The Song Of Solomon 1.2-4

After the introduction of 1.1, here the book really gets going. The lover speaks passionately about her desire to be loved (2.a). The love she desires is personal, passionate, and rightly held up as better than the fleeting pleasures life has to offer (2.b, cf. Hebrews 11.25). The lover is besotted with the entire person that is her beloved (your name is like…). True love goes way beyond the lust of looks and the appeal of appearances.

Whilst The Song Of Solomon is not primarily a handbook of relationship advice, we will certainly receive counsel on the matter as we move through it. Here is our first piece: all too often in the early stages of a relationship we might see how wonderful someone is – or could become – but nobody else around us does. Here we read that the young women adore the object of the lover’s love, and the maidens agree that this love is worthy of praise in v.4b. Seeking confirmation from believing brothers and sisters is often a wise move.

Love of this nature, the pure and passionate and God-given love between a man and woman, is worthy to be celebrated. Where two people have committed to one another in a monogamous relationship this is honouring to the Divine design for relationships (Genesis 2.18).

I would encourage you today to celebrate this kind of love in your life.

• If you are in a committed relationship that honours God’s plan for partnership then celebrate with your partner. Affirm that your commitment is long-lasting and more than skin-deep (v.3b).
• If you are not in that kind of relationship right now, take the role of the maidens here and affirm another’s relationship with kind words of encouragement.