Song of Songs 1:1-4 (ESV)
1 The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's.
The Bride Confesses Her Love
(SHE)
2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!
For your love is better than wine;
3 your anointing oils are fragrant;
your name is oil poured out;
therefore virgins love you.
4 Draw me after you; let us run.
The king has brought me into his chambers.
(OTHERS)
We will exult and rejoice in you;
we will extol your love more than wine;
rightly do they love you.
Isn’t it interesting that a book of the Bible starts out the way this book starts. The Song of Songs, by Solomon is the title, but the first words are spoken by someone else. The ESV has added the “(SHE)” and the “(OTHERS)” commentary to the section - directing our minds and thoughts to better understand the writer’s intent. These are not part of the original text and are added by our modern translators to give us their suggested guide post to understand who is actually speaking. However, they are not part of the original text. Reading the book without these navigation tools might make the average reader confused. However, the writer seems to want the reader to be more engaged with the song that might normally be required. Solomon (the writer) is almost demanding we don’t sit back in idle processing of the book. He demands engagement.
The book begins with a very sensual scene. Solomon’s love (SHE) is speaking and doesn’t use any modesty to start her conversation about and with Solomon. She immediately engages three senses:
1. Touch - “Let him kiss me with kisses of his mouth!”
2. Taste - “For your love is better than wine; ...”.
3. Smell - “... your anointing oils are fragrant; ...”.
The entire book is written to exalt and promote the sensual nature of love. No other book in the Bible is as graphic to the physicality of the love between these two. While the world attempts to capitalize on sensuality for gain and profit, God’s Word exalts the physical nature of sexual encounters as part of the holiness of God’s plan for lovers. There is no embarrassment in the text, but the Song of Songs is probably a hard text to preach in public and has never been a “series” to preach through from a pulpit on Sunday morning of any church.
These two individuals (Solomon and his bride) are madly in love and express this love to each other and apparently in front of someone (OTHERS), openly and without embarrassment. He will later talk of her “breasts” (4:5) and throughout the book she will use poetic language to talk about his body parts and their actual engagement of sexual pleasure (see chapters six, seven and eight).
The point of the book is that God has designed love between couples to be about commitment, compassion and sacrifice, but also about a physical aspect. We are being taught in our society that the outward se metric beauty is to be downplayed and downsized in a relationship. We are being taught to ignore the outside and focus on the inside. But, these two lovebirds are actively engaged in the outward physical side of their love, as much as the internal. God intended the look of one to be attractive to another. God does not downplay the physical aspect of loves engagement, but rather starts an entire book of the Bible out with a kiss on the mouth (which is actually quite graphic). Let us not disallow the physical aspect of the love between a man and a woman. Yes, it should be confined to how it was designed through marriage, but it also is not taboo to talk about and express between each other. To “him” she seems to be a knockout, good looking and sexually attractive woman (which is expresses multiple times). To “her” he seems to be this tower of a man who is not a only strong in appearance but also tender to the touch. This book of the Song of Songs which is Solomon’s, is a Biblical manual on how to express the sensual side of love and how to express the sexual feelings of love. God designed it all, He can speak to it all.
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