WWUTT 1769 Behold, You Are Beautiful (Song of Songs 1:8-17)

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The couple in Song of Songs have a pure love that they want others to see. May we desire the same thing, a pure love, not just in our marriages, but even in our walk of faith in Christ that we want others to see when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, teaching through a New Testament book on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, an

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Old Testament book on Thursday, and a Q &A on Friday. With our Old Testament study today, here's

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study in the Song of Songs, the last of the

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Wisdom books, also known as the Song of Solomon, but I believe the right title, which incidentally, the

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Legacy Standard version got it right. The correct title is the Song of Songs.

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So if you want to open up to chapter one, we just got through verses one through seven last week, which was the woman talking.

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You had the others, kind of her company or her party had broken in in the middle there.

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She finishes up in verse seven, and now the man speaks in verse eight. So as I mentioned last week,

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I'm going to take this a character at a time so that it won't be too confusing. So let's begin here in Song of Songs, chapter one, verses eight through 10.

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This is the word of the Lord. If you yourself do not know most beautiful among women, go forth on the trail of the flock and pasture your young goats by the dwellings of the shepherds.

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To a mare of mine among the chariots of Pharaoh, I compare you, oh my darling.

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Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with strings of beads.

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We will make for you ornaments of gold with beads of silver.

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So we ended with the word of the others there in verse 11. So coming back to verse eight, coming back to the start of that section.

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If you yourself do not know most beautiful among women, this is the man talking again.

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He is speaking to the woman who is looking for him. These are two persons who love one another and are looking for each other.

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And again, that back and forth is all the way through Song of Songs. We even finish after they're married and they've consummated their marriage.

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We even finish Song of Songs with them looking for each other once again. It's this constant pursuit of one another.

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And at the end of the woman speaking, verses one through seven, she says in verse seven, tell me, oh you whom my soul loves, where do you shepherd your flock?

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Where do you make it lie down at noon? For why should I be like one who veils herself beside the flocks of your companions?

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And as I finished this up last week, I mentioned that this is not a secret forbidden love.

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They want their blooming, their blossoming love between one another to be witnessed by others.

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And so we have the voice of the others that are keeping them accountable. They are not awakening love until the proper time, meaning that they're not trying to consummate this desire that they have for one another until after they get married.

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Their love is pure. It is good. They desire to honor the Lord. And so she asks, where do you shepherd your sheep?

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And asks about where do you shepherd your flock at noon? Like right in the middle of the day, in broad daylight in front of everybody.

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They're not running off in the middle of the night to go try to find one another. She's looking for where he is with his other companions.

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And so he says to her, verse eight, if you yourself do not know most beautiful among women, go forth on the trail of the flock and pasture your young goats by the dwellings of the shepherds.

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In other words, he's a shepherd. He's going to be among the shepherds. If you go down the trail with your goats and you hang out with them, if I'm not there,

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I'll be I'll be among them soon. I'm going to be on the way and not too long. OK, so that's that's the guidance that he gives to her there.

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Now, notice that he calls her most beautiful among women. You have that beautiful charm in there right in the middle where he gives her this compliment that's contrary to what she said about herself.

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She does not think of herself as beautiful. Not in this moment anyway, because remember, she's been working outside and she's not had time to pretty herself up back in verse six.

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Do not look at me, she says, because I am swarthy for the sun has burned me.

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My mother's sons were angry with me. They made me caretaker of the vineyards, but I have not taken care of my own vineyard.

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She wants to make herself look nice before she goes and sees her man. But nonetheless, he says of her, you are the most beautiful among women.

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Now, it doesn't make sense for her to go pretty herself and then take her goats down with the rest of the shepherds.

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All of that wonderful prettying herself up is not going to last. She's kicking up dirt.

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She's hanging out with goats. So he's saying essentially here, I just want to see you. I don't care in what condition you're in.

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You are beautiful to me. I want to see you. So bring the goats down the trail of the flock.

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Hang out with the other shepherds. If I'm not there, I'll be along soon. So he continues on.

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Well, first of all, let me mention something else about verse eight. Some will say that's the company of the others.

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That's not actually the man speaking, but verse eight is the company of the others saying, hey, sweetheart, if you don't know where your man is, go to where the shepherds are and you'll find him there.

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But I don't think that's the case. I think this is the first time we're hearing from the man in verse eight because of what is said in verses nine and ten.

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We don't get any sense of a shift between verse eight and verse nine. The shift is between verse seven and verse eight.

