Week 5: Song of Songs

I was dreading blogging about Song of Songs since I started this project...but here it is. I have no idea what I'm going to write so it will be interesting to see how this turns out. Song of Songs is a series of poems between King Solomon and his bride. The verses describe intimate feelings towards husband and wife and are also supposed to illustrate God's love for us. I have pulled out a few verses that I remember hearing pastors speak on in the past.

"How fragrant your cologne; your name is like its spreading fragrance. No
wonder all the young women love you!" ~1:3

This verse sounds like something my younger brother (yes Walton, you) would think girls would say about him and his cologne. I have had to wash sweatshirts of mine several times after he's worn them to make it stop smelling like a Hollister model. You smell good Walton and all the young women love you. But the smell of his cologne is not the only thing that the young woman attracted to King Solomon is impressed with or the reason she believes all the young women love him. She said that his name spreads like the fragrance of his cologne. I remember hearing a preacher speak on this verse and referred to the name as King Solomon's reputation. The young woman is much more impressed by the reputation and name that King Solomon has made for himself than by the fact he smells good. Walton and Zack (my other brother) this is the type of fragrance you want to spread and what you want to attract women to you. Lucky for you both you have done an unbelievable job maintaining a great name and reputation for yourself.

"I am the spring crocus blooming on the Sharon
Plain, the lily of the valley. Like a lily among thistles is my darling
among young women. " ~2:1-2

The first sentence is said by the young women describing herself as plain and common and the second verse is said by the young man saying that he thinks she is unique and rare. I just like these two verses because every girl wants to be the exception and seen as different and unique among others. This was even true in the Old Testemant of the Bible. This could also relate to God's love for us. Though we think we are one out of a gazillion people to God and he couldn't possible see us as different or special he still knows the count of every hair on our head and has a unique plan and design specifically for us.

"Place me like a seal over your heart, like a
seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death, its jealousy as enduring
as the grave. Love flashes like fire, the brightest kind of flame.
Many waters cannot quench love, nor can rivers drown it. If a man tried to
buy love with all his wealth, his offer would be utterly scorned."
~8:6-7

These verses explain the unconditional, never ending love that marriage should entail. It states that true love is priceless and can't be quenched.

"Promise me, Oh women of Jerusalem, by the
gazelles and wild deer, not to awaken love until the time if right." ~2:7
and ~3:5

King Solomon and the young woman speak of gazelles and wild deer a lot in this chapter...don't quite understand that! However, I do understand the second part of this verse, which the young woman repeats throughout the chapter. Do not awaken love until the time is right. The first time she says this she means not to fall in love until the time is right. She means not to let emotions and infatuation get the best of you too soon and to wait until the time and the person are right to fall in love. In the second verse she is reffering to waiting until marriage. Throughout the book she constantly refers to the beauty of love and the joy that it brings her and in God's outline and timing for love and marriage I really have to believe that there is so much more joy in his timing than in my own.

And Song of Songs is over and wasn't too painful. The next book....Numbers. This is a long one...good thing I have a vacation this week.

~Kenlyn