Sermon Tone Analysis

History of interpretation

Modern commentators seem to only be interested in a literal interpretation of the Song of Solomon.

This is a very relevant and accurate way to approach the book, but it has not always been the way the book was interpreted.

The Jewish people read the Song of Solomon in its entirety in their synagogues as part of Passover.

This isn’t because they feel the passover narrative would be spiced up by some ancient erotic love poetry.

They interpret the book as being an allegory.

For some it was an allegorical redemptive history of Israel.

For some it was an allegory of the Torah and the Jewish people.

for some it was an allegory of God and the Jewish people.

The great Jewish scholar Maimonides went a step further and taught that it was an allegorical love story of God and the individual believer.

The early church Fathers also viewed the book as allegorical, except they viewed it through a New Testament understanding and interpreted it as Christ and the Church.

Perhaps the most influential and comprehensive approach was taken by Origen.

He interpreted the book as having three overlapping and deepening meanings.

The first level was the literal interpretation.

The Second level was Christ and the Church (corporate).

The third level was the Soul and the Word of God.

For thousands of years the Song of Solomon was viewed as an allegorical love story depicting a spiritual journey of intimacy with God.

Not only is there a rich and long history endorsing this method of reading Song of Songs, but it is also helpful in embracing a new paradigm of Bible reading.

Reading the Bible Relationally

Christianity is a religion built upon and driven by a relationship.

We believe that enough to buy pithy bumper stickers and make social media tweets out of it, but do we believe it enough that it has transformed our entire way of living out our faith?

We need it to become more than just a cliche and to grow into a complete paradigm shift

A paradigm is the lens through which we see and interpret the world around us.

The reason two people can see and experience the exact same things but come to such radically different conclusions is because they have radically different paradigms.

We need to pray that God will shift our paradigms and alter our mindsets.

We also need to continually work on actively renewing our minds with the washing of the Word to do our part in cooperating with those prayers.

The paradigm we want is to be able to see our faith from a lens of relationship.

We should yearn for prayer because it is our way of communicating with the lover of our souls.

We should be obedient to God’s law not out of a sense of duty but because of the value we place on our relationship with Him.

Even our Bible study should be done from a paradigm of relationship.

Usually we come to the Bible seeking information, or guidance, or looking for moral answers, or any number of other reasons.

Those aren’t bad reasons but there is a higher paradigm.

We need to come to the Bible from a perspective of relationship.

The Bible is God’s book written to us that we might know and encounter Him.

Its not just about gaining knowledge about Him, but we want to encounter Him.

We want to actually know Him, not just know about Him.

This is actually where Song of Songs begins.

The Song

verse 1 simply introduces the Song as being “The Song of Songs which is Solomon’s”

The superlative “song of songs” is like the phrase “holy of holies”.

It indicates its superiority over all other songs.

If this song is truly more than an exposition on erotic love under Godly confines, but is a song of Christ and His church, or God and His covenant people, or the human soul and the Word of God then it truly is the “Song of Songs”

Song of Solomon 1:2–4 (NIV)

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth—

for your love is more delightful than wine.

Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes;

your name is like perfume poured out.

No wonder the young women love you!

Take me away with you—let us hurry!

Let the king bring me into his chambers.

Passion

Before we even talk about specific verses and their possible meanings, we need to stop and just acknowledge the emotion of these verses.

Remember, it isn’t just about gaining head knowledge.

We are designed to love and yearn for God.

These verses are overflowing with the passion and zeal the bride has for the bridegroom.

The longing to be closer to Him and to go deeper in her relationship with Him.

Our passion and love for God may be the single most important element in our lives and in our relationship with Him.

David was a wreck.

He constantly struggled with doing the right thing in His walk with God.

He was a massive sinner, but he was passionate for God. because of this passion he was quick to repent and to try and put things right.

The Bible says he was a man after God’s own heart.

He wanted one thing above all other things, to love God and to be loved by Him.

Psalm 27:4 (NIV)

One thing I ask from the Lord,

this only do I seek:

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord

all the days of my life,

to gaze on the beauty of the Lord

and to seek him in his temple.

Our problem is often that we are seeking more than that one thing.

We are seeking God and...

We have a heart divided.

Our love for God is more important than anything else.

Its more important than our knowledge of God and even more important than our obedience to God.

Our genuine love for God is what drives us to seek to know Him better and that causes us to desire to be obedient to Him.

God looks at the heart above all else.

You can have excellent doctrine but have a heart that is far from Him and He will say depart from me for I never knew you.

You can follow the moral precepts of God and live a good life, but if your heart is far from Him then you have no place in Him.

Everything in our journey of faith is built upon relationship, and that relationship is built upon our love for Him.

His love for us is perfect and far greater than we could ever imagine or deserve.

It is His love for us that even enables us to love Him.

We can love Him because He first loved us.

But we must submit our hearts and lives to loving Him.

Let Him Kiss me with the kisses of His mouth

This is the primary cry of her heart, To have an intimate encounter with Him.

To be kissed with the kisses of His word.

She knows that an encounter in the love of God is better than anything this world can give her.

When we come to the Word of God we should be seeking an encounter with Him, not just more knowledge.

Karl Barth taught that all true revelation is an encounter with the person of Christ who is the living word of God.

We can read the same words a thousand times, but when we finally read them and encounter Christ in them those words are transformed into something living and active in our souls.

We finally see the precious treasure that had lain hidden before our very eyes all this time just beneath the surface but suddenly as clear as day.

When we pray, we aren’t praying to a distant far off God that we hope might hear us.

We are praying to a very near and present God that dwells within us, around us, and everywhere we could ever go.

He is more real and more present than the person sitting next to you, and he longs to commune with you.

He wants to hear what is in your heart and He wants to share what is in His.

Don’t pray with your heart cold and your mind distracted.

Don’t rely on rote ritual or vain repetition.

Talk to Him like He is really there, because He is!

Don’t settle for empty dry prayer, seek an encounter with the living God.

The shunamite longed for an intimate encounter with her love.