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We can tell the voices have changed. So we're hearing from the man in verse eight and he continues to speak in verse nine and he says this to a mare of mine among the chariots of Pharaoh.

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I compare you. Oh, my darling. Now, in our Western world thinking, we would probably not consider that a compliment.

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He's comparing her to a horse. Have you heard the expression horse face before?

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That's a woman who is not very beautiful in appearance, but has a very long face.

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But remember, the metaphors that we read in Song of Songs are not always meant to be visual.

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It's what it's supposed to symbolize. And so here he's not talking about her appearance.

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He's talking about her worth, her value to him. That she is like the choicest of horses.

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The Egyptian horses were the greatest in the world. And among the

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Egyptian horses, Pharaohs were the choicest. He's, of course, going to have the best horses in the land.

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So even though this is a man who is a shepherd, he says, I compare you to those who are chosen by royalty, or who have been set apart and selected for royalty.

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This goes right along with his statement in verse 8 that you are the most beautiful among women.

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I compare you to being a mare among the chariots of Pharaoh. And then in verse 10, and remember once again, we're not necessarily going with visual.

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We're going with what this is supposed to represent, what this symbolizes. Verse 10, your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with strings of beads.

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He's not saying yeah, your cheeks are a little bit flushed, but it just looks like that you've decorated your cheeks with ornaments.

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This is not visual. Remember, how does she think she looks? She does not think she is beautiful.

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And what's he saying? Yes, you are. You may have not had the time to make yourself look pretty.

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You may want to do that and not go off with the goats or come out there with the flocks, but you are the most beautiful among maidens.

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I see you as being gorgeous. So come along that I may see you today in the afternoon.

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And what do the others say? Now the next verse here, verse 11, is in the collective we.

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So we know here this is the voice of the others. They say, we will make for you ornaments of gold with beads of silver.

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And it's almost like the others are chiming in to say, we will help you look lovely. You don't think you look well, you haven't had time to tend your own vineyard.

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As she said back in verse six, we'll help you do that. Go on so that you can see your man and we will be along to help make sure that you look fine.

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You know, she doesn't have a mirror sitting in the days when women walked around with a compact and they could just open it up and take a look in the mirror and, you know, dab their face with some powder or something like that.

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And then she has maidens that would help her know what she looks like.

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So they're saying, we'll help you look nice. Let's go so that you can meet your man. So now she comes back in, in verse 12, while the

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King was at his banqueting table, my perfume gave forth its fragrance.

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My beloved is to me a pouch of myrrh, which lies all night between my breasts.

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My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of Engedi.

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Once again, just a few verses here. She just speaks in three verses. But once again, these are not visual references.

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Rather, this means something. This is symbolic. Her whole response here is symbolic.

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So verse 12, while the King was at his banqueting table, who is her man?

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He's not a king. He's a shepherd. But this is how she sees him as someone royal.

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Remember, he compared her to something royal. So now she's responding that same way. Who is he?

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He's a shepherd that's going to go be at the dwellings of the shepherds. She refers to that as being a king at his banqueting table because the king at his banqueting table is with his companions.

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He's with the wisest of men. And so that's the way she thinks of her man, that he's going to go be with his companions like a king at a banqueting table.

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And she says, my perfume gave forth its fragrance. Meaning that she has something for him that is alluring.

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He is drawn to her as he has expressed. But then she says, my beloved is to me a pouch of myrrh, which lies all night between my breasts.

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So she's saying that I've got something pleasing for him, but he has something for me that's even better than that.

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Now she's not saying that he lies all night between her breasts. She's not saying that because this is a couple that is not yet married.

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And again, this is not a forbidden secret romance. They're running off in the middle of the night where nobody can see them.

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That's the way a lot of romances today are written, right? They're doing everything in broad daylight that it could be seen that the love that they have for one another is pure.

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But women who wanted to make themselves smell nice, they would have a little jar of myrrh or some sort of a little pouch of myrrh, something that would give off fragrance and they would wear it between their breasts all night while they slept.

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And it gave off its fragrance. So then when they woke up in the morning, they smelled lovely. I don't have to put on perfume.

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They've been sleeping with that perfume all night long. And women would have a particular fragrance.

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You know, they might have a certain assortment of spices in that little pouch. So each woman would have her own particular fragrance and that way would be uniquely alluring to a man that they desired.

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And her man would know her by that fragrance. No other woman would have that fragrance.

