Drunk With Love
Song of Songs 3:6-5:1
David Feddes

 

What is a kiss?

To touch or press with the lips slightly pursed, and then often to part them and to emit a smacking sound. (dictionary.com)

The anatomical juxtaposition of two orbicularis oris muscles in a state of contraction. (Henry Gibbons, Sr., MD)

A way of transferring up to 250 colonies of bacteria. (Bacteriologist Arthur Bryan)

A vulgar practice all too suggestive of cannibalism. (Beijing Workers Daily)

 

What is a kiss?

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine... Your lips drip nectar, my bride; honey and milk are under your tongue... His mouth is most sweet,
and he is altogether desirable. (Song of Songs 1:2; 4:11; 5:16)

 

A royal wedding

What is that coming ...? Behold, it is the litter of Solomon! Around it are sixty mighty men... all of them wearing swords... King Solomon made himself a carriage..., its back of gold, its seat of purple; its interior was inlaid with love by the daughters of Jerusalem. 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. (3:6-11)

 

A royal wedding--
of shepherds

She: Tell me, you whom my soul loves,
 where you pasture your flock.

He: If you do not know,
 O most beautiful among women,
 follow in the tracks of the flock,
 and pasture your young goats
 beside the shepherds' tents. (Song of Songs 1:7-8)

This poem is probably not about Solomon's own love relationship and wedding. It is about the love between a young woman and young man who are shepherds.


Better off than Solomon

If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised. (8:7)

Solomon had a vineyard ... he let out the vineyard to keepers; each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver. My vineyard, my very own, is before me; you, O Solomon, may have the thousand. (8:12)

After 1,000 women Solomon advised: Enjoy life with the wife whom you love. (Eccl 9:9).

 

Beholding beauty

4:1 Behold, you are beautiful, my love,
 behold, you are beautiful!
Your eyes are doves
 behind your veil.
Your hair is like a flock of goats
 leaping down the slopes of Gilead.
2 Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes
 that have come up from the washing,
 all of which bear twins, and not one among them has lost its young. 3 Your lips are like a scarlet thread, and your mouth is lovely.
Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil.
4 Your neck is like the tower of David, built in rows of stone; on it hang a thousand shields,
 all of them shields of warriors. 5 Your two breasts are like two fawns,
 twins of a gazelle,
 that graze among the lilies. 6 Until the day breathes
 and the shadows flee,
 I will go away to the mountain of myrrh
 and the hill of frankincense.
7 You are altogether beautiful, my love;
 there is no flaw in you. 8 Come with me from Lebanon, my bride;
 .... from the peak of Senir and Hermon,
 from the dens of lions,
 from the mountains of leopards.

 

Heart held captive

4:9 You have captivated my heart, my sister, my bride; you have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace. 10 How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your oils than any spice! 11 Your lips drip nectar, my bride; honey and milk are under your tongue; the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.

 

Pure, private paradise

4:12 A garden locked is my sister, my bride,
 a spring locked, a fountain sealed.
13 Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates with all choicest fruits,
 henna with nard,
14 nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon,
 with all trees of frankincense,
 myrrh and aloes, with all choice spices--
15 a garden fountain, a well of living water,
 and flowing streams from Lebanon.

 

Drunk with love

4:16 She: Awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind. Blow upon my garden, let its spices flow. Let my beloved come to his garden, and eat its choicest fruits.

5:1 He: I came to my garden, my sister, my bride, I gathered my myrrh with my spice, I ate my honeycomb with my honey, I drank my wine with my milk.

Blessing: Eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with love!


I compare you, my love, to a mare among Pharaoh's chariots. (1:9)

My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. (2:9)
Turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle or a young
stag on cleft mountains. (2:17)
Make haste, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or
a young stag on the mountains of spices. (8:14)


Nobody else like you

He: As a lily among brambles, so is my love among the young women.

