Desire Awakened Song of Songs 1:1–2:7 Jeremiah Fyffe LIGHTLY EDITED TRANSCRIPT 1:1 The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s. 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. We will exult and rejoice in you; we will extol your love more than wine; rightly do they love you. 5 I am very dark, but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon. 6 Do not gaze at me because I am dark, because the sun has looked upon me. My mother’s sons were angry with me; they made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept! 7 Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon; for why should I be like one who veils herself beside the flocks of your companions? 8 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. 9 I compare you, my love, to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots. 10 Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels. 11 We will make for you ornaments of gold, studded with silver. 12 While the king was on his couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance. 13 My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh that lies between my breasts. 14 My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of Engedi. 15 Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves. 16 Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful. Our couch is green; 17 the beams of our house are cedar; our rafters are pine. 2:1 I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. 2 As a lily among brambles, so is my love among the young women. 3 As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. 4 He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. 5 Sustain me with raisins; refresh me with apples, for I am sick with love. 6 His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me! 7 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the does of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases. —Song of Songs 1:1–2:7 (ESV) Every week I begin the message the same way: Will you keep your Bibles open with me? This morning, this song is so important to have before us—to hold it in your hands, to have it before your eyes, to have a writing utensil with you, to underline and draw your attention—so that we might go with this song after our time together. We might go with it in our minds, reflecting upon it and considering it in the week to come. The Song of Songs teaches through image, teaches with poetry, and teaches with metaphor. It’s a song about desire—desire and its proper object and its proper time. Through the love of a man and a woman, the book celebrates romantic love and marital delight through longing, pursuit, and union as gifts from God. But the man and the woman are not alone. This is important for us to understand what is even going to happen in this room right now. How are we going to give attention together? The man and the woman aren’t alone. They have family, and they have a watching community there to help guard desire for its proper object and its proper season, even as we are reminded that love is powerful and must not be awakened before its time. The whole of the community is reminded of these things. So I invite the congregation this summer not merely to learn from this song of covenant love, and not to jump too quickly to, “Okay, so what does this mean, though? What’s its application for my life?” I invite you to behold the love of a man and a woman. What’s the instruction? What is the invitation? See. Behold. Delight in the beauty of the love portrayed in this song. And having lingered there, receiving the song on its own terms, according to its own communication of its own message, as the author intended and as the Spirit inspired, surely we will learn to exult in the love of Christ for his church. The Greatest Song The Song of Songs—look at it with me. The first words, the very first verse: “The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s.” The Song of Songs. It means that it’s the greatest song. What does it mean that this is the Song of Songs? The poet uses the same idiom, the same sort of turn of phrase that you hear in “King of kings,” “Lord of lords,” or “vanity of vanities.” It’s a turn of phrase highlighting that this is one among others, but it is the one among others. This is the song of all songs. This song is the highest. It’s the greatest. It is the most beautiful. It’s the most meaningful. It’s the most precious. It is the most powerful. So let’s learn to sing it. If this is the Song of Songs—and personally, I love music—I want to know this song. We’re told that it is “the Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s.” Now, this is a little more complicated than the first part. What does “which is Solomon’s” mean? Does it mean it’s written by Solomon? Does it mean that it’s written about Solomon? Does it mean it’s inspired by the writings of Solomon? Is it written in light of the wisdom of Solomon? You’ll see that the ESV section titles seem to take this to mean that it’s written by and about Solomon. Now that said, though perhaps the song is written by Solomon, or at least in the style of his wisdom literature—and it’s definitely in his style—I actually