Tag: Chapter 1
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…
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A Story From Song 1:15 – 2:2
The moment the Shulamite woman dreamed about had finally arrived, that one she waited for, and journeyed at such great risk to experience. King Solomon was standing with her and holding her hands, staring at her adoringly. They exchanged some words of praise at their appearance to each other, skipping small talk entirely. Neither one were much for small talk.
Then she saw it! Like a door into another world …
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Blossoms are appearing! The season of songbirds has come, and the cooing of doves is being heard in the land. Song 2:12
My family used to raise doves, and sell the babies to pet stores. It was fairly easy, since they mated for life. And mated a lot! In fact, that is one of the unique things above doves. When our doves weren’t eating or sleeping, they were preening and loving on each other. The male constantly did a courtship dance, too. “Coo-Coo-Wah,” (with head bow) and he’d repeat it over and over until his female was finally receptive to him…
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The Shulamite woman quietly enters a room, where King Solomon is seated at his “round table.” Busily talking to his men and looking at charts, he doesn’t see her behind him. But soon he lifts his nose to the air and closes his eyes…obviously catching a waft of her perfumed presence! This delights the Shulamite, and she sings, (which only she hears, as this is like an opera) “While the king is around his table, my spikenard spreads its fragrance!” verse 12.
Solomon returns to looking at his papers, but there’s a boyish smile on his face. We know that he knows, that his lover is in the room. The Shulamite, however…
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I treasure my collection of books and studies about the Song of Songs. They are like little gardens to stroll through; sometimes discovering in one of them a fragrant flower that smells of Christ, or in another, a healing herb. Most have something to offer, even if they have a few “weeds” here and there. :-)
There is one book that I especially like, from a devotional standpoint particularly. It is, well, “different.”
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In a discussion of differences between men and women, I once heard a comical depiction of men and a “cave” that they sometimes emotionally and mentally retreat into. There is apparently nothing in this cave, which is exactly how they like it, and a women especially isn’t allowed, (although they try) because if she did get in, she would take one look around and begin decorating it with pictures, rugs, and curtains! :-)
Women generally do love to decorate, whether it’s their homes, their men, or themselves. I used to think it was a natural feminine trait, but I’m rethinking this, knowing more than ever that deep in the heart of the woman, i.e. the Bride of Christ, there is a desire more powerful than to decorate. It is to be decorated.
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I’m noticing something in my study of the Song of Songs. Translations cannot be fully trusted to give an accurate picture of all that should be conveyed. Some seem to even tamper with the meaning, watering verses down to make them less offensive. I blame religion for this, who is knowingly or unknowingly always coming up with ways to strip the Bride of her association with Christ’s offense — thus making people fit their perfect ideal of “who gets in, and who stays out.” In 1:9 for example, a few versions translate “my mare” as a “company of horses,” when the Hebrew is clearly a female horse, who is among Pharaoh’s horses. But of course this would be a problem for the ancient mind. Often, and for a variety of suggestive details, a comparison of a woman to a mare or filly in poetic literature was a provocative one. In addition to that, horses in general were often associated with a pagan, extravagant lifestyle as well.
But there’s more to it than even this!
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A brief pause here, to share a lesson I learned this week. As it often happens, it’s related to where we are in the Song of Songs. It is:
Telling others too much, too soon.
Doing so may feel good in the moment, but the results do not!
Think about it. Declaring “he brought me into his chambers” (1:4) was a true statement for the Shulamite, but it brought out the immaturity and hidden jealousy of the young women who heard her.
They immediately scanned her for faults. They judged her unworthy of a high calling. And they were closed off from rejoicing with her.
In the next post we’ll look at the stunning way she responded. (Sorry, I don’t mean to keep dangling that!) :-)
But meanwhile I got to thinking…
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