WWUTT 1814 I Am My Beloved’s (Song of Songs 7:9-8:3)

The Bride and Husband Grow in Love in Song of Songs

In Song of Songs, we are seeing the husband and the wife grow in their love for each other. Their affections are increasing, and so should our affections increase for Christ when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. Back to our study of the Song of Songs, which between this week and the next, we might finish up, God willing. We finished up last week in Chapter 7, Verse 9, and not even all the way through Verse 9.

So I'm going to pick up in Verse 9 with the bride's response, and then she continues speaking into Chapter 8, Verse 3. So let me read at least that far. This is out of the Legacy Standard Bible, the voice of the bride to her husband.

It goes down smoothly for my beloved, flowing gently through the lips of those who fall asleep. I am my beloved's, and his desire is for me. Come my beloved, let us go out into the fields, let us spend the night in the villages, let us rise early and go to the vineyards, let us see whether the vine has flourished and its blossoms have opened, and whether the pomegranates have bloomed.

There I will give you my love. The mandrakes have given forth fragrance, and over our doors are all choice fruits, both new and old, which I have treasured up for you, my beloved. Oh, that you were like a brother to me, who nursed at my mother's breasts.

If I found you outside, I would kiss you. No one would despise me either. I would lead you and bring you into the house of my mother, who used to teach me. I would give you spiced wine to drink from the sweet wine of my pomegranates.

Let his left hand be under my head, and his right hand embrace me. Some of the chapter and verse divisions in Song of Songs can be kind of frustrating. We started here in the midway part of chapter 7, verse 9.

There's going to be another awkward transition coming up in chapter 8. And the husband had started speaking. This was at the end of chapter 6, midway through verse 13. So I don't know. I may have chosen to break up the chapters and verses a different way.

The chapter and verse divisions are not divinely inspired, by the way. The words are, but not these numbers that are right next to them. They're just markers to try to help us along. And in this particular case, they're not all that helpful.

Anyway, so just to kind of recap where we've been in this wonderful poem, this wonderful poetic story between this man and this woman. So if you'll recall the nightmare that the woman had back in chapter 5, her husband came to her and wanted to make love to her again.

But she did not respond to his advances. And when she finally was aroused to go to the door and welcome him in, he wasn't there anymore. And suddenly, she feels guilty. She thinks that he has gone off to go find his satisfaction somewhere else.

Now, that's not the character of this husband in this story by any means. But it's her insecurity and the guilty conscience that is weighing upon her. So she goes to try to find him. And then when they finally come back together, the description that he gives of her, which is what we read last week in chapter 7, is as if to say, I am holding nothing against you.

You are still as beautiful to me now as you were on our wedding day. And then the very close of this section, after he speaks about his bride, after he describes her once again, we've had two other descriptions of the bride from the husband.

And both of them were describing her from the top down. This one was describing her from the feet up. And after he finishes that description of her, we have this, the word of the woman at the close of verse 9, it goes down smoothly for my beloved, flowing gently through the lips of those who fall asleep.

And that is the inference that they have made love. This was similar to something we saw at the beginning of chapter 5. After this man and woman came together and they consummated their union, we have a phrase that appears to be the voice of God blessing this man and this woman.

Eat, friends, drink, and imbibe deeply, oh lovers. That was at the end of chapter 5, verse 1. So this reference to drinking seems to be an inference of they've made love. They have enjoyed the best of what God has to offer in this intimate relationship between a man and a woman.

And so here it's the woman that replies to the husband. She has now fulfilled her duty, which she doesn't feel like that she had done earlier. Now she's done it. And now he feels satisfied with her. He has enjoyed her.

And she says of him, it goes down smoothly for my beloved. Now she has fulfilled her obligations, her duty as a wife to him. And it has been good for him. Flowing gently through the lips of those who fall asleep.

That reference to drinking again. Now, as I had said earlier in our study of Song of Songs, there are many that will refer to this book as erotic poetry. But the actual act of lovemaking is never described in Song of Songs.

It's only inferred. We know that lovemaking has happened between this man and this woman, but it's never described for us. Which just goes to show how tastefully the book of Song of Songs treats the act of sex between a husband and a wife.

And also how sacred and personal it's meant to be. We're not even supposed to be imagining these things between two other people or have the picture of that going on in our head. Hence why the Song of Songs never paints that picture for us.

