Overview of The Song of Songs / Song of Salomon

The Song of Songs as a Poem of Married Love

The overview of the week for this Sunday is a very unique book, The Song of Songs, also known as The Song of Solomon. The book, which is basically a back and forth between Solomon and his wife, it begins in chapter 1, verses 1 and 2, The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love is better than wine.

Then chapter 2 begins, I am the rose of Sharon in the lily of the valleys. Like a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. Like an apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sons.

I sat down in his shade with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. So on the surface, The Song of Songs, or Song of Solomon, appears to be a poem written to extol the virtues of love between a husband and his wife.

Marriage as God's Design Against Asceticism and Hedonism

The poem clearly presents marriage as God's design. A man and a woman are to live together within the context of marriage, loving each other spiritually, emotionally, and physically. The book combats two extremes, asceticism, which is the denial of all pleasure, and then hedonism, which is the pursuit of only pleasure.

Interpreting the Song of Songs in Jewish, Christian, and Modern Scholarship

There has been many varying interpretations of the book. Some have even questioned its canonicity because it's one of two books that doesn't mention God at all. Jewish tradition reads it as an allegory of the relationship between God and Israel, Christianity as an allegory of Christ and his bride, the Church.

However, in more modern times, scholars tend to take this view, as one commentator put it. He said, perhaps the best approach is to simply take the book at face value, where its beautiful expressions of romantic love are purposely shrouded in poetic language intended only to give general insight into the joys of passion, desire, and romance.

Marriage Honored in Hebrews 13:4

And as the New Testament tells us in Hebrews chapter 13 verse 4, marriage is honorable among all, in the bed undefiled.