Song Of Songs

LOVE THE CHURCH: Lyrics of love. Dave Bish He emerged from the water. In a moment a career was made and countless hearts fluttered across Britain. The approach of Colin Firth’s Mr Darcy from the lake is one of the iconic TV moments of the 1990s.

And he is the king (3:11), Solomon. David’s sson. See Solomon think of great David’s greater son, Jesus. - And he comes for his wedding day! It is hard to read The Song and say it isn’t pointing to Jesus the LORD, King and bridegroom. 3:11 – LOOK ON HIM!

Three thousand years previous, a similar scene: What is that coming up from the wilderness like columns of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all the fragrant powders of a merchant? Behold, it is the litter of Solomon! …Go out, O daughters of Zion, and look upon King Solomon, with the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, on the day of the gladness of his heart. (Song 3:6-7a,11 ESV) This man comes not from a lake but up from the wilderness. 3:6.

Charles Spurgeon recalls his conversion one snowy Sunday, unable to reach his usual church he ended up down a side street sat with a dozen others as a thin man stood to preach, “he was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason that he had little else to say. The text was Isaiah 45v22 “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth”” He explained: “It says, ‘Look.’ Now lookin’ don’t take a deal of pain. It ain’t liftin’ your foot or your finger; it is just, ‘Look.’ Well, a man needn’t go to college to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. A man needn’t be worth a thousand a year to be able to look. Anyone can look; even a child can look. ‘Look unto Me’. . . . “ not to self, comfort or anything else, but to Jesus, to his blood, his cross, his resurrection, his ascension. Having said all he could say the man spotted Spurgeon saying: “Young man, you look very miserable! Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look! Look! Look! You have nothing to do but to look and live.” So too, 3:11 “Look”. Just because we work for UCCF doesn’t means we can stop looking to Jesus. The story of scripture is the story of a great marriage. - We begin in Eden – the man and the woman become one flesh. Certainly teaching about marriage, but Paul

How can we know who he is? There are two ways of telling a story. One is the clunky Dan Brown approach. Something happens then the action stops and up pops Tom Hanks to give a brief lecture to explain things. The other is by language, allusion, location, timings – which is how good stories work, it’s how the Bible works. We see that in Mark’s gospel with the details of the cross explained by reference to ‘darkness’ and the ‘torn curtain’ and ‘Passover’; - Who is the column of smoke in the wilderness? THE LORD! Who led his people in the wilderness. Who comes from the wilderness

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LOVE THE CHURCH: Lyrics of love. Dave Bish says “I am referring to Christ and the church” the ultimately united couple. - A story of love lost as told graphically in Hosea 1-2 and Ezekiel 16. - A story of his love to her, love defined all love excelling. - A story that ends, like all romantic comedies, with a wedding, and the wedding supper of the lamb. - Romeo and Juliet is a great love story but it a romantic tragedy, this is a romantic comedy – it has a happy ending. The story of Christ and the church is no footnote in history, it is the story. There are two broad camps of understanding about The Song. Those who say it is about marriage – as it appears at first reading, and those who say it is about Christ and the church, as I’m going to argue. Of course it is both, but which we give priority really effects how we proceed. Commentator, Tom Gledhill writes: Whilst the New Testament never quotes or alludes to the Song, it is nevertheless true that the Old Testament uses the love and loyalty of the lover-beloved relationship as an illustration of the relationship between God and his people... There is some biblical justification for a moderate [Christ & the church] approach. But the danger of this hermeneutic is that of thinking that the relationship between the believer and God is highly emotional or even erotic. It is far safer to look for spiritual stimulus, encouragement and rebuke concerning the spiritual life in the straight forward and

explicit admonitions of the New Testament. The typological approach also almost inevitably leads to excessive allegorisation..."1. Whichever way you take The Song it’s a helpful warning. Don’t over-read, but don’t under-read either! Where Gledhill is conservative, earlier commentator Matthew Henry, with most others until the last generation or so, says we’ll find doctrines “which are plainly laid down in other scriptures”. Nothing new but rather a poetic voice and richness. Mark Driscoll famously preached through The Song of Songs in one of his first expository series and again in 2008 in his iTunes hit series The Peasant Princess. I like Driscoll and I love that he preaches The Song, but I do disagree with his angle on it – a view also held to varying degrees by John MacArthur and CJ Mahaney too. He reads it plainly as a book about sex and romance .

Driscoll’s key argument is that it’s just too icky if this is about “Jesus and me”, I agree but whilst its true that Jesus gave himself up in love for me, we also know “Jesus gave himself up for the church” – and that a corporate reading is more the norm in Scripture. The bride is not individual believers but the church as a whole. Us not me, our husband not my husband.

1

New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, p215

LOVE THE CHURCH: Lyrics of love. Dave Bish The Song turns the greatest romantic comedy into a musical, or at least offers a soundtrack. PRESS PLAY: Track 1 (1:1-2:7) - Delights - She is intoxicated with love for him (1v2); she deeply desires him, his love better than wine, lovestruck with his poster on her wall. - His aroma is of anointing oils, familiar from Solomon’s temple, the sights and smells of atonement are the flavour of their relationship. - Her soul loves him (Deuteronomy 6v4-7) as God’s people are called to and he is the lover of her soul. He is the great shepherd (1:4&7) of his people. - He bring s her to live with him (1:8) where they can be one flesh under one roof. A roof of cedar, 1:16 + 1 Kings 5:6 like that of Solomon’s temple, the meeting place of God and his people. - She notices his aroma, and he tastes hers. She shares his gospel death and life aroma. She wears nard (John 12:3-7) and myrrh (John 19:39) the oils of his burial. She wears the perfume of the empty tomb. The aroma of death to some, his tomb means life for her (2 Corinthians 2:16). Like the familiar scent of home or a loved one this recurs as the flavour of their romance. She is invited to his table, familiar words: his banner over me is love. Warning! The Song is the tree from which the much caricatured “Jesus is my boyfriend” songs, sung by the

