WWUTT 1764 O You Whom My Soul Loves (Song of Songs 1:2-7)

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This loving couple in Song of Songs, this man and this woman, they have a growing romance, but it's not something they're trying to keep a secret.

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They want it to be seen by all, and all would rejoice in their purity 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. So we come back to our study of the Song of Songs. Last week we did our introduction to the book.

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If you want to go back and listen to that, this week we're going to begin our exposition. And rather than reading a huge chunk of text, like I did last week,

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I started with 1 -1 and went through 2 -7. Instead of doing that, because I'm going to try to cover the same territory today, let's look at a chunk, we'll do our exposition, and then we'll go to the next portion.

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Chunk, that's the theological phrasing for a particular set of verses, a chunk of verses.

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So I'm gonna start out by reading verses 1 through 7, and this is the woman speaking with the company of the others who will chime in in the middle, and then when we pick up in verse 8, it will be the man speaking.

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If I just read through it like, you know, just go chapters 1 and 2 in a big swath, it can be kind of confusing because you don't really know who's talking.

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Is this the woman talking, is this the man talking? You kind of have to figure it out. So let me begin with the woman's voice and the others that accompany her, and then once we work through that portion of text, then we'll go on to where the man speaks.

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Alright, so beginning with Song of Songs, chapter 1, verse 1, I'm reading from the

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Legacy Standard Bible. This is the Word of the Lord. The Song of Songs, which is

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Solomon's, may he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love is better than wine, your oils have a pleasing fragrance, your name is like purified oil, therefore the maidens love you.

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Draw me after you and let us run together, the king has brought me into his chambers.

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We will rejoice in you and be glad, we will extol your love more than wine, rightly do they love you.

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I am black but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.

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Do not look at me because I am swarthy, for the sun has burned me. 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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Tell me, O 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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Coming back to verse 1, the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's, this is as if to say this is the greatest song that was ever written.

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It is the song of all songs, and to say that it's Solomon's is not to attribute him with authorship.

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Solomon is not the author of Song of Songs, and I'm pretty firm on that. He is not the main character in this story.

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Rather, it is something that was written in his honor. It's clear, and we have hints of this throughout

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Song of Songs, that this was written during the time of his reign, but it was written as though, you know, it would be like a song that would be sung in his court.

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It wasn't something that was actually written by Solomon himself. Solomon is a distant figure throughout

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Song of Songs. He's never really spoken about as a main character. Even though the woman here at the beginning says, draw me after you and let us run together, the king has brought me into his chambers.

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But when the the man begins speaking later on in verse 8, he speaks as a shepherd, as a poor shepherd, not as a king who just owns tons and tons of flocks, okay?

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So it's almost as if the woman is idealizing him as a king. That's the way a woman who loves her man thinks of her man, right?

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He's the king. He is the one whom my soul loves, the one that I have set my heart upon.

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He rules over everything in my eyes. That's the way a woman thinks of this man that she is so affectionate for.

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So you'll see things that are said in that way, but it's very symbolic, of course, because we're reading a poem here.

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And this is a back -and -forth between a woman and a man. We have the woman's voice in verses 2 through 4, and then the company of the others that chime in, in the latter part of verse 4.

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And then she continues in verses 5 through 7. Now, who is this woman? We don't know the names of either one of these characters, who the man is or who the woman is.

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But it's mentioned later on in chapter 6 that she is a Shulamite woman. What does that mean, that she is a

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Shulamite? Well, it means that she is of Jerusalem, or possibly a citizen of the town of Shunam, which was just a little bit to the north of Jerusalem, from about the tribe of Issachar, is where that town would have been located.

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And we don't have to be too exact with that, but it's just to note that she is of Israel. She's an

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Israelite woman. She's not a foreigner. Some people want to say that this woman is a foreigner, either because of, you know,

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Solomon's acquaintance with the Queen of Sheba, or because, in verse 5, it mentions that the woman is black of skin, so maybe she was of the continent of Africa.

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But that's just to say that she's been working outside, and so her skin is darker. This is not someone foreign.

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It is someone who is of Israel. So, this Shulamite woman expresses her desire at the beginning of the

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Song of Songs here. She's the one singing, and very poetically saying, May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love is better than wine.

