Sunday Thoughts: 'Hyperlinks' in the Song of Solomon

I bet you never expected to read a column about Song of Solomon (or Song of Songs). The Song isn’t a book that we discuss much in Bible studies and sermons. On the surface, it’s a poem about the emotional and physical relationship between a man and a woman, but it also serves as an allegory about God’s love for His people.

I think there are a couple of big reasons why we don’t reference it much. It’s easy to snicker at the cultural descriptions of beauty that don’t translate into our modern sensibilities. Also, the sensuality of the poetry makes some of it awkward in a church, small group, or Bible study setting. (I used to joke that after hearing audio Bibles narrated by James Earl Jones and Johnny Cash, somebody should have done a recording of Barry White reading Song of Solomon.)

Beyond the awkwardness of the sensuality and the terms of endearment that don’t make sense to us, the Song of Solomon is rich with things we can learn not only about the relationship between men and women, but also about the relationship between God and His bride, the Church. A recent episode of one of my favorite podcasts, “What in the Word?” discussed the scriptural “hyperlinks” in Song of Solomon.

Host Kirk Miller and his guest, Fellipe do Vale, talked about the significance of both framings of the Song. For starters, marriage (along with the general relationship between men and women) is a key metaphor for the relationship between God and His people.

From Genesis 2, where God creates Adam and Eve and establishes the institution of marriage, to Revelation 19, which describes the marriage supper of the Lamb, marriage is an allegory for the eternal bond between God and His followers. At the end of his treatise about how married couples should treat each other, the Apostle Paul writes, “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:32, ESV).

Song of Solomon also has a companion piece in the book of Hosea. Where the Song is a poem about a man and woman who are passionate for each other, God called the prophet Hosea to marry a constantly straying prostitute and stay faithful to her as an object lesson about Israel’s unfaithfulness toward God.

“In particular, reading Song of Songs side by side with Hosea is a really, really interesting practice,” do Vale said. “And so Jewish interpreters read this as a picture of God's love for Israel and Israel's response to God in love in return.”

Song of Solomon has a special and prominent place in the Jewish liturgical cycle as well.

“Song of Songs is read during Passover every year in Jewish liturgical practice, and so it has taken this role in Jewish interpretation in one of the most significant liturgical moments of the Jewish year; it's the text that summarizes how God loves His people and His people love Him back,” do Vale pointed out.

Early Christians valued the Song as well. The early Church father Origen wrote a commentary on it, and scholars believe that it’s the earliest Christian commentary on a book of the Bible.

Some of the imagery in the Song is meant to lead readers back to other Old Testament stories, and do Vale shared some of those:

Song of Songs 5:1 is a really interesting place to look. In the NIV, it says this, "I have come into my garden..." This is the lover speaking. “My sister, my bride, I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey. I have drunk my wine and my milk."
Already, you have here a sort of explosion of Biblical imagery. We start out with the garden. The song takes place in a garden. Already, we have these allusions back to Genesis, into the Garden of Eden, and to this sort of recalling of this original pair, Adam and Eve, who are meant to inhabit God's place in perfect harmony. So that's one image…
But then we also have repeated mentions of myrrh. We see this in 1:13, here in 5:1. Myrrh is a really interesting thing. Myrrh was used in the temple, right? You can see, I have this written down in the tabernacle in Exodus 30:23. You can see how myrrh is used. Myrrh is the fragrance of the temple. And he talks about the beloved being somebody who is characterized by milk and honey, which, you know, immediately we're hearing echoes of the Promised Land as well.

Some of the imagery in the Song contrasts with later imagery that describes the unfaithfulness of God’s chosen people. “With the beloved, with the woman, we're getting constant descriptions of her… as God's vineyard,” do Vale explained. “I mean, in 1:6, in 1:14, in 7:12, she's referred to as a vineyard, which has allusions to Isaiah 5. Whereas Isaiah 5 talks about God's vineyard being despoiled, here, the vineyard is cared for, sustained, and nurtured.”

Other imagery is less obvious but still significant. The male figure is a shepherd-king, which alludes to David and Jesus. Here’s more from do Vale:

The really powerful one is that she's a temple in this. She's decorated with pomegranates. We just talked about the myrrh. The lilies are a really consistent image that's being displayed or being attributed to the woman. The lilies are in 1 Kings 7:19.
The temple is decorated with lilies, right? And so, you have this woman; if we were trying to pick her out in a lineup, it would be really hard, you know? Because she ends up looking a lot like God's temple by the end of this book.
And on the beloved side, he's called a column of smoke in 3:6, right? Giving Exodus vibes…
He’s also described as "The one whom my soul loves," which most commentators see as an allusion to, um, the Shema [Deuteronomy 6:4-9], "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength…"
You kind of take the song all at once, and you're hit with all of this covenantal imagery. I mean, in 6:3, "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine. I am my beloved's, and my beloved... I will be your and you shall be my people," in Jeremiah 32.
Even 5:4, "My beloved thrust his hand through the latch opening. My heart began to pound for him." That language, "My heart began to pound," is the same language that you find in Jeremiah 31:20, which is describing God's love for Ephraim.

There’s so much richness in Song of Solomon that points toward all of the New Testament and even to Jesus, the Messiah. It’s another remarkable example of the beauty and continuity of God’s Word. It’s enough to make you think of the Song as more than just love poems.

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