unchurchlike crowds of closed-eyed teenagers, have grown. We can appropriate The Song for the church, to grow a rich Biblical lyricism – where she sings “his banner over me is love” we sing as her members “his banner of over us”. We should tread carefully but the table is laden with fine food for the gospel-loving lyricist. A recurring riff strikes up for the first time: Do “not stir up or awaken love until it pleases” (2:7). Their romance is portrayed as deeply attractive, the song draws us in seriously. Track 2 (2:8-3:5) – Desire. He calls her, she knows his voice. He invites her to come (2:10,12) because (2:8) winter is past, new life comes. No longer ‘always winter and never Christmas’ the new life of salvation’s spring is coming as he lifts the curse. The second half pictures him absent, she seeks him ‘whom my soul loves’, not satisfied until she finds him. In the film Hitch Will Smith’s character begins to discover what love is exclaiming: “I just know want to be miserable. Like, really miserable. Because, hey... if that's what it takes for me to be happy then...” True desire knows this misery and joy and the song displays it. Track 3 (3:6-5:1) – Wedding. Returning to track three we find him arrived with her in chapter 4. With extravagant poetry he speaks of her eyes, her hair, her

LOVE THE CHURCH: Lyrics of love. Dave Bish teeth, her lips, her cheeks, her neck, her breasts; a perfect seven aspects of her body. Not to draw literalistically, but to read literally like poetry. He is, 4v9, captivated with her. But, is she really this beautiful? The puritans get The Song more than anyone – Henry Law said this is the “marvel of marvels” Her past and some of her present isn’t great but The Song asks, will you see her as he does – will you have eyes of faith for the church? She is beautiful as one who carries his aroma (4:14) not in shame; but as a badge of honour. Terry Virgo observes – “the church… is not composed of those who dislike talk about the blood of Jesus.” It’s not naivity but faith – an optimism that goes beyond first appearances (Susan Boyle?) to hear her song. It’s easy to use church in a derogatory way “It’s so churchy” but really it’s a great compliment. So the invite is 4v8, come and see her as he does. Seeing their love we’re invited in to enjoy it.

In the West Wing, President Bartlet finds himself in conflict with Speaker Jeff Haffley in the episode Shutdown 2. In a stunt he walks up to the Capitol building in Washington D.C. and knocks on Haffley’s door. Haffley and his republican colleagues keep the president waiting. They wait to long, coming out to find the President and his staff walking away in the distance. He knocks and though she is drawn to him she prefers to stay in bed until it’s too late. Her unresponsiveness is tantamount to adultery,. She is lukewarm and apathetic to his affections. Finding him gone she confesses her devotion to the one who is altogether desirable, altogether lovely, her song like his of her. The church loves to speak of Christ’s excellence as her heart and mind his turned to him. Jonathan Edwards says: “be endeavoring by all possible ways to inflame [our] desires and to obtain more spiritual pleasures.. endeavor to promote spiritual appetites by laying yourself in the way of allurement… “ Keep looking to Jesus, and catch 5:13 the aroma of myrrh again.

I find myself thinking – if he loves the church like this I want to know that love, to be found in the church and feel this love by the Spirit. To know his love as Ruth experiences the LORD’s love through Boaz. That means being found among God’s people not being alone. I am not his bride, the church is – it is the church whom he loves like this.

Think about ‘Him’ 1:3 He’s the king 1:7 He’s a shepherd 3:6 He’s the LORD 3:6 He smells like he’s dead 3:6 He smells like a High Priest … who else is he going to be but Jesus.

Track 4. The fourth song (5:2-6:1) – Loss 2

The West Wing, season 5, episode 96.

LOVE THE CHURCH: Lyrics of love. Dave Bish Here The Song’s language about Christ is like that of Psalm 45. The writer of Hebrews cites this: “Of the Son he says, ‘Your throne, O God is forever, the sceptre of your righteousness’” (Hebrews 1v8) where, interestingly, the focus is the Son of God and his relationship to a people who must not “give up meeting together”, namely the church. Matthew Henry calls this “the best key” and says we should follow this line of interpretation3: Henry admits It requires some pains to find out… the meaning of the Holy Spirit in the several parts of this book; as [with] David's songs… there are shallows… and there are depths …in which an elephant may swim…” But the effect of this is to find the same truths we find elsewhere portrayed with “a more pleasing power” and with “admirable use to excite pious and devout affections in us”

Christ will exempt himself from his own rule, and not bear with his weak spouse?4 Track 6. (8:5-8:14)- Home Finally, a second approach – they approach together from the wilderness with a love stronger than death, a love more than human marriage, that lasts to the new creation. An inextinguishable love that can’t be drowned with all the water ion the world. This brief overview is designed not entirely to convince you to read the Song as about Christ and the church but to tug on your heart to love the bigger story of Christ and the church. To want to be found in her to know his love for her, and to grow with the church to love him as she does.

Very briefly the last two tracks. Track 5 (6:2-8:4) – Grace His devotion to her should be no surprise, Richard Sibbes says: Weaknesses do not debar us from mercy; rather they incline God to us the more (Psa. 78:39). Mercy is a part of the church's marriage inheritance. Christ betroths her to him `in mercy' (Hos. 2:19). The husband is bound to bear with the wife, as being the `weaker vessel' (1 Pet. 3:7), and shall we think 4 3

Commentary, Matthew Henry

Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed, chapter 8. http://theologynetwork.org/historical-theology/starting-out/the-bruised-

reed.htm