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Only she. Only the woman that I long for smells like this. Has this wonderful aroma about her.

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But she's saying here that he makes her lovely. Remember, she doesn't think right now that she's beautiful.

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But when she's with him, the love that he has for her and what he brings out of her makes them lovely together.

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So while the king was at his banqueting table, my perfume gave forth its fragrance. But my beloved is to me a pouch of myrrh, which lies all night between my breasts.

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And remember that I said earlier, this goes back to Ecclesiastes. We've had this referenced in Song of Songs as well.

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A good name is better than a fine perfume. Sometimes a person's good reputation is likened to having a pleasing fragrance.

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And so that's kind of being demonstrated here as well. The love that we have for one another is pure.

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And there are others that see us and they rejoice in the purity of our love, which is in honor of God.

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And so they look lovely together. They compliment one another and make each other beautiful in the eyes of others, even if they have been out with the goats all day.

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Right? So she goes on in verse 14. I got one more part of this metaphor to finish up here.

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So in verse 14, she says, my beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of En Gedi.

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Once again, we're talking about something fragrant here. A cluster of henna blossoms was a flower that would be harvested to be made into perfume in the vineyards of En Gedi, the best place to find them.

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The most watered, fertile place in Judah, many beautiful flowers there.

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And so she's saying of her man that he makes me look lovely and we look lovely together.

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So now he responds in verse 15. He just has a single line here, but he says, behold, you are beautiful, my darling, behold, you are beautiful.

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Your eyes are like doves. He wants her to come. He doesn't want her to hesitate.

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Lest she think, well, I don't look nice. So I'm not going to go and meet him. No, he wants to see her.

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So he says twice to her, you are beautiful. Behold, you are beautiful.

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And that statement behold is to say other people can see it too. Not just me.

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Others can witness your beauty. And then he says, your eyes are like doves. Now a dove's eyes are not really that pretty.

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They're just a little black balls in the middle of its head. Nor would he be saying here of her eyes that they're like a dove's wings.

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Your eyelashes flap like a dove's wings. Again, the metaphor here is symbolic. It's not imagery.

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What were doves symbolic of are symbols of peace. They're also symbols of gentleness.

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Remember that Jesus said to his disciples be as shrewd as serpents and gentle as doves.

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So the man is saying here to his woman that your eyes are gentle, but even more than this, have you ever used the expression before that he or she is easy on the eyes?

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What does that mean? It means they're good looking, right? Same sort of a thing here.

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Now he says that about her eyes. Your eyes are gentle. Your eyes are like doves, but it's still the same as saying you're easy on the eyes.

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You look beautiful to me. That is the statement in verse 15 said three times.

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Behold, you are beautiful. You are beautiful. Your eyes are like doves. You're not going to be harsh in my eyes when

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I see you, it's going to be wonderful to see you. So then going on, she responds in verse verses 16 through chapter two, verse one, and then that's where we'll finish up.

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She says, behold, you are handsome, my beloved. She responds in kind.

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Indeed, so pleasant. Indeed, our couch is luxuriant.

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The beams of our houses are cedars, our rafters cypresses.

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I am the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valleys. And I'm going to come back to that verse next week.

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We'll start with chapter two, verse one, but let's explain kind of the picture here. So she says, behold, you are handsome.

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Again, she's responding the way that he has been talking to her. And as we apply this to romance, as we apply this to our marriages, may we understand, hey, compliment your significant other.

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Maybe the reason why you haven't heard some words of affirmation from them is because you've not been complimentary of them.

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So let's compliment each other. Let's not be insulting or tearing down of one another or even in our tone be belittling of each other.

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But you see the man and the woman, this lovely back and forth that they have with each other. Let's in our relationships, our marriages speak to one another the same way.

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Certainly in a marriage between a husband and a wife, but this can be a picture for everybody. I'm kind of jumping to application before I get through the explanation here.

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I was going to save some time for some application. But anyway, just as we witness this between this man and this woman, let's speak to one another in the church with kindness.

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Find ways to encourage one another and build each other up. So let me let me come back now to the picture of what she's saying.

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Verse 16. Behold, you are handsome, my beloved. Indeed, so pleasant. Indeed, our couch is luxuriant.

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Now, this reference to couch, this is the bed upon which they lie. And it wouldn't be like the sleeping bed because that would just be a reference to bed.

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It would be more of a of a lounging, a place where we can be together and converse and grow in fellowship with one another.

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So that's where they're going, right? They're attending their flocks together in the same place that they may be together.

