Reading: Song of Songs 1-4, Psalm 11

Ready for the most uncomfortable book in the Bible? Well too bad, we aren’t to Ezekiel yet. This is just the Song of Songs, or variously known as the Song of Solomon, or occasionally the Canticles. The name comes from the first line of the collection: The song song, of Solomon. Putting the same word twice in Hebrew is, as in many languages, a superlative. Sort of how Jesus will later be referred to as King of kings and Lord of lords. There are other kings, but this is The King. There are other lords but this is The Lord. There are other songs, but this is The Song. Tradition attributes it to Solomon, though it could also be about him or dedicated to him as well. It doesn’t really matter, as the entire thing is poetry. Speaking of which, let’s clear something up real fast: this is, in fact, semi-erotic love poetry. Let’s not bandy about trying to figure out how to make it something else, as Christians at various times and places have done because they are uncomfortable with human sexuality. Now, I’m not saying there isn’t more to it than that, but there is certainly not less.

So why is it in the Bible? It is an interesting question, and not one that has a single satisfactory answer. We run into some interpretive problems because this is a really complicated Hebrew poem, or series of poems. Scholars can’t even agree if it is one work or a collection. It has either three characters- a man, a woman, and a chorus- or, well, quite a few more. There is extensive debate over what story it tells. Some see a woman taken by a king away from her beloved back home, who then comes to the city to find her and takes her back to the country. Others see the king as the beloved and the country boy as a relative. Others see only one male character. Which translation you read will give different views. About the only thing they all agree on is that the primary speaker is a woman, with interjections by her lover and the chorus (the daughters of Jerusalem.)

There is also the question of purpose. What is(are) this(these) poem(s) trying to do? I’ve made a big deal in other books about how the authors knew what they were doing and had a goal. What is that here? I’m guessing it is not to give dating advice. We get all kinds of cultural references that do not translate well. I don’t advise going around telling your beau that her hair is like a flock of goats descending from the hills of Gilead, or that her neck is like the tower of David, built with courses of stone, on it hang a thousand shields. Maybe these were effective compliments at the time, but I wouldn’t try them today. Pretty sure we aren’t supposed to learn how to woo a mate from this.

So here is the deal: I’m not sure this in this particular book the author’s intention was to teach anything or make any points. There are things we can learn about life, ourselves, and God from the Song of Songs, but that’s not the point of it. I think this is primarily a celebration. A reveling. A call to the joy of relationship in spite of the human condition. Great destruction has come to our relationships because of our declaration of independence, but the relationship between man and woman did not begin there. Man and woman were created in God’s image to be in relationship with God and one another way back in Genesis 1:27, and it is worth celebrating even if it is marred by fallenness.