Songs 1
There is, apparently, a Jewish tradition that says that men are not allowed to read the book of the Song of Songs until after they turn 30. This is because, so I am led to understand, we are not mature enough to read it. I have to wonder if even 30 is too young – all this talk about lying in beds between a pair of breasts is enough to make even the sternest church curmudgeon blush.
With this book, there always comes the question: why is this in Holy Scripture? Why did the ancient people of God consider this book divinely inspired, and why was this agreed to by the early Church? It is, after all, an erotic love poem; hardly the genre one would think appropriate for the Holy One of Israel!
I think our Anglican tradition gives us a good starting point in answering this question. If there is any theological basis that defines our general understanding of what it means to be a Christian, it is the doctrine of the incarnation: that God came to earth as one of us, joining the divine to the material, bringing humans and God together in the closest way possible. One outcome of this is that when it comes to the human experience, nothing is off the table when it comes to including God. And so the love between a man and a woman is made holy and sacred, and this book affirms that.
As far as an instruction for living is concerned, I would just like to cover what I think the main point of this book is. It is a piece of advice for young women entering the world of dating. The advice is this: have high standards. Young women should have high standards for the man they give themselves to in intimacy, and those standards are set in the lines of this poem. It is not that the man should have great wealth, or power, or public respect, or anything else like that. In fact, the king arrives part-way through, and he is compared in such terrible light everyone gets the point. Where the woman’s one true love is close, and has eyes only for her, the king comes from afar, sits up on his horse, and already has plenty of women in his harem, and she would just be one of many. This is the high standard young women should have: find a man who loves you, and loves you only.
As Christians, we are familiar with the concept of the heart – the core of our being, who we are on a deep fundamental level. We must guard our heart from deceit and wickedness, and furnish it with holiness and beauty. We must also give our heart, completely and utterly, to someone. We will worship; the question is, who will we worship? Jesus desires our heart, and desires that we give it to him first and foremost, above all else, and to him only. He is a jealous lover with high standards.
In the same way, he is entirely dedicated to us. All the blessings of Scripture that God gives throughout history we can see as from Christ’s lips to our souls. He said it himself, in the third chapter of St John: “For God so loved the world”.
And so let us reflect on the great, jealous, burning, singular love of God towards us. And let us fan the flames of our love towards our Redeemer, that we may give our hearts to him, immediately and completely. For the end of religion is the loving union between God and humanity, and Christ Jesus is the one who reveals it to us, and through whom that love flows.