Mutual Desire and Respect

Dear DJAN Friends,

We seldom study or preach on the Song of Songs, but it deserves attention as the Bible's only poem of human love. The two young, passionate lovers, whose dialogue is the core of the poem (or, better, collection of poems), delight in each other and the world around them. Our first passage is the voice of the woman, the second is that of the man.

The voice of my beloved! Look, he comes,

leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills.

My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.

Look, there he stands behind our wall,

gazing in at the windows, looking through the lattice.

My beloved speaks and says to me:

Arise my love, my fair one, and come away;

for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. 

How beautiful you are, my love, how very beautiful!

Your eyes are doves behind your veil.

Your hair is like a flock of goats, 

moving down the slopes of Gilead.

Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes

that have come up from the washing, all of which bear twins,

and not one among them is bereaved.

Your lips are like a crimson thread, and your mouth is lovely.

Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate

behind your veil (Song of Songs 2:8-11 and 4:1-3).

Don’t be put off by the unfamiliar metaphors! It isn't hard to imagine, for example, eyes behind a veil, darting like the bobbing head of a dove. The Song of Songs never mentions God, so the church historically has justified this poem’s place in scripture by treating it as an allegory: this is really about the love between Christ and the church. There is nothing in the book, however, to warrant such a reading. To say it plainly, this is a poem about how glorious it is to be in love! It suggests that marriage, sexual intimacy, human pleasure, and the natural world are wondrous parts of creation and, thus, should have a place of honor for people of faith. But the book is also important because it is told from a woman's, not just a man's, point of view. In this way, it emphasizes that romance is a matter of mutual desire, and this is surely an essential corrective to centuries of sexual repression, abuse, and male dominance fostered by the church.

May God grant us understanding and commitment.

—Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon