1:3

1:3 [And she continues] The odor of your ointments is fragrant; your name is like perfume poured out. Therefore do the maidens love you. (AMPLIFIED)

1:3 The syllables of your name murmur like a meadow brook.
    No wonder everyone loves to say your name! (THE MESSAGE)

1:3 How fragrant your cologne, and how pleasing your name! No wonder all the young women love you! (NEW LIVING TRANSLATION)

1:3 Because of the fragrance of your good ointments,
Your name is ointment poured forth;
Therefore the virgins love you. (NEW KING JAMES)

1:3 Your oils have a pleasing fragrance,
Your name is like purified oil;
Therefore the maidens love you. (NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE)

“Your name is ointment poured forth.” The first pressing of the oil was the purest of pure used in the lamp stands in the tabernacle. His purity and character gave a reputation to all the virgins for the type of man he was. His name was his character.

There is something about a man or a woman who smells wonderful. You tend to breathe deeper, in order to draw in more of the fragrance. If you know the person well, or are exceptionally bold, you will go so far as to ask what fragrance they are wearing and where you can find it.

I never really considered the fragrance as being the ‘character’ of the person, but it truly makes sense. Someone can be stunningly attractive, but if their character is warped and dark, it won’t matter at all. There is an aroma that comes when genuinely godly character is displayed.

So what does this mean for us? Should we be concerned about good hygiene or should we focus on the inside? I daresay we should do both.

It is expected of us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. We must be good stewards over the bodies He has given us, and that means maintaining good hygiene. We must also allow Him to shape and mold and guide our characters, so that we may be a pleasing fragrance to Him and to others.

Worship rises as a sweet fragrance to His throne…but not if it is tainted with pride and worldliness. So, our character must be godly, we must strive to be holy as He is holy, and only then can our fragrance of praise and love be pleasant to Him.

When one saves themselves for marriage, they hold to an ideal, to a vision, of what love and intimacy truly is. They would never be drawn to seedy darkness, to tainted flesh and uncleanliness, because they are holding themselves to something higher and more desirable.

Consider this when you read how the ‘maidens are drawn to him’. They are not only drawn to him, but they love him. Would one love a man who is unkempt and surly and foul when one is seeking to fulfill God’s will and purpose and plan in regards to intimacy and marriage? In the days of Biblical times, being a virgin was the rule and sex outside of marriage was the exception. Now it is the opposite. Saving oneself for marriage is not the thing to do any longer.

Think of the taint that comes when one sleeps with many people. Is there a fragrance there, a pull to be with that person, to be the next conquest, the next notch on the bedpost? I daresay no. But there is a great fragrance that draws others to one who waits, who knows the beauty that comes with waiting and presenting oneself as a living sacrifice before the throne of the King.

It is my desire to be fragrant in a world that is full of foul stench. I am reminded of the Bog of Eternal Stench from Labyrinth. Not only did the bog smell horribly and make the most rude noises, but it would stay on you and with you for the rest of your days if you touched even one drop of the stuff.

That is what sin does to our worship and our fragrance. The stench of the world clings to us and we are not pleasing to others or to the Lord. But, thankfully, it is not forever. Jesus Christ cleanses us and removes the stench so that our fragrance can be pleasing to Him and others and even ourselves.

Being the Bride of Christ means being pure and it means being pleasantly pleasing and it means having godly character and being as purified oil, which literally means oil which is emptied from one vessel to another. When we worship, we want our words and praise to be a pleasing fragrance to Him.

Let our voices rise like incense, let them be as sweet perfume. Let our voices fill the temple, hallelujah’s ringing ever new. Holy, holy, is the Lord Almighty. Holy, holy, is the Lord our God.

And that is what verse 3 of Song of Solomon means to me

REFERENCE:

www.horizoncc.com/horizonfiles/pdf/solomon.pdf‎

Lyrics from Petra song, Let Our Voices Rise Like Incense

1:2

1:2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! [she cries. Then, realizing that Solomon has arrived and has heard her speech, she turns to him and adds] For your love is better than wine! (AMPLIFIED)

1:2 Kiss me – full on the mouth! Yes! For your love is better than wine, (THE MESSAGE)

1:2 Kiss me and kiss me again, for your love is sweeter than wine. (NEW LIVING TRANSLATION)

1:2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth – For your love is better than wine. (NEW KING JAMES VERSION)

1:2 Kiss me again and again, for your love is sweeter than wine. (THE BOOK)

You can ask just about everyone when and where their first kiss was and with who and they will remember. But the first kiss of genuine love is remembered deep inside, logged away into some hidden room of one’s heart to be recalled at a moment’s notice with a shadow of the feelings resurfacing. The chills dance upon your flesh, race up and down your spine, you feel like you’re floating while you realize you’ve never been so grounded, you hope it lasts forever while realizing that it must, realistically, come to an end, you tremble and feel as though the world has flipped and you are upside down. You’d give anything to relive that moment.

