Song of Solomon Part 3

The Song of Solomon is a love song. It is best interpreted as a picture of Christ and His church, and the endless attempts of the Tempter and the world to lure the church away from her attachment to the Shepherd—Jesus Christ.

The main characters are as follows. The shepherd in the story pictures Christ Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep. The Shulamite represents the church or the individual believer who is devoted to Him.

Solomon represents the Prince of this world. He uses worldly pomp, power and magnificence in an attempt to win the heart of the Shulamite.

The court women represent those who admire this worldly prince; they resemble the citizens of our world who look askance at those who turn their backs upon the world in order to have a relationship with the shepherd.

Last time we witnessed the shepherd finally appearing to the Shulamite in Solomon’s Pavilion. While not delivering her, he comforts, encourages, and strengthens her.

We closed with the Shulamite expressing her feelings of unworthiness of the shepherds love.

2:1 “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.”

The problem was that she could only see herself as a simple flower of the meadow. It could read, “I am only a blossom of the plain.” She wondered how he, her wonderful shepherd, could see anything in her at all!

The shepherd responds to her struggle with encouraging, loving words:

2:2 “Like a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.”

The Palestinian lily was a flower that normally grew in the midst of wheat. It was a humble plant but one that was adorned with regal color. The shepherd saw his beloved as a lily among thorns.

The women of Solomon’s court—for all their worldly polish, sophisticated airs, expensive clothes, overpowering perfumes, and costly jewels—were thorns. They were brambles and thorns, marked by the curse.

Jesus sees His church the same way! As Paul wrote, “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; 27but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong…” 1 Cor.1:26-27

While we are a humble lot, we are to Him as a beautiful lily amongst a world that bears the mark of the curse!

Next, the Shulamite responds to the Shepherds heartwarming words. She describes the shepherd in two ways. First, like the bounty of a forest:

2:3 “Like an apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down in his shade with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.”

He compares her to a lily. She compares him to an apple tree. The first thing she points out about this tree is its protection. “I sat down in his shade with great delight…”

Just as we might park our car in the middle of August under a shady tree for protection from the burning, beating sun, so the Shulamite found protection in the shepherd.

I think of David who wrote, “Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings…” Ps.17:8

But not only was he her protection, he was her provision: “His fruit was sweet to my taste.” The Bible says, “O taste and see that the Lord is good…” (Ps.34:8)

Not only is the Lord our protection, He is our provision. We feed on His love, His Word, His Presence, His faithfulness. Again, David wrote in Ps.37: 3, “Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.”

He is our Protection and He is our Provision! Next, the Shulamite searches for adjectives to describe the shepherd.

2:4 “He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.”

Perhaps at this moment the Shulamite is aware that Solomon was off feasting at his table. No doubt, it was a feast fitted for a king. The shepherd from the distant hills could not have provided such a banquet.

But what he could set before her was seasoned and prepared with that which Solomon could never have matched. It was the seasoning of love, which turned the slightest morsel into a feast!

Oh church, this is what the church can offer the world that the world simply does not have—the love of God poured out on the heart by the Holy Ghost!

One day we as His bride will sit down to a feast unprecedented in the history of mankind. It is called the marriage supper of the Lamb! Until then, His banner over us is His love.

Next, the Shulamite tells how the shepherd’s love overwhelms her:

2:5 “Sustain me with cakes of raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am lovesick.”

One translator puts it, “I swoon with love!” The great evangelist D.L. Moody describes an experience when he was torn about whether he should go into full-time ministry.

Then something happened. He remembers the exact location it was so vivid. On the corner of Broadway and Fifth Avenue, one of the busiest thoroughfares in New York City.

While walking along, he yielded to God’s call within himself. On doing so, an overwhelming sense of the presence of God came flooding over his soul. Hurrying to the home of a friend, he requested a room in which to be alone.

Locking the door behind him, the room seemed ablaze with the glory of God. He later told a friend, “I can only say that God revealed Himself to me and I had such an experience of His love that I had to ask Him to stay His hand.”

Moody could almost have quoted the Song of Solomon, “Sustain me…for I am lovesick.” The Shulamite continues:

2:6 “His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me.”

Her shepherd was holding her to himself. She was wholly his and he was altogether hers.

Next, we find the Shulamite setting boundaries for her love. One sage wisely said, “Love does not trespass where law forbids.” It is lust, not love, if it insists on its own way to the exclusion of God’s laws.

So this section of the Song of Solomon concludes with a crucial lesson. Look at the power of the love of these two—the shepherd and the Shulamite. Yet the Holy Spirit now inserts into the story the principle that stops love from being destroyed—love knows how to wait and now to keep itself pure.