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So hence, she says our couch is luxuriant, not literally the place they're going to go lay down together and and converse with one another romantically, but just the place where they're going to meet with one another so that they can fellowship.

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She just calls it a couch. Again, it's symbolic. So then verse 17, the beams of our houses are cedars.

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Notice that's in the plural, not the singular because they don't live under the same roof yet. So the beams of our houses are strong and they're fragrant.

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The cedar wood was fragrant. So we have strong beams that hold up our houses.

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This is once again speaking of their good character and also the principles that they were given under which they are growing, under which they're raised.

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You would put it that way. So they've had parents who have raised them and instilled in them good morals because what they have learned has come from the

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Word of God. Hence this reference to the beams of our houses are cedars, our rafters, cypresses, same sort of a thing.

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So the structure that that we dwell within and we were raised in has been strong and good.

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And then in chapter two, and I'll wait until next week to explain this metaphor. I am the

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Rose of Sharon and surely you've heard this verse from Song of Songs many times.

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I am the Lily of the Valleys. Now as we finish that up today, let's do some application.

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I already kind of teased the application a little bit when I said, hey, as we see this in marriage, so let's do it in the church and I'm going to also tie this into our relationship with Christ.

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So the immediate application is, of course, going to be marriage. How do we relate to one another in marriage?

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Now this is a couple that is not even married yet. So yeah, you could speak of this also as pre -weds being complimentary of one another, being careful with each other, making sure that as you're growing together in your fellowship, you're doing this in the company of other people.

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They can witness the love that you have that you're developing with each other in a marriage. We need to speak kindly to one another, already kind of made that application, and we need to be so affectionate with one another that we know our significant other helps to make us better.

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In a marriage a husband and wife sanctify one another. Jesus even gives that instruction, well,

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Jesus, through the Apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter 5. Jesus sanctifies the church as a husband is also to help sanctify his wife, help to build her up in the knowledge and understanding of the word and in her relationship with Christ.

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So in this way, as we see this growing fellowship, this relationship between the husband and the wife, may we apply that in our marriages as well.

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This desire for one another that it would be pure and right in the eyes of God and even a good example in the eyes of others that are around us.

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So that's first application. We tie it into our marriage. Second application, tying it into the relationship we have with one another in the church.

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Remember that marriage is a picture of the way that Christ loves his church. So the way that Christ loves his church is the way that we're to love one another in the church.

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We're following the example of Christ. And so as we have had this husband and this wife that have longed for each other, they've been encouraging of one another, even when they don't think that they look all that good, right?

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So in the church, let's do that with each other. Help to build one another up, even though there are people in our congregation that don't think they look very lovely.

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And indeed they don't. I mean, we're all sinners. So we help to compliment one another and helping each other realize that the beauty that we have is not inherent within ourselves.

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The beauty that we have is because we're wearing the righteousness of Christ. So we look lovely to one another.

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May the people that you go to church with look lovely to you and help to build one another up in this most holy faith that we share together.

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Third application, our relationship with God. Ultimately, as I've already hinted at here, it is

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God who makes us look lovely. As it says in Romans 3, 10 through 12, because of our sin, we had made ourselves worthless, but God has made us worthy through the giving of his son,

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Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins, who rose again from the grave, and his sacrifice is described in Scripture as being a pleasing and fragrant aroma unto the

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Lord. When we wear the righteousness of Christ by faith in him, we likewise become pleasing and fragrant unto

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God. In fact, we even become pleasing to one another. Paul says that in Philippians 4, 18, when he's talking about the gift that the

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Philippians had sent to Paul, he calls it a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.

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So even the way that we love one another might be a pleasing sacrifice unto the

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Lord. It is God who makes us worthy to be in his presence, who has joined us to himself, and so following the example of Christ, let us show love to one another in our own homes, in our churches, in our communities.

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Heavenly Father, we thank you for the beautiful picture that's been painted for us here in the Song of Songs. Even though this directly and aptly applies between a man and a woman, a husband and a wife, so may we also find application for our other relationships.

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The relationships we have with brothers and sisters in the Lord, and how we have been brought into the most beautiful of relationships with our

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Lord and Savior. The church being his bride, and we are being sanctified and purified until that day when he returns as the bridegroom and will receive his bride unto himself.

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Make us holy and ready for that day. We ask these things in Jesus' name,

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Amen. You can find a complete list of videos, books, devotionals, and other resources online at www .tt