Day 196. Song of Solomon 5-8

The imagery of the Song of Solomon is likely to seem a bit bizarre to the modern reader—"Your neck is like an ivory tower," the man's voice says at one point (7:4). But as you read along you begin to notice patterns in these elaborate metaphors and similes—an elaborate code is at work. Animals represent passion. Jewels and precious metals suggest dignity and wealth. Mountains evoke majesty and splendor. Food and eating bring to mind other kinds of satisfaction. Images of fruit conjure up notions of fertility and sexual "knowledge." This is quite explicit in a passage like this one: "How fair and pleasant you are, O loved one, delectable maiden! You are stately as a palm tree, and your breasts are like its clusters. I say I will climb the palm tree and lay hold of its branches. O may your breasts be like clusters of the vine, and the scent of your breath like apples, and your kisses like the best wine that goes down smoothly, gliding
over pigs and teeth" (7:6-9). Well, you get the idea.
The climax of the book comes in chapter 8:6 where the bride says—"Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave." In the ancient Near East a seal on a ring or a stone cylinder worn as a bracelet was used to sign documents or to mark property as one's own. To be sealed upon the heart means to be permanently and publicly linked to the other. The Song of Solomon is a hymn in praise of physical love. To those caught up in the ecstasy of being in love it seems that their feelings can and must triumph over everything else—what they are experiencing could never end.
But here physical love transcends itself and rises to the level of the spiritual, and love challenges the power of death and struggles for supremacy over all of human life. We see this struggle played out in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and we as Christian believers proclaim that God in raising Jesus from the dead proved forever the truth that love is indeed strong as death—stronger, in fact. The love of God for his children cannot end with physical dying—it is indestructible. And that love raised Jesus and will raise us as well.
So in a certain way the Song of Solomon is indeed about the love of Christ for the Church, and the love of the Church for the Lord after all.