First, we have set before us the masculinity of the worldly women of the court. The Shulamite says:

“I charge you, O you daughters of Jerusalem…” Scholars tell us that the word “you” and the accompanying verbs are masculine, yet the subject (daughters) is feminine. This is not a common grammatical construction. But when we do find it, it signals to us that true femininity has been lost.

What does this mean? The painted beauties of Solomon’s court were coarse and vulgar. Their conversation was not edifying. It was crude, sexy, sensual, and seductive, knowing nothing of restraint, modesty, or decency.

In contrast we have the feminine modesty of the shy Shulamite from the country.

2:7 (b) “I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the does of the field, do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases.”

The telling phrase is “Stir not up!” The thought is “excite not!” The Hebrew word means “to incite.” She is saying quite bluntly that her passions are not to be excited, awakened, or stirred up.

Coming back to the story behind the song, it would seem that the shepherd has now retreated. She is alone again in Solomon’s pavilion. And the women of the court are intent on trying to arouse her passions so that Solomon would find an easy mark.

But the Shulamite has clearly drawn love’s boundaries in her life. She will have nothing to do with anything that would stimulate passion and desire out of the proper context.

And so should it be with Christ’s bride today. We live in a world that is focused like a laser on arousing passion, lust, and desire, that it might be expressed out of God’s proper context.

May we develop the resolve of the Shulamite and say with her, “…do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases.”

Having passed through the HOUR OF TENDERNESS, now we come to THE HOUR OF TRUTH.

The setting of the story so far is intriguing. The lovely Shulamite (a picture of Christ’s church) has been abducted by Solomon (a picture of the tempter). She is virtually a prisoner in his pavilion.

The court women (a picture of the world) have been urging her to forsake the shepherd (a picture of Christ) and be joined to Solomon. It hasn’t worked. Her heart has remained steadfast.

In this section of the Song, the Shulamite talks about her beloved, the shepherd. She describes first the day he first called her. She is looking back at how he had originally come to her. The memory is indelibly stamped on her mind:

2:8 “The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.”

Notice that the first thing she remembers about him is his voice. “The voice of my beloved!” And don’t we too remember the voice of our own Great Shepherd when he first called us to Himself?

It may have been a quiet voice, like the “still small voice” that Elijah heard. Or it may have been a voice of warning like thunder. I know some who were startled by the voice of the Lord.

But nevertheless, it was a voice unlike any other. Adam heard that unparalleled voice in the cool of the day walking in the garden. Mary Magdalene heard the voice of authority when that voice called seven demons out of her.

And Lazarus, oh what a voice he must have heard! Jesus’ matchless voice penetrated the frozen horror of the tomb, shattered its silence, and summoned him to come out!

And what a voice we will hear one day! Jesus said, “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:28-29).

The Shulamite remembered first the shepherd’s voice. Then she remembers his vigor:

2:8 (b) “Leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.” The word “he” is emphatic. That means it could be rendered “this very one.” She saw him leaping over mountains, skipping over hills.

In other words, the shepherd was not stopped by impossible obstacles. They all melted before him. And did not Jesus break through obstacles and overcome huge obstacles to reach us in our darkness?

Nothing could hold back the shepherd. He was filled with exuberance and enthusiasm, sweeping aside all hindrances with a joyous bound! He even overcame the obstacle of the cross in order to reach us.

As the old song says:

“Love found a way to redeem my soul,

Love found a way that could make me whole;

Love sent my Lord to the cross of shame,

Love found a way! O praise His holy name!”

After describing him, the Shulamite tells us how she discerns him:

2:9 “My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, he stands behind our wall; He is looking through the windows, gazing through the lattice.”

Listen carefully. True love never forces itself. It reveals itself, but it does not trespass; it woos, but it never coerces. Thus, the shepherd with true sensitivity, as timid as a young deer, peers around the wall and glances in at the window.

Notice, he does not come marching in like Solomon. He doesn’t come where he isn’t invited. The walls and windows suggest man-made obstacles. Likewise, it is man-made barriers that are erected between the soul and the Savior.

The Lord Jesus will never force Himself upon us. He is very careful not to override our will. So much so that He simply shows Himself, and leaves the next move to us. We are going to see that the Shulamite hesitates when she sees him and deeply regrets it.

But the shepherd says something to her before leaving. He had a message for her soul. Even though she had not come running out to him, he wanted to leave some words for her to hide in her heart.

The shepherd’s call was threefold. It appealed to her will, her mind, and her heart. His call beautifully summarizes for us the call of the Lord Jesus to our own lives.

We’ll pick it up next time with the shepherd’s call.

First, his call was volitional, to the will. It was the call to recognize a new Lord:

2:10 “My beloved spoke, and said to me: ‘Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.’”

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