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Now, wine, throughout the Old Testament, is a picture of God's provision, and even abundant provision.

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So, it's above and beyond what God would provide for Israel. Israel can experience a great crop.

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They've got good barley. They've got good wheat. They've harvested those things that are necessary for bread and other food.

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But then, if the vineyard produces abundant wine, so that the vats are overflowing, like we've got so many grapes here, we don't even know what to do with all of this, that demonstrates

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God's abundant provision for Israel. So, having an abundance of wine, and having good wine, not bitter wine, but the grapes have been good and sweet this year, we've got good wine, that shows that God has richly provided.

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So, the statement here that she loves the taste of her man's lips, even more so than the choicest of wine in Israel, this is to say that the

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Lord has abundantly provided for me. This man is the best, the choicest of fruits in Israel.

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You could consider it that way. Your oils have a pleasing fragrance, she goes on to say.

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Your name is like purified oil. Therefore, the maidens love you.

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Now, as I said before, I think, when we were in Ecclesiastes, references to oil are also references to perfume, where you have to look at the context to understand if that's the usage, but that would be the case here.

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So, we're talking about something fragrant. Your oils have a pleasing fragrance. Your name is like purified oil.

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That's a statement that's similar to something we saw in Ecclesiastes, that it's better to have a good name than to have purified oil, than to have the choicest of perfumes, so that people like you because you smell nice.

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No, it's better to have a name that has a great reputation attached to it. And that's the way that this woman is speaking about her man.

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He is someone that is the envy of others. There are men that should aspire to be like him, and there are women who would want a man just like this.

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So, your oils have a pleasing fragrance. Now, again, being poetry here, this may not be literal.

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She's not literally talking about him wearing all kinds of fine perfumes, but rather the statement that's made there at the start of verse 3 is explained by the second part.

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Your oils have a pleasing fragrance. Your name is like purified oil.

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So, everything about you, when your name is spoken, it's good in the ears of other people, just like if someone were to smell a fine perfume, it would be great in the nose of others.

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This is spoken about very symbolically, and throughout Song of Songs, we see metaphors used in this way.

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Typically, as English -speaking Americans or as Western world thinkers, when we think of metaphor in poetry, we think of something visual, right?

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So, we can't see it. Somebody's describing it for us, and then we're trying to visualize it or we're trying to picture it in our minds.

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That's not the way metaphor is used in Song of Songs, and that's important to note, because coming up, you have statements like, your eyes are like doves.

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Well, how can that be? You're trying to picture that. How can a person's eyes be like doves?

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Your teeth are like goats. That doesn't sound very complimentary, but it's what it symbolizes.

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It's understanding the symbol or the meaning of the metaphor, rather than thinking that a picture is being painted here, which is not the case in Song of Songs.

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So, in this verse, it's kind of a good preemptive verse to prepare us for that, for the proper way to interpret metaphor in this poem.

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Your oils have a pleasing fragrance. Your name is like purified oil.

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It's just to note that this man is someone who is valued in Israel, so much so that we would want other men to be like him, and this is the kind of man a woman would want to marry.

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It's the kind of man that a woman's father would want his daughter to marry.

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Your name is like purified oil. Therefore, the maidens love you. Draw me after you, and let us run together.

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The king has brought me into his chambers. As I mentioned last week, you have these pictures throughout

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Song of Songs of the two of them pursuing one another, constantly chasing after each other. Here, they're not married.

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This is all pre -wedding. Then you have the wedding. There's a pursuit of one another even in the wedding elements of Song of Songs, and then even at the very end, they're already married.

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They've consummated their marriage, and yet they're still chasing after one another. What a healthy picture of marriage.

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So, this constant pursuit, the woman after the man, and the man looking for the woman. Now, in the rest of verse four, we have the company of others who speak.

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Now, we don't know who these others are. As the Song of Songs is something poetic, there's various ways that we could interpret the others, and various ways they have been interpreted, like a bridal party, a wedding party, the woman's maidens.

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They could just be villagers. Since we're talking about a shepherd and a shepherdess, two people who would be poor and probably live among a village or maybe even just outside the village, as shepherds sometimes do, tending their flocks or living out with the flocks while they're at pasture.

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We think of that in Luke chapter two, where it says that there was out in the field shepherds tending their flocks by night.