It tells us that it's happened, but it doesn't describe the act. You understand? So that's something that you're just supposed to enjoy between your spouse. And I think demonstrates just how tastefully and modestly that we're supposed to be treating the thing itself.

It's not appropriate for us to necessarily be describing that act as Song of Songs doesn't do it. So we should not be doing it. But we do have the very intimate description of a husband describing his wife's body, her description of her husband's body.

Even that's done very tastefully, though. And like I said, the metaphors that are referenced there aren't necessarily to something visual, but to something in reference to their character. The husband most definitely wants his wife's body, and the wife certainly admires her husband's body, but not in a way that we should blush or be embarrassed by what it is that we're reading here.

All of this is wonderful and beautiful to be enjoyed and shared between a husband and a wife in the covenant of marriage. That is what God created sex for. It is good, and we have nothing to be ashamed of if it is handled in the way that God has made it, that God intended it.

So the woman speaks complimentary of this act. My husband has enjoyed his bride. It has gone down smoothly for my husband. End of verse nine. And so then she goes on to say of their relationship in verse 10, I am my beloved's, and his desire is for me.

Now, once again here, the verse break might make this kind of awkward. Verse 10 probably goes better with that close of verse nine. It could be all the same phrase. So let me read that again. It goes down smoothly for my beloved, flowing gently through the lips of those who fall asleep.

I am my beloved's, and his desire is for me. And there's words of comfort in that for the bride. Like she is now coming to settle. I belong to him, and he does want me. He did not leave me and go find his satisfaction somewhere else.

I am the one who satisfies my beloved. I am the one that he wants. And that is a comfort to her. That is a safety to her. Oh, what a blessing it is to be in a stable, godly marriage. It is perhaps the safest human relationship that we can have.

While we are here on this earth, the union between a husband and a wife that is built upon Christ Jesus, a solid godly marriage. The apostle Paul even talks about this in first Corinthians chapter seven.

He says the following, because of sexual immoralities, each man is to have his own wife and each woman is to have her own husband. The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife and likewise also the wife to her husband.

The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise, also, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Now, even in Paul describing that, that's first Corinthians seven, four, even in his description of that, there's a reference there of safety.

If this is a godly marriage, the woman's body feels safe with the man and the husband's body feels safe with his wife. Verse five, Paul says, stop depriving one another except by agreement for a time so that you may devote yourselves to prayer and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

This is Paul talking about the safety of marriage, the goodness of marriage. Because of sexual immorality, he says, each man is to have his own wife and each woman is to have her own husband. Enjoying sex between one another, a husband and a wife is good.

It is safe. And we have those appetites, those desires satisfied between each other and not going after sex outside of marriage, which would be immoral. When we enjoy that within a marriage, it is honoring of the Lord and it is satisfying of one another.

So may your marriage be one that is built upon Christ and safe for both of you that you may enjoy one another in this way and do so even to the glory of God out of love and affection for each other and giving glory to the Lord who gave this wonderful gift to a husband and a wife.

It is good to think about sex in such ways. I mean, oftentimes we're so embarrassed about it. We don't want to talk about it at all. And then what ends up happening? It's in the immodest ways that we discuss it or joke about it or things like that.

No, it is right that we discuss these things within the boundaries that God has established. He has given sex. He created it to be enjoyed between a husband and a wife. And that is the way that we should talk about it and still be able to do so modestly and in a way that instructs one another and guides so that we have good, healthy, stable and even intimate marriages.

And that's what the book of Song of Songs helps to provide a husband and a wife. Yes, we can see some of these things allegorically as pointing to the relationship between Christ and the church. But we should be seeing marriage as that way anyway, since that's the way Paul describes marriage like that in Ephesians chapter five, that this is the analogy of the way that Christ loves his church.

God gave us marriage so that we would see there's something even higher and greater than this. It is Christ's love for us. He who died for us and sanctifies us, washing his bride with the water of the word that we may be spotless and without wrinkle.

And the way that the bride is described coming to Christ in the book of Revelation, she comes down out of heaven adorned in white spotless for the bridegroom because we have been made pure through the word of God, which has been preached to us.

