Can you please explain the book of the Song of Solomon in the bible?
Listen: 120.6
This book was written, of course, by Solomon. It is thought that Solomon wrote this book when he was a young man. He wrote the Book of Proverbs in his prime and he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes in his later years. The Song of Solomon is actually a love song. It is sometimes referred to as the Canticles, or the Song of Songs.
In this book there are three main characters mentioned: the groom, the bride, and the daughters of Jerusalem. This book can be thought of as a type of Christ and His bride, the church. The daughters of Jerusalem might represent those who are saved, but are not close to the Lord. These daughters are often a source of discouragement for the bride.
Let’s read Song of Solomon 6:13, “Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may look upon thee. What will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies.” Here, the bride is called a Shulamite, which means ‘perfect or peaceful’. It is actually the feminine form of the name ‘Solomon’. This gives an indication of the oneness between Solomon and his wife. It is also a type of the oneness between Christ and His bride. We read of this in 1 Corinthians 12:12, “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.”
This book is a great love song. Some even have shied away from the book, considering it to be too sensual. While there is not enough time here to give a commentary on this book, I will remark on a couple of verses. This is a short book, with only eight chapters. I encourage you to read this book, and consider it as a representation of Christ and His bride, the church. While this is not the only application of this book, it is a good one that will draw your heart to your bridegroom. The Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 11:2, “For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”
Let’s look at Song of Solomon 2:6, “His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me.” This paints a picture of the bride lying in the arms of her husband. His left hand, being under her head, holds her head as she lies across him. His right hand reaches across to hug his beautiful bride. What a blessed type of the love of Christ for us. He longs for us to rest fully in His strong arms and to hold us close to Himself.
The bride says in Song of Solomon 2:16, “My beloved is mine, and I am his…” Later in the book, she changes the order of this as she realizes the blessedness of being possessed by her loving husband. In Song of Solomon 6:3 she says, “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine…”
Chapter five, is a favorite chapter of mine in the entire Bible. In verse 9, the daughters of Jerusalem ask the bride why she is so love with her husband; what makes him so special. That verse says, “What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? what is thy beloved more than another beloved…?” In verse 10, the bride begins naming all the wonderful characteristics of the groom that have caused her to fall so greatly in love with him. She lists 12 different features about her groom. It seems that after that, she just gives up in trying to name all his qualities and says in verse 16, “…he is altogether lovely…” My dear fellow believer is the Lord Jesus Christ altogether lovely to you? Is He your all in all? Again, I encourage you to read this book and have your heart drawn to the Lord Jesus. (120.6)