don’t take the position of the English Standard Version’s section titles that it’s written about Solomon. I will often refer to the song in a more general sense. I don’t take the position for sure that it’s not written by Solomon. Rather, I take the position that it is the Song of Songs, and I’ll refer to it as such. It is at least in the tradition of the wisdom of Solomon. That becomes important because of the next question: Who are the young man and the young woman? That’s an interpretive decision. We aren’t told exactly who they are. We’re told a few things in poetic language that might give us clues and indications as to who they are. But this is important: the song is not biography. It’s not even a fictional novel. It’s not a narrative. This song is a song. Songs are rarely narratives unless you have a singer-songwriter, storyteller sort of thing, and that’s not what’s going on in this song. The song has very little context. It has no real setting of the stage. It just jumps right into the action. It doesn’t walk us through the plot and distinctive narrative development of a novel. It’s a poem. What’s it about? The telling of a story? No. It’s a poem about love, desire, and its lovers. So I do not take this to be a song about two particular individuals we ought to be able to identify in history, because it’s not actually about the two particular individuals. They’re unnamed in the song itself. Rather, I take this song to be about a generalized young woman and her desire for a generalized young man. The details of the poem are less about giving us clues we’re supposed to sort out and triangulate to solve the mystery of who the song is about. Those details are more about giving us vivid images that tell us what love is about. The Greatest Song Is for Everyone The most frequent question I’ve gotten as I’ve shared in personal conversations that we’re going to spend time in the Song of Songs—let me tell you one thing I have not gotten yet: “Oh, that’s so cool. I’m so excited for that.” Every single time I’ve gotten, “Oh, okay. Who’s the song for? Should I come? Should I bring my kids, or should we make other arrangements?” The question is this: Is this greatest song for an exclusive audience? Who is it for? Well, let’s start with the children. We have children in the room. Are you listening, kids? Is this song for you? Because the Song of Songs speaks through images and metaphors, I also will do the same. The song is for you. It is to conjure whatever the images draw to your mind as you pay attention to the words that are there. In doing so, the preaching of the song is appropriate and valuable for every single soul who gathers on the Lord’s Day, if we’ll pay attention to the images as they are given. The goal is not to become more explicit than the text itself. The goal is to pay attention to love as it is presented in Scripture and to remain with the imagery and language of Scripture. The adults in the room will understand the nuances in the poetic language according to their maturity, and the children will hear and understand according to theirs. If a child does understand and asks a question about some bit of imagery, that is likely because he or she has reached an age when such a matter should be addressed between a parent and a child. Thank God for the Scriptures’ labor in bringing us along and teaching us as parents how in the world to parent. The Spirit’s use of image and metaphor is fitting for the whole of the church, serving as a guide that communicates truth and as a guard that communicates the truth with wisdom. Friends, this song is wisdom literature for the whole of the congregation. So it is the greatest song. It is for children and all who are gathered—which brings us to the question: Is it really for everyone? Is there some sensitivity that would cause us to say, “Let’s only pay attention to the Song of Songs, this greatest of songs, in small-group settings where we can be sensitive to the hearing of every single individual in the room”? Although the Song of Songs centers on love between a man and a woman, the book itself repeatedly reminds us that love and marriage are not merely private realities. I want you to remember that almost above anything else you hear this morning: Love and marriage are not merely private realities. The daughters of Jerusalem are present throughout the song as witnesses, learners, guardians, and celebrants of the relationship. The woman’s brothers take an active interest in protecting and preparing her for marriage. The song itself is evidence that love and marriage belong to the whole covenant community. So the song is for you, church. The song is for us. If marriage and love were merely private matters, there would be no song written in a public book, recorded and preserved by the Spirit of God for the whole church. Marriage is a covenant publicly recognized, publicly protected, and publicly celebrated by the whole community. And the New Testament likewise commands the whole church—not just married couples, but the whole church—to honor marriage and keep the marriage bed pure. This is a labor of the whole community together. So the value of the song is