It is through the word that we are saved and it is through the word that we are sanctified and the very gift of marriage, the earthly relationship of marriage that God has given to us. We have it only here on this earth.

We will not be married when we are in heaven, but this relationship God has given to be a picture of the way that Christ loves his church. That's the analogy anyway. So, of course, we can find allegory in Song of Songs that points to that.

But first and foremost, we're reading here about the way a man loves his wife and how she loves her husband and even some of the trials that they have to work through in order to find each other. There's so many different things that happen in the world that can disrupt the time that we should be spending with one another as a husband and a wife.

And so here, this next portion in verse 11, the woman suggests, why don't we go together? Because when we were separated, that wasn't working out so much. I didn't know where you were. You were not satisfied by me.

And so why don't we just come together and we go together? Why don't we do that? So in verse 11, she says, come, my beloved, let us go out into the fields. Let us spend the night in the villages. Let us rise early and go in the vineyards.

Let us see whether the vine is flourished and its blossoms have opened and whether the pomegranates have bloomed. And there I will give you my love. So she says, let's let's continue in these things together.

She feels more secure when she is with him and he feels more satisfied when he is with her. So notice that these locations are rule here in verse 11. Let us go into the fields and spend the night in the villages.

Where was she afraid her husband had gone earlier when he left her when she did not respond to his advances and he left? She was afraid he had gone into the city and the city is all kinds of hustle and bustle.

It's crowded. There's people all over the place. But these locations in verse 11, this is more rule. It's also more temptations in the city. But these are the places that we are familiar with because this is where we grew up.

So we've got people around us who know us and keep us accountable. Come, my beloved, let us go into the fields. That's a place of work. Let us spend the night in the villages. That's where all the people gather after a day of work.

So we're doing work together. We're never too far away from one another. And then when we come back together, we're with the friends and the family that we know. Verse 12, let us rise early and go to the vineyards.

So we have a place of fruitfulness that's always been described here in Song of Songs. And the fields and the villages are connected with the vineyards. The villages would be surrounded by the vineyards.

So everything that's described here is a place of fruitfulness. Let us see whether the vine has flourished and its blossoms have opened and whether the pomegranates have bloomed. And there I will give you my love.

Now, there could be a couple of things that this is describing here. It just it simply could be, hey, let's let's see how our love grows, how it blossoms and develops. We're growing closer to one another all the time.

My love for you is even greater today than it was yesterday, as are your affections for me. So let's see these things grow. Hence why you have the description of the vine flourishing and the blossoms opening and the pomegranates bloomed.

That's one possible description. A second is, let's see if we get pregnant. Let's see if we can be fruitful and multiply. Let's see if the Lord will bless us with abundance even beyond what we have already enjoyed together.

And the fruitfulness of our love will be shown through the children that we have. Now, when we talk about modesty, oftentimes we use that word modesty. You know, how is it often used? We use it to talk about how a woman should dress, sometimes the way a man should dress to men.

We need to be modest in the clothing that we wear. But usually when we use that word, we use it to describe how a woman should dress. And, of course, Paul talks about that in First Timothy, Chapter two, that women should dress modestly.

They don't dress in a way to call attention to themselves. They especially should not be dressing in a way to call attention to their bodies, because a woman's body belongs to her husband. He gets to enjoy that.

Nobody else gets to admire those features about her or or even long for and imagine those features of her. That is only for her husband. And then the fruitfulness of the love that he has for his wife and the enjoyment that he has with her body, the fruitfulness of that will be shown in their children.

My, they have a fruitful family. Well, then, you know that this couple loves one another and they enjoy each other affectionately within those wonderful gifts that God has given to us. And so there seems to be a description here, even in verse 12.

As we grow in these affections that we have for one another, maybe God will bless our fruitfulness with children. And there I will give you my love. Verse 13, the mandrakes have given forth fragrance and over our doors are all choice fruits, both new and old, which I have treasured up for you, my beloved.

So here we have a reference to fragrance again. And what did I say early on that reference to fragrance is a picture of it is a it is a reference to a person's character. So we know that this is a good union.

This is a good marriage because the mandrakes have given forth fragrance and over our doors are choice fruits, the instruction that's given to Israel to write the law of God on their hearts, to make it even as on the doorposts of their house.

