I delight in your deliverance

Well we have finished chapter one of The Song of Songs. I can tell a few things as I look out at the group: They are not a group who easily understands poetry. They are uncomfortable with all this sensual language. They would like a bit more spiritual application. This week I thought I would share some of the applications that we gleaned from the first chapter of the Song.

In 1:2-4 we found that the young woman desired the man physically. This kind of raw attraction is somewhat troubling to some of us because we are aware of Christ's words in Matthew 5:27-30. From those verses we assume that all desire toward physical romance is sin. I feel this would be a wrong assumption. God has placed in us a natural desire toward the opposite sex. Our lack of discipline in the matter leads us into sin, both in the mind and in our actions. Where God-created natural instinct turns into sin is more difficult for me to determine. Where is the line we cross? I will give it some thought and comment later in a future post. However, since the Song makes no moral statements, I too will avoid in so doing.

In addition to her physical attraction, she is attracted to his good character. This can be understood in verse 3 where she praises his name. Like many a smitten person, she probably repeated his name over and over. But it is more that just the sound of his name that moved upon her. In oriental thought, the name of a person speaks of his character. She then is attracted to his character, the person he is on the inside.

Another application we arrived at is found in verses 5-17. Initially we find that the young woman is confident in her physical form. In verse five she refers to herself as "comely" or "desirable." Desirability needs more than self - or to be desirable, you need to be appealing to others. She is confident that her lover will find her physically desirable. We, the reader should be drawn to her confidence. However, this confidence begins to waver as she compares herself to the women of the court. They are probably pale and soft. She is dark and hardened. She begins to lose her confidence when she says in the end of verse 6, "my own vineyard have I not kept." For the remainder of the chapter, as she dialogues with her lover, he focuses his words on her beauty, restoring her confidence. This is a great lesson - A lover should build the other person up. A lover should focus his efforts on lifting his beloved up. The young man in the song does just that.

Craving for spiritual application we took this last idea, of the lover who purposes to build the other up, and applied it to our Savior. When we find ourselves in the presence of our God, we quickly realize that we are not as appealing as first thought. We quickly see our spiritual "figure flaws." However, our Savior is not one to attack and degrade. He does not point at our faults in order to demean and diminish. Rather He lifts us up. As we find ourselves more in His presence we find words of praise similar to the prayer in 1 Samuel 2, where Hannah praises her Lord. Like Hannah we should find our delight and purpose in the fact that God delivers us and raises us up.

-Mark