not merely practical: “This is a song about love. I am in love; therefore, I . . .” The song is about love that can be seen by everyone as beautiful. Marital love is not only for those who experience it personally, but also for all who would contemplate it. The song doesn’t merely teach principles about love for application. It presents love itself as something worthy of admiration and delight. Over and over, you have the community seeing their love and extolling and exulting in what they see. The entire community is invited to behold, consider, celebrate, and learn from the beauty of covenant love—not simply because it’s useful for their instruction, but because it’s good. It’s lovely. So I want you to think of it this way, really in two ways. First of all, if you’re taking notes, hold on to this: Every person in the community has a role in the song. Much like a wedding, there are flower girls and ring bearers. There are grandmothers and grandfathers. There are brothers and sisters and friends. They stand as witnesses who have aided in preparing the couple for marriage, and in speeches and expressions of their own love, they commit to uphold the couple in their marriage. There are those at the wedding gathering and at the beginning of the marriage with sage wisdom. They often sit in seats of honor and speak godly counsel both to the couple and to all who are gathered. Then you have the whole community, gathered to bear witness to those whom the Lord has brought together and who are expressing and celebrating their love before the watching community. Everyone in the church has a role in the drama presented before us in the song. Secondly, as much as it’s true that everyone has a role to play in the song, the song plays a role in the life of everyone. It seems intangible. It seems mysterious and poetic, and yet it draws the attention of children. I remember reading this song when I was a kid and saying, “I didn’t get that, but I think I’ll read it again.” It reminds young men and young women to guard themselves for love’s appointed season. It has guided those who have grown old in love to remember what love is when it might become tiresome. It affirms the desire and longing of those who have not yet partaken of love’s blessing. It affirms that desire. It instructs family and friends in how they are to guard the young couple for marriage. And it gives every soul in the community an image of transcendent beauty and power. Do you want that image in your mind, by which the soul can be lifted to a love that is eternal? This is how we learn the nature of the loving relationship between Christ and his church. Every person sings the song and learns the song’s role in their life. This one song speaks to all who are gathered. So for those who are unmarried, for those who are widowed or divorced, and for those who otherwise don’t presently experience marital love, the song remains deeply relevant. I think there is a balm in this song for every soul. There’s a cure. Marriage is one of God’s appointed images of a greater reality. The love of husband and wife is not only a good gift in itself for the couple and for the community’s joy. It also points beyond itself to the covenant love of Christ and his people. In our contemplation here, that gospel balm can be applied to every soul. The reader is invited to peer into the song as into a looking glass. As we look into the song and through it, we begin to see another world that’s not in the song, but is seen through the song. We see the loving union of Christ and his church. No matter our age or maturity or station in life, let every believer—the whole of the congregation—rejoice in what the song portrays, knowing that its ultimate fulfillment is not reserved for the married alone. Whatever our earthly circumstances, all who belong to Christ—all who belong to Christ—are destined to know the reality to which marriage points. So contemplate. Reflect. Behold and rejoice. In Christ, every believer will experience more fully than these two lovers in this beautiful song a song of songs of songs—a song of joy and delight and faithfulness and intimacy and covenant devotion that we see through the song. So, to him who has ears, let him hear the Song of Songs. How Do We Understand the Song? Now, how do we understand the song? How are we going to pay attention? How are we going to make sure that we’re seeing well and that our ears are hearing well what is here? It’s a song made of a series of poems. It’s not a narrative. It’s not a “what happened next.” It’s not so much a story about a particular man and a woman. It’s a story of the development and dimensions of love. It’s not about the boy or the girl. It’s about the love they express. How is the song structured to tell us this? This summer we’re going to look at the song in six parts. There are lots of different ways people have tried to make sense of the structure of this song. I think this is a good one—probably the closest we can get to a narrative structure. The song, I would argue, is a song about desire. It is desire for love, a longing and anticipation for love’s fulfillment. We have six phases the song walks through: