach you how to do evangelism, how to teach and maybe a lot of things in the scripture. But can they teach you how to be devoted to Jesus Christ? These watchmen, unfortunately not. If you're an elder of a church, it's not enough teaching people the Bible.

Are you leading them to devotion to Christ? That's a good watchman. But then finally verse 4, he says a little while later, I found him myself. That's how I found in my life, my younger days. I never had the privilege to have godly older people to guide me.

But I found him myself. And sometimes that may be your lot also. Some of you may be in places where you don't have godly people to guide you and lead you. You can find him yourself. Seek him. And when I found him, it says I did not let him go.

I would not let him go. Now let me go on to chapter 4. Now notice one thing that up until this time, it's the woman speaking most of the time. I don't know whether you noticed that. It's occasionally a sentence that the bridegroom says.

Spiritual Maturity Means Listening to the Lord

But chapter 4, you find a long message from the bride. This is a mark of growth in love. I told you like in our earlier session. The more we grow spiritually, the less we talk and the more we listen. And one mark of spiritual growth is that we learn to listen to the Lord.

And now we find she's growing to maturity. She's not just talking, talking, talking, talking to the Lord. She's now listening. And then she says here, the bridegroom expresses his admiration. I just want you to notice one thing in verse 8.

Come with me from Lebanon. Come down from the top of Mount Amman, Mount Sinai, Mount Hermon, where the lions have their dens and the panthers growl. Spiritually speaking, this speaks of a life in the heavenlies.

The Lord says, don't look at things from this low earthly standpoint. Come with me to the high places. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim as you go to the high places with him. You know how you when you go up in an airplane or the things of earth look so small, the cars look so small.

You're not so attracted to earthly things. So that's the way the Lord says, let me lift you up to a higher plane. Yes, there are lions and panthers there in the heavenly places. There are demons and principalities and powers.

But you and I are together there. The Lord says, we'll overcome them and we'll be strong. Here is a bride who's moved with her bridegroom to the heavenly places and who's willing to encounter these demonic spirits and overcome them.

In verse 12, the bridegroom says to the bride, you're like a private garden. My treasure, my bride. Private garden means you're exclusively for me. You are mine. You don't belong to anybody else. Just like a husband can tell his wife, you don't belong to anybody else in the world.

You belong exclusively to me. I want to ask you whether your relationship with the Lord is like that. Can the Lord say to you, you are my private garden. You there are many things out in the world that attract you like the opportunity to make money and get a name.

Those are like other men trying to attract his wife. But she's not attracted. She's taken up with her beloved. Are you taken up with the Lord like that? Promotion in your job doesn't mean anything to you.

The opportunity to make a lot of money in the world doesn't mean anything to you. There are very, very few believers like this. And I believe that's the reason why they don't know the Lord. They don't understand his word.

To me, I would say that the secret of understanding the whole Bible is having this type of relationship with the Lord. Because the one who wrote it will explain to you what it means. That's what I found through the years.

And I want to encourage you to develop this type of relationship with Jesus Christ. Walk with him. Like the early disciples walked with him, those apostles. And heard him speak. And their eyes were opened.

Their hearts burned. So the Lord calls us to the heavenlies. Expresses his appreciation for us. And the bride says in similar words. She says, that's right. Let the north wind come. Verse 16. The north wind is the cold wind of suffering, adversity, trials.

And the south wind is the wind of blessing, encouragement, prosperity, happiness. And the bride says, it doesn't matter which wind it is. Let me have a cushy, easy time in life. Or let me have a difficult time in life.

From both winds, a perfume will come out of my garden. In other words, when God blesses me, a perfume of praise and thanksgiving and worship will come. When God allows trials and difficulties and pressures to come into my life.

That's another wind. Which blows the same beautiful perfume of praise, thanksgiving and worship to God. And let my beloved, verse 16, come into his garden. And eat its choicest fruits. Everything I produce in my garden, in my life.

Is not to impress other people how spiritual I am. No. It is for my Lord. It's for my beloved. It's for my bridegroom. Let him come into my garden, into my heart. And eat the fruits in my life. See, this is another great secret of effective Christian ministry.

Make sure that what you do is primarily for the Lord. Not because you have to write a report at the end of the month and tell somebody what you did. Not because you want to impress somebody how God is using you.

That means you are giving all the fruit in your garden to other people and the Lord gets nothing. But this bride says, this is all for you Lord. Here did somebody, did you use me to bring somebody to Christ?

That's not for me to show off to other people how God used me. No. I couldn't care less. This is for you. This convert is for you. This ministry I did, this is for you. This sacrifice I made which nobody knows about.

That's for you. Why should I advertise to everybody the sacrifice I made? Why should a husband tell everybody in the world all the sacrifices he made for his wife or vice versa? There are so many secrets between husband and wife.

There should be secrets between us and the Lord. There are things we do which nobody should know about. There are times you spend alone with the Lord which nobody should know about. When a wife spends time with her husband, two people who are deeply in love with each other, they spend time with each other.