The Bed of Heaven (Song 1:16-17)

When I was a little girl I had a hobby horse, and remember spending countless hours riding and grooming it. Later in life when riding a real horse for the first time, a strong déjà vu feeling of my pretend horse came flooding back. It’s hard to describe, but sitting on the back of the reality, I felt like I had been there before, and it brought an exhilarating, childlike joy to my ride. 

All this came to mind on a certain trip, in which I could not escape an adventurous sense that its moments were once played out in the history of the Bible somewhere. What exactly I did not know, but it felt as if something from the past was merging with the present, forming a new and higher reality.

Hopefully I haven’t lost anyone. It’s actually an experience that, for me, helped unlock something in this next portion of the Song. And maybe even more that I’m not aware of yet.

The Color of The Bed

…Look at you! How beautiful you are, my beloved, and how charming! Our bed is green! Song 1:16

I find it intriguing that when the Shulamite woman meets the King is his “secret garden,” she first sees his beauty, and then immediately a bed. Obviously she saw what he was desiring! ;-) But this was no ordinary bed. The first thing she notices is that it is green.

Green is a color in nature that comes from chlorophyll, and represents a receptiveness to life (in the sun), and the ability to give back life as well (in the form of oxygen). Fresh and new in essence, being “green” can also mean “unripe in experience or judgment.” (as in: “she is green about worldly matters.”) 

It does seem, if “first love” had a color, it would be green. And what a fitting color for the “new bed” of the Spirit! It’s no wonder then, that Jesus fed over 5000 people upon green grass (Mark 6:39). It may seem unnecessary for the writer to say the grass is green, but details are not wasted with God. Including the detail too, that Jesus made the people sit down on the green grass. All those people lounging there, I can’t help but wonder if they had a surreal sense of fulfillment recalling the words of Psalm 23: “He makes us lie down in green pastures!“

The Location of The Bed

…The beams of our houses are cedar, and our rafters of cypress. – Song 1:17

There is something else about this bed that is unique. It appears to be one bed, but found in multiple canopied structures. These houses, (plural¹) the bride says, are made with beams of cedar and rafters of cypress. 

Cedar was a prized wood for its durability and fragrance, and used in sacrifices. Cypress (fir) was also special, and first mentioned in connection to what David’s instruments were made of. ² There is also strong evidence that the Cross was made of a combination of both kinds of wood. ³ But interestingly, these trees were not common to the immediate area of Jerusalem, but imported from the north country. Why did the Shulamite mention them? 

First, it is recorded that Solomon built his home and the Temple of God with both cedar and cypress (1 Kings 5:8-10). Assuming the Shulamite lived at least for awhile in Jerusalem and worshiped in the temple, she would know about this. That being the case, what she was likely seeing in this secret garden were natural and native trees, but in the Spirit she was seeing the supporting structure of the Lord’s temple. 

There is a lesson for us. Whenever we come upon one of these “houses“, we too will sense a familiar green, inviting, and life-giving foundation for intimacy and true worship. (hint, hint!)

The Meaning of the Bed

I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, you may be also… John 14:3

I had a long-distance friend who always signed off with, “I’ll meet you in the garden.” I really like that. Because while it is difficult to bear with the physical distance between the individual “homes” where Christ dwells, there is, if our eyes are open to it, a “green bed” in the true Garden of Eden that is our reality to enjoy.  

Without the corruption of flesh – this bed represents a place of oneness we have in the Spirit by faith.

A bed …what an interesting place! There is union, conception, birth, rest, healing, and then death that all occur in a bed. In ancient times, even eating happened when reclining! 

Isn’t it rich how something as simple as a bed points to our entire life in Christ? Interestingly, it seems like the only thing not done in bed is working. (another hint!)

We are in each others’ hearts,
to live together and to die together…  2 Corinthians 7:3

Check out this cool song:

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² 2 Sam 6:5  /  ³ Isaiah 14:8, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Cross
¹  “Since the two lovers hardly own ‘houses’, plural, commentators taking the word literally are forced to devise ways of interpreting the plural as a singular. The problem dissolves if “houses” is seen as a metaphor of places where the lovers meet. [Also knowing that] the possessive ‘our’ conveys not ownership, but intimacy…” ~Bloch and Bloch

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