desire awakened, desire restrained, desire fulfilled, desire threatened, desire contemplated, and, in that contemplation, desire transformed into long-lasting covenant devotion. There’s a lightness, an ethereal nature to the beginning of the song. The song ends strong and full and nuanced. This week, I would encourage you to visit the sermon podcast, look at the notes and that breakdown, and see if you see it there in the text as you read it during the coming week. I would suggest that the song should be understood from two perspectives. The first is the natural meaning of the song. There are lots of ways people have understood this. They’ve understood it to be an allegory. They’ve understood it to be a parable. They’ve understood it to be a narrative about Solomon and one of his seven hundred wives. That’s one of the reasons I’m like, “I’m sorry, this is not about Solomon. I just can’t do it.” All right? I could see Solomon writing something like this, but I can’t see him writing it about something that happened in his life. It has a natural meaning, though. The Song of Songs is a song about desire and its proper object and proper time. It’s a song about the nature, beauty, power, and purpose of covenant love. Love, being good, delightful, and powerful, therefore requires wisdom. So it’s not just a song about desire. It’s a song that has wisdom for the one who desires. The song is wisdom literature. It is like the Proverbs in that it gives counsel to the community about desire’s proper aim and desire’s proper delight. But the wisdom isn’t presented like the Proverbs, where they’re mere teaching instruments. Rather, it’s held out as a song and a series of miniature poems to be held and sung by the one who hears it. With a proverb, you can go to it, read it, come away with its point, and walk away. But with a song, you have to sing it. That’s my hope for the congregation—that we would begin to do that today. This is the natural meaning of the song, but it has a supernatural meaning—what you might call the Christological, the Christ-centered meaning of the song. The vibrant images of love prepare the reader to imagine something even greater than the Song of Songs. We’re not going to move to Christ by abandoning the image of husband and wife. We are not going to pass quickly over the image of husband and wife. Rather, it’s through giving good, proper, natural attention to the delight, desire, pursuit, faithfulness, and union of the lovers that we will learn to see clearly the love of Christ for his church. The image of love will remain alive even as, through that image, we see something even greater. So let’s listen. But let’s not just listen. Let’s listen with the anticipation of delight. Do you desire to hear the song? That’s really the question. Do you have a desire that accompanies the desire of the woman at the beginning—that there would be some fulfillment, some delight, to be found in what the Lord would have us behold? Now, as we turn to the song itself, we do not have time. You’re like, “This is just the introduction?” Yeah. Yeah. We do not have time this morning to exult in the song as it deserves, and we don’t have time to extol all the meaning it contains. My hope is simply to serve you as the church by seeing what is before us in such a way that what we have before us this morning can go home with you, and you’ll have time there to extol its meaning. So let’s follow along closely. Take notes in the margins. Underline evocative words. Write thoughts in the margins, so that personally and as a congregation we would learn the virtue of love and its beauty, and delight in it together. Let’s begin at the beginning. We’re going to go very quickly through it, so pay attention. Let’s do some work together so we can go home with this. Desire in the Eyes of the Woman, the Man, and the Community Iain Duguid is super helpful to me as a commentator. If you’re looking for a commentary, his would be a good one to pick up. You’ll see that I’m sticking pretty closely to the outline he presents. Again, this isn’t narrative. It’s a series of mini-poems, and it begins with a miniature poem. It bursts out of the gates in verse 2 with the longing of an unnamed young woman for an unnamed young man: Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine. —Song of Songs 1:2 I’m like, “Who are you? Who’s even talking? And what in the world?” If you didn’t know this was in the Bible already, you should be shocked. Some of you may have just found out this was in the Bible. But that’s literally the introduction. “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.” That, friends, is desire. Just for the sake of having a nice sermon point title, I’m going to call it “Longing for Love.” No, that’s just straight-up desire. All right? She’s not narrating the events of one day when they were alone together. These words are the expression of a young woman’s desire. She longs for the righteous and holy satisfaction of her heart’s deepest desire. Her heart is set on this young man, and she longs for his kisses. I love that. We know that. We know that. It would be ridiculous not to write that if we were talking about the desire