She: As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men. (2:2-3)

 

When love songs hurt

  • Children horrified by opposite sex
  • Youth whose desires are awakening
  • Singles yearning for a mate
  • Fornicators with a littered garden
  • Scarred survivors of abuse
  • Separated and divorced persons
  • Porn user who strays from spouse
  • Spouses in dull, cold marriages
  • Lonely widow(er)

 

How he appears to her

My beloved is radiant and ruddy, distinguished among ten thousand. His head is the finest gold; his locks are wavy, black as a raven. His eyes are like doves beside streams of water,
bathed in milk, sitting beside a full pool. His cheeks are like beds of spices, mounds of sweet-smelling herbs. His lips are lilies, dripping liquid myrrh. His arms are rods of gold, set with jewels. (5:10-13)

 

Altogether desirable

His body is polished ivory, bedecked with sapphires. His legs are alabaster columns, set on bases of gold.
His appearance is like Lebanon,
 choice as the cedars.
His mouth is most sweet,
 and he is altogether desirable.
This is my beloved and this is my friend,
 O daughters of Jerusalem. (5:14-16)

 

Dazzling beauty

Turn your eyes from me; they overwhelm me... Sixty queens there may be, and eighty concubines, and virgins beyond number; but my dove, my perfect one, is unique, the only daughter of her mother, the favorite of the one who bore her. The maidens saw her and called her blessed; the queens and concubines praised her: "Who is this that appears like the dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, majestic as the stars in procession?” (6:5-10)

 

Beautiful from toe to head

How beautiful are your feet... your rounded thighs... your navel... your belly... Your two breasts ... your neck... your eyes... your nose... your head... your flowing locks are like purple; a king is held captive in the tresses. How beautiful and pleasant you are, O loved one, with all your delights! (7:1-6)

 

Desire aroused and satisfied

He: Your stature is like a palm tree, and your breasts are like its clusters. I say I will climb the palm tree and lay hold of its fruit. Oh may your breasts be like clusters of the vine, and the scent of your breath like apples, and your mouth like the best wine.

She: It goes down smoothly for my beloved, gliding over lips and teeth. I am my beloved's, and his desire is for me. (7:7-10)

 

Twice as nice

My beloved speaks and says to me: "Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away, for behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree ripens its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away. (2:10-13)

 

Captivated by true love

Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well. Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares? Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers. May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. A loving doe, a graceful deer--may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be captivated by her love. Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another man's wife? (Proverbs 5:15-20)

 

Well-timed love

I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem... that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases. (2:7, 3:5, 8:4)

Wait for the right person: don't fling yourself at just anybody.

Wait for the right time: keep your passion in check until the wedding banquet

Wait for the right mood: seize special marital moments when both feel passion

 

Public love

The king has brought me into his chambers. (1:4)

He brought me to the house of wine, and his banner over me was love. (2:4)

I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine (6:3).

 

Committed love

My lover is mine and I am his. (2:16).

I am my lover's, and my lover is mine. (6:3).

I belong to my lover, and his desire is for me. (7:10).

 

Fierce love

Set me as a seal upon your heart,
 as a seal upon your arm,
for love is strong as death,
 jealousy is fierce as the grave.

Its flashes are flashes of fire,
 the very flame of the Lord.
Many waters cannot quench love,
 neither can floods drown it.
If a man offered for love
 all the wealth of his house,
 he would be utterly despised. (8:6-7)

 

Realities in Song of Songs

  • Romance is thrilling and delightful.
  • Bodies can be fun and funny.
  • Making love brings fantastic pleasures.
  • The Inventor of all this is amazing.
  • The best garden is kept very private.
  • Marriage unites one man, one woman.
  • Flattery and finance can't buy love.
  • First love should stay aflame.
  • Marriage is a drama and an appetizer.

 

Marriage mystery

Love is strong as death... Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord  (Song of Songs 8:6)

This is a profound mystery--but I am talking about Christ and the church. (Eph 5:32)

As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you. (Isaiah 62:5).

The wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. (Rev 19:7).

 

Last modified: Thursday, August 9, 2018, 9:33 AM