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So, when their flocks are out at pasture, the shepherds will be out there living with them. So, that may be the case here, too, with this man and this woman.

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So, you have the company of others, some other people that live among them in the villages. However, we would view this crowd, whatever their exact identity would be, this is certainly a picture of people holding this couple accountable and celebrating this couple on top of that.

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So, as they are in pursuit of one another, they encourage that pursuit, but also try to hold them back from awakening love until the proper time, preventing them from consummating their marriage until after the wedding.

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You understand? So, I tied this in last week with Hebrews 13, 4, which says that the marriage bed is to be held in honor among all.

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Even those who are not married need to keep the marriage bed pure. You're not going to go to bed with somebody that you're not married to.

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Likewise, you're going to help your brothers and sisters in the Lord keep the marriage bed pure.

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You're not going to allow a brother who is married to go off with somebody else's wife or another woman that he's not married to.

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You want to keep the marriage bed pure. So, even this pursuit of purity is something that's related to community.

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Though the marriage is between just that man and just that woman, you're going to have other brothers and sisters in the

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Lord that want to honor that marriage as something honorable unto the Lord, helping that brother or sister honor

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God in their marriage, even to keep the marriage bed undefiled. And so, that's the way we might view this company here in Song of Songs, 1, 4.

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It would be like the company that is addressed to keep the marriage bed pure in Hebrews 13, 4.

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So, this company speaks out and says, we will rejoice in you and be glad.

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We will extol your love more than wine. Rightly do they love you.

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So, extolling love more than wine, it's the company that is acknowledging this desire that the woman has for her man.

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She desires his kisses like she desires wine, and they use wine in their response as well.

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We extol your love more than wine. So, it's a company of people, of witnesses or accountability, however you want to view that, who acknowledges that her desire for this man is good and it is pure.

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It is even the blessing of God, for it is greater than the wine, the abundant provision that God has shown to his people

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Israel. Now, that's significant at this juncture, right at the very beginning of this poem, because the woman is expressing desire right away.

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That's what we start with. We start with desire. May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, and they're not married yet.

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Yet, the company of the people that are observing the love that is blossoming between these two people, they are acknowledging that this love and this desire for each other are good.

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I mentioned last week in the introduction that the desire itself, a man's desire for a woman, a woman's desire for a man, is not inherently sinful.

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Now, if a man desires a woman who is someone else's wife, that would be bad.

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Or if the woman is in marriage and she desires another man that she's not married to, that would be sinful.

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But here, these are two people who have the intention of getting married. They want to marry each other.

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So their desire for one another is right. It's not sinful. It's not unhealthy. It is good, even if they desire to go to bed with one another.

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There's nothing wrong with that so long as it does not turn into an unhealthy obsession or they try to consummate their marriage before the wedding, so long as it doesn't become that.

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But even that sexual desire that they have for one another before marriage is good. And even that can be done in a way that is honoring to the

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Lord, that is, is not overly lustful or or produces sin.

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So the company of the people that are witnessing this growing love between these two people, they acknowledge we rejoice in you.

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We are glad for you. We extol your love more than wine. Rightly do they love you, meaning the the maidens that are there, those who are tending to this woman and caring for this woman care for her in a right and proper and God honoring way.

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So we go on to the next part. Verse five. I am black, but lovely. This is again the woman still speaking.

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I am black, but lovely. Oh, daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kidar. So black, but lovely, as I mentioned earlier, means that she's been working out in the sun and her skin is darker and it's not something permanent.

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You know, if you've been working out in the sun and you come in and your skin is dark and then after a couple of days it lightens up a little bit, you're still tanner, but you weren't as dark as you were that day when you were working out in the sun.

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That's like what it was for this woman. And she compares it to the tents of Kidar, which were made of camel's hair.

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So dark like the the hides of camel's hair that cover these tents and are darkened in the sun when they're dried out like the curtains of Solomon.

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Now this one is less visual. So the tents of Kidar, that's probably a visual reference to say how dark she's become because she's been working out in the sun, just like these hides that get dried out in the sun.

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But then the reference to the curtains of Solomon, that's more symbolically beautiful, less about look upon the beauty of the curtains and more a matter of referencing.