for love. The language is stunning and brilliant. She longs for the welcome of his presence and the smell of his fragrance. Look: “For your love is better than wine; your anointing oils are fragrant.” How could she smell his anointing oils? She was close enough to. A couple of years ago, I got some nice new beard balm and put a bunch of it in my beard. I went over to a neighbor’s house to deliver something, and I might have put too much beard balm in my beard because the person who answered the door was like, “What’s that smell?” She was close to him, and she could smell the fragrance. The senses are brought into her desire for the man, and the reader is welcomed. Friends, you are welcome to engage your imagination with your senses as well. Can you smell the fragrance of the man and the woman’s desire for him? She doesn’t only desire his physical presence. She delights in his character. Here’s how she says it: “Your name is oil poured out; therefore virgins love you.” All the young women know his name. They know when he passes by. They know his accomplishments, deeds, and character. He’s a good man, and she knows it. He’s a good man, and every young woman in the community delights in his goodness. That does not mean there is some great competition for this dude—though the ladies would be dumb not to compete. He’s a good man. Rather, they delight that this good woman has found this good man. They delight in his name. What does she desire? What does she long for? I want you to remember this one for later. She desires to be taken away. “Draw me after you; let us run.” There’s strength in that verb in Hebrew. Draw me after you. Take me away with you. “The king has brought me into his chambers.” What does she desire? She desires to be taken away. When she thinks of him, she imagines him as a king who would take her into his household as his own. He is her king, and she wants to be his queen. I mean, this is normal stuff. Nothing is shocking quite yet. The community agrees in verse 4: “We will exult and rejoice in you; we will extol your love more than wine; rightly do they love you.” These words are an interruption of the girl’s expression of desire. The community can see her desire, and the poet gives voice to what the community sees. What do they exult and rejoice in about her? What are they rejoicing in? Just how good her character is? Just how prepared she is for marriage? No, they love her desire. They see her bouncing around, dreaming of this boy, and they’re like, “I like that. I’m going to sing of their love.” They love her desire. Her love is good. There will be much talk about the finest of wines, much talk about what comes from the vineyard. Many songs are written about wine, but far more songs extol the beauty of love. And the community agrees: Rightly! The desire and the love are right, and the whole community commends their righteousness. Man, I just wonder if one of the things that could happen with this song is that we would ask: Do we commend love enough? Do we extol the beauties of desire enough? There is a little drama right away. Verse 5 says, “I am very dark, but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem.” There’s an uncertainty she begins to express and a request she begins to make. She is dark, but lovely. Why is she dark? She has labored in the fields. She says so in verse 6: “Do not gaze at me because I am dark, because the sun has looked upon me. My mother’s sons were angry with me; they made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept!” She has become sunburned. She expresses her insecurity. She’s lovely, but she doesn’t fit the present social norm for beauty. I think that’s an important phrase for understanding the poetry being expressed here. She doesn’t fit the current social norm for beauty. The most beautiful and pursued women in the community would be sheltered in their dwellings during the heat of the day. But she was out in the field, working like a common person. Will the one she desires with her deepest longing desire her beauty? Or will he simply take the social norm as his standard for beauty? Will he hold her up to that standard and set her aside? Or will he see that she is genuinely lovely in spite of the social norms? Having expressed her uncertainty, she turns to her desire in verse 7: “Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon; for why should I be like one who veils herself beside the flocks of your companions?” She wants to know where he is so she can go out and be with him. She’s uncertain. She’s unsure. She’s insecure, and she just wants to have that love affirmed. If she could go to him, surely she would be assured of his love for her. The answer comes in the form of another poem. We have a little mini-poem in verses 5–7 and another in verse 8 and following. He answers her in reverse order. Now, here is where I actually don’t find the ESV’s headings—or the headings in many other translations—helpful. They make an interpretive decision by saying that this is Solomon and his bride. I think you could simply say this is a man and a woman. I think that is sufficient. I find the interpretation unnecessary, even if it is