They remember the commands of God when they come in and when they go out. And so the love of this couple is over the doors of their house. That's a reference again to safety. It's a reference to the genuineness of the love that they have with one another.

It covers and shelters their entire home. It's over our doors, all the choice fruits, both new and old. We're talking about growing together, growing old together, which I have treasured up for you, my beloved.

Wanting to Be Closer Than Ever in Song of Songs 8:1-3

And then the woman's song ends, at least her response here ends in chapter eight, verses one through three. So let me read this next section. We'll close with this and then pick up with the man's response in verse four next week.

And God willing, we'll finish up song of songs. So here's verses one through three. The woman says, oh, that you were like a brother to me who nursed at my mother's breast. Now, now all that is saying there can be something funny about that.

We might look at that and we're like, oh, she wishes that he was her brother, not literally biologically her brother. All she's saying here is I wish there was a way we could be closer than we already are, that we could share more history with one another than we've already shared.

Had we been together from birth? Oh, that we had known one another that long that you would even nurse together at my mother's breast. It's just for her to say affectionately, how can I be closer to you than I already am?

If I found you outside, I would kiss you, she says. No one would despise me either. Certainly we can go too far in public displays of affection. But here what she's saying, coupled with the statement that she just made at the start of the verse, she's just saying she wants to be closer to him and that she's not ashamed of him.

She's not embarrassed of him. She wants the world to know the affections that she has for him, even that she would kiss him in public and no one would despise her for that. Yeah, well, they're married.

Of course, of course, they would show those kinds of affections for one another. She says in verse two, I would lead you and bring you into the house of my mother who used to teach me like, let me show you where I grew up.

Let me show you my childhood, all the things that I experienced growing up. Maybe we did not know one another as infants and grow up together, but I can show you where I came from. And in this way, we learn more about each other and we draw closer and closer together.

I would give you spiced wine, she says, to drink from the sweet wine of my pomegranates. She's saying here that I would just dote on you and you wouldn't be embarrassed by it. You would love it. Just as she had said previously, if I found you outside, I would kiss you and no one would despise me for it because everybody would say, of course, they're married.

So, yes, they're going to be affectionate with one another. She says, I would lead you in and I would dote on you and you would not be embarrassed by it. You would love it. And then he would show his affection for her that she was receiving these gifts and this affection that she showed to him.

She would respond to it in this way. Verse three, let his left hand be under my head and his right hand embrace me. He would draw me close. This is the wife saying, I want to I want to give you everything.

I don't want to hide anything from you at all. And the man shows his reception of those things by drawing her close to him. How can I be closer to you? She says, and the man responds like this. And they draw close to one another.

And we have what's developing here as we get closer and closer to the end of Song of Songs. What's being revealed to us here is a romance that continues the rest of their lives. We've been with them when they were courting one another.

We've been with them on their wedding day. We've been with them as they go through some struggles there in the early part of their marriage. And now here they are coming out of the quarrel that they had in whatever way you might refer to it as a quarrel.

But coming out of that, the the miscommunication, the the misunderstanding one another, not reading signals right, not finding satisfaction in each other, which is what previously happened. And now they're coming out of that with this affection toward one another, drawing closer together.

And that's what you would hope would happen in a marriage that is committed to till death do us part. They go together. They are together. She opens herself up to him entirely. He receives that by embracing her.

And where we go next is the two of them running off together, looking for and finding each other over and over again. And we'll get to the rest of that with the conclusion of Song of Songs next week. Jesus has shown his affection for his bride by dying for us, by rising again from the grave.

Whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life by our faith in Jesus Christ. We have fellowship with God and fellowship with one another in the body of Christ. And so just like the bride wants to find ways that she can be even closer to her husband than she already is.

So may we as Christians, as the bride of Christ, desire to find ways that we may be closer to Christ than we already are. How do we draw closer to him? We draw closer to him through his word, what God has spoken to us in the Bible.

And as we learn these things, we learn more about God. We open ourselves up to him. He fills us up with himself. And we draw closer to one another in this relationship our whole lives long till death when we go to join him in glory.

So let us rejoice in even these things that we've read today in the Song of Songs. Be obedient to God in all things and draw near to him. He will draw near to us.

In Jesus name. Amen. This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt .com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast, or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

And let your friends know about our ministry. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's word when we understand the text.