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You know how curtains of Solomon, they're beautiful. It's Solomon's kingdom. Everything that he makes is lovely.

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And so I'm lovely like those curtains, though I might be darker because I've been working hard. I'm not so attractive right now.

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Yet there's something about herself that still remains inherently beautiful and lovely, just like she described her man earlier, whose name is like great perfume.

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Every time somebody mentions his name, the people love him. So like with her, though, she's been working out in the sun.

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And right at this very moment, she doesn't look all that attractive yet. She still remains inherently beautiful, just like the curtains of Solomon.

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Verse six, do not look at me because I am swarthy for the sun has burned me.

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And this is almost as if she's saying, don't judge my character or my beauty by how

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I look after I've been outside working hard in the next the next sentence.

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She says, 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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So her sons have authority over the vineyards, over the flocks, and they're telling her that she needs to work and why they're doing this.

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We don't know. It's not really given to us in the poem. It's just, you know, maybe it's just brothers being brothers.

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Perhaps they want to protect her from being too after her man, just like we had the company of the others that were mentioned in verse four.

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But their intentions were very good. The brothers and these are full brothers, even though she's she's saying my mother's sons were angry with me.

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That's just another way of her saying these are my brothers who have worked me this hard instead of having the best of intentions for her to try to keep her from this guy.

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They're going to put her to work so that she's occupied with work and not with the thoughts of her love.

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So the company of the others in verse four, their intentions are good and sweet and caring, but her brother's intentions are not so great.

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That's kind of the contrast there. And because she has been doing what she's been told to do to take care of the vineyard, she's not taking care of her own vineyard.

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At the end of verse six, that's a reference to I have not yet made myself beautiful or look lovely.

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I've not tended to myself is what she's saying there. So verse seven and this finishes up the the poetic portion of the woman speaking.

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Tell me, oh, you who 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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Now, this is very simply the woman asking, where can I find you at noon?

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Where can I go that I will see you there and I can spend time with you? And she's expressing herself here that I am not ashamed of our love, though my brothers might work me hard and they don't want me in your presence or thinking about you or coming after you.

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I'm not ashamed of you. So why should I be like one who veils herself beside the flocks of your companions?

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There's a double meaning there. She's not ashamed of herself, so she wouldn't veil herself. But also she's not like one who is a prostitute because a prostitute would veil her face or cover herself and try to position herself in such a way to be made available.

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That's not what this woman is doing. She wants to come and find her love. Let everyone be witness to their love, to be able to give accountability to this growing romance that they have with one another.

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She's not one who is looking for a quick fling and then is going to run away and they're going to go their separate ways after appeasing the appetites of their flesh.

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This is not a secret, forbidden romance. They want to do this in the sight of all that it may be seen.

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We are pure that other people are holding them accountable to one another that all of this be done in honor of the

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Lord. For as it said in John 3, 20 and 21, everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds be exposed.

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But he who practices the truth comes to the light so that his deeds may be manifested as having been done by God.

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And so we can see this desire for this man and this woman to want to be pure, to keep one another accountable and not do anything in secret.

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We can see this as a picture of how we should be doing righteousness in the sight of all.

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Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good deeds and glorify

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God on the day of visitation. So just as this man and woman want to keep each other pure, may we keep ourselves pure, not just from sexual immorality, but from any kind of sin, pursuing righteousness and letting the righteous deeds that we do in Christ be seen by others.

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Holiness being a public display, we have nothing to be ashamed of. Our sins have been forgiven in Jesus Christ, our

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Lord. So let us walk in righteousness, walking in the light as he is in the light, as it says in 1

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John 1. Let's conclude there with prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this epic poem of romance that we read here and may it guide us in sexual purity, but also that we might walk in holiness before you.

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Our greatest desire would be Christ and we would not be enticed by any of the temptations of this world, but we desire the holiness of God, not just to confess a belief in Jesus Christ, but to demonstrate that by walking in obedience to the commands that you have given us all our days until Christ who is our life appears, and then we will also appear with him in glory.

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As it said in Ephesians 5, Christ is purifying his bride by the washing of water through the word.

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And so it's through our commitment to your scriptures that we might be purified before you. In Jesus name we pray.

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Amen. For more about our ministry, visit us online at www .tt .com.