Solomon. She has expressed her uncertainty and her desire to go and be with him. How does the man answer her? He answers in reverse order, saying, “If you do not know, O most beautiful among women, follow in the tracks of the flock.” If you just look where the animals went, I’m a shepherd, and you’ll find me. By the way, the fact that he’s talking about shepherding flocks in the fields is one of the reasons why—sorry—Solomon never did that. I mean, his dad did before he was king, but Solomon was never running down sheep in fields. He says, “If you can find the animals, you’ll find me beside the shepherds’ tents.” Then, having told her how to come and be with him, he goes back to her first concern—her insecurity: I compare you, my love, to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots. Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels. —Song of Songs 1:9–10 Your cheeks—you know, the ones that have become dark in the sun as you’ve worked in the vineyards? Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments. Your neck is lovely with strings of jewels. Don’t hide them. Put on ornaments that help people see them, because I think they’re beautiful, he says. It’s an invitation to come. He wants her to come because he wants to see her, because he loves her. He doesn’t compare her to any standard of beauty among women. He sees in her the strength and grace of God’s created order. She is right to be adorned with ornaments that draw attention to her beauty. And the community agrees: “We will make for you ornaments of gold, studded with silver.” We agree. She’s comparing herself to all of us, but we’re saying, “Give that lady stuff that draws attention to what she looks like. Who cares about the rules and orders and social norms? She’s beautiful, and everybody knows it.” Are you appreciating the beauty of the song—the love that it holds out? We have to go quickly. We’ve got a little more work to do, but I exhort you to go home and let the song fill your mind. Memorize the little poems and carry them with you. Beholding Mutual Love What we see in the next section, beginning in verse 15, is the beholding of mutual love. The lover, the man, says: Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves. —Song of Songs 1:15 I’m sorry, I’m an English speaker. I’m living in 2026. I’m not up with some of the metaphors. So it’s like he wasn’t sure what to say. That’s what it sounds like to me. I’m sure it’s far more meaningful poetry than that, but I feel like he’s just stumbling over himself: “Behold, you’re beautiful, my love. Behold, you’re beautiful. Your eyes are doves. All right, that’ll work.” It clearly has something more meaningful than what I’m getting from it. The point is, it’s staccato. It’s punchy. It’s love stated with short, staccato metaphors—an exchange of statements with love’s affirmation. It’s not a long soliloquy expounding all the beauties of love. Just: “Your eyes are doves.” She responds the same way: “Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful. Our couch is green; the beams of our house are cedar; our rafters are pine.” There is a young, vibrant youthfulness to their love. “I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.” “As a lily among brambles, so is my love among the young women,” he says. And she says, “As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, that’s what you are. So is my beloved among the young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.” Punchy, short, poetic sentences. Love’s delight. It’s not narration. It’s the expression of desire and delight between a young man and a young woman. The fact that it’s not narration is important for the next section, verses 4–6: He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. Sustain me with raisins; refresh me with apples, for I am sick with love. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me! —Song of Songs 2:4–6 “He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.” Memorize that, friends. Everyone. That’s for the whole congregation. That’s excellent. That is good for our minds. If Scripture tells us our minds ought to be filled with whatever is excellent, that’s excellent. That’s beautiful. That should fill our minds. Friends, this isn’t narration. It is to be taken as a poetic statement of the woman’s anticipation. She longs. She desires. She longs for that love’s fulfillment. She anticipates love’s consummation. What’s the point so far? That we would see the brilliance of the young woman’s desire for the man. I think that’s pretty much the whole of what has happened to this point: that we would witness with the community how he affirms her, how he longs for her to come to him, and how they long to share in love’s delight. The imagery is bright. It’s alive. It’s desire in full bloom, which is righteous and good. A Warning It’s a demonstration of the wisdom of the poem that the woman then turns to this. Look at verse 7. It’s an interruption. We close with this: I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the does of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases. —Song of Songs 2:7 All this time, all this vivid imagery, all this conjuring of images of desire and delight and consummation—and she says, “Do not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.” I adjure you. It’s a solemn warning made with the greatest awareness of the power of love’s desire. If we don’t read the first part—if we don’t pay attention to the first part—we will not understand the seriousness. If we don’t behold the beauty, power, and consuming nature of this woman’s good desire for this man, and his longing for her to come to him, we will not understand how serious and powerful it is that love not be awakened until its proper time. We are told that she adjures them “by the gazelles or the does of the field”—the natural imagery of fertility in the fields. But here’s something interesting. This is where I want to learn Hebrew just so I can know this song. The Hebrew for “gazelles” sounds like “Lord of hosts,” and the phrase for “does of the field” sounds something like “God Almighty.” There’s poetry here. It says “gazelles” and “does,” but there is a poetry that adjures, that calls with firm attention, by all things natural and all things divine: Do not stir up or awaken love until it pleases. What does that mean? Friends, this is important, especially if we’re going to spend six weeks in this. I mean, it’s summer. We’re going to spend six weeks talking about desire and love and delight and rejoicing in that delight. Love has a proper object. Love has a proper season. And love has a proper expression. Every other object, season, or expression is dangerous, says wisdom, when it deals with something powerful and beautiful. The young woman’s desire has been the primary subject of the song thus far, and there is a warning even in the strength and expression of her righteous, good, single-minded delight in this one young man. There is a warning of love’s proper object, season, and expression. One commentator says, “Don’t start the process of loving exchange.” That’s such good language—every word. Don’t start the process. It’s a process, and once it’s started, it’s hard to stop. “Don’t start the process of loving exchange until the opportunity and appropriate occasion is present.” If it’s not, remain what the community is: friends in a community together. This is such practical, useful wisdom. Every soul, especially the young, would do well to turn this wisdom over in your mind. But not just the young. The whole community needs to turn over that wisdom. How would you say it? How would you interpret it to someone to whom you would give counsel? The whole congregation needs to hold this, because it’s the purpose of the whole community to apply that wisdom in the lives of the youth around us. Apply Now, in the soul of every believer this morning, I said that we look into the looking glass of this song and see something through it. Consider Jesus, the bridegroom of the church. There’s an image in this chapter that became vivid in my imagination. Do you see the Lord in these images of desire and love? The Lord came to mind often as I pondered the poetry and thought of his beauty. His beauty is not like the beauty of the social norm. Isaiah 53 says: For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. —Isaiah 53:2–3 He had no form. He had no loveliness. You might say he was dark, but lovely. What is his name? Is his name like oil poured out—a fragrant and healing blessing for a bride? Is he who had no form about himself that we should be drawn to him—is he yet lovely? Isaiah continues: Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. . . . But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. —Isaiah 53:4–5 Do you long to be led in paths by one who would bring you peace? One whose name is anointing oil poured out like a balm for the healing of wounds? One who brings his beloved into his house? Do you long to be brought into the chambers of the king? Not the king—the King of kings. This is the Song of Songs of songs that we see through this song. He has borne the sins of many. Even from the place he has gone to prepare for us, he makes intercession for transgressors. To be clothed in the robes of that King, the robes of righteousness. To be adorned with ornaments that draw attention to the features he has given us, when he crafted us in his image and when he remade us in the image of the Son. Christ and his gospel. This song is a celebration and appreciation of love’s desire, but it is also food for faith. Can it nurture you? Can it nourish you? Can it draw you to the balm who is Christ? What is faith? In closing, what is faith? I want you to think on this. If you think of nothing else, think on this: Is not faith the awakening of desire for God? The awakening that says, “Man, I think he’s everything. I think he is the fulfillment of my every delight and the means by which I could come to him. Tell me where you are, and make provision for my coming.” He sees us for who we are, and he pursues his beloved, taking us away to him. We have seen our love, and yet, as in a dream, we long. We wait to come into his house. And on that day, his banner over me is love. Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language. Used by permission. All rights reserved.