Agnes de Mille said, “…then I did the simplest thing in the world. I leaned down…and kissed him. And the world cracked open.”

Imagine that intimacy is being offered to us from God. Our desire must be present, of course, a longing for Him because of who He is, not because of what He can or will do for you. Desiring Him because He desires you. What a concept!

Is not a kiss the very autograph of love? – Henry Finck

To kiss, to join the lips in respect, affection, love, passion, amorously, to express a though or feeling by a contact of the lips.

What would one try to communicate through a kiss? Love, surely. Deep affection, delight, concern, comfort, intimacy. It would never have occurred to me at the start of this year that I would be craving deeper intimacy with God and Jesus, that I would be seeking Him and His face, that I would proclaim for Him to “let His words be kisses and His kisses words” (THE MESSAGE Song of Solomon 5:16), that I would genuinely see Him as the Man in my life, the One that would cover me and provide for me in all ways. I never would have thought that contentment would come in the form of Him.

I was like so many others that believed that if they weren’t married by the time they were twenty that there was something horribly wrong with them. I wallowed in the self-pity so common and considered myself ugly, worthless and unloved. How wrong I was!

Not only am I falling deeper in love with God and Jesus, but They are wild for me, madly in love with me! Who would have thought that the One my heart desired and longed for was the One that watched over me, protected me, sang over me, blessed me and spoke to me constantly? Who would have thought that the One I was longing for and drawing nearer to would love me in return with a love so deep that I could never dream of matching it and I will never reach the bottom of?

What a great day it was when I looked into my Beloved’s eyes for the first time and discovered a rich love. I am so satisfied in His arms that no one else will ever do. He is my everything!

So, one finds it hard to imagine a deep love like that coming from God but even harder to imagine returning it. I mean, how can you kiss God? It’s not even possible, is it?

There was a night long ago when I was depressed because all of my ‘friends’ had better things to do than to keep their plans with me. I was laying on a pull out sofa bed at my friends house and I crying. I heard God say, “I love you.”

“I know, God.” I said flippantly.

“No,” He said. “I love you.”

And I felt it and I realized it was true. It was like He had taken my face into His hands and looked into my eyes and told me this so that I could never doubt that He loves me. Really loves me.

Now, it’s a thousand times better today. Not only do I realize that He loves me but I realize that He’s in love with me. I’ve always loved God, as long as I can remember, but this is the first time in my life when I’m falling in love with Him. What a difference!

So, can you kiss God? Can He kiss you?

I read Song of Solomon in frustration the first few days. I have no concept of genuine, deep love. It’s all manipulative in my mind. I’ve never had a boyfriend or anything. Intimacy to me was a horrid thought. Not anymore. So, reading Song of Solomon, I was completely lost. I told God two nights or so after starting that He had to speak to me because I had no clue what He wanted me to get from the Song. That night at church, He pushed the door wide open.

Do you realize how much He loves you? Only when you realize that He loves you so much that words fail to capture its depth will Song of Solomon become vividly real to you. Only then.

As I began studying other translations, I came across The Message and Song of Solomon 5:16:

His words are kisses, his kisses words. Everything about him delights me, thrills me, through and through.

Your words are kisses to God and Jesus and Their words are kisses to you. So I say, indeed, my Beloved, kiss me and kiss me again, for Your love is sweeter than wine!

And that’s not to say that words are the only way for God to kiss us and us to kiss Him. But, He will reveal His desires to you when you are ready and His time is right.

Now onto the wine. I’m not a big wine fan. I searched for days to find the truths about Biblical wine. I am not under the impression that wine in those days was nonalcoholic. I am, however, aware that they contained a great deal less alcohol than the wine today.

Most of my searching was in vain because I couldn’t find what I was looking for. Until today.

Several kinds of wine are mentioned in the Bible. One was a strong, high alcohol drink that quickly caused its drinker to get intoxicated. Another kind of wine, called gleukos, was called new wine, and was very sweet and quickly fermented. This was the wine that the apostles were accused of drinking on Pentecost (Acts 2: 13)

The most common wine in the Bible is a third type which was made from boiling grape juice down to a heavy syrup. This allowed it to be preserved in a day when refrigeration was unknown. The New Testament word for this kind of wine is oinos, and the word simply means “juice of grapes.” This syrup would be reconstituted with water to make a beverage, or was used as a spread on bread and pastries. It was nonalcoholic, or at least nearly so.

Even the strong alcoholic wine made in biblical times was diluted with water as much as twenty-to-one before drinking. if one assumes naturally fermented wine with an alcohol content of eleven percent, the strongest wine normally consumed in Bible times was mixed in a three-to-one water/wine ratio, that wine would have an alcohol content of around 2.75 percent. This is a far cry from the wine commonly sold for consumption today. So the wine of Bible times is not comparable to today’s commonly used undiluted wine.

One must also remember that in many areas of the world, water supplies were contaminated with bacteria. Mixing wine with water actually helped purify the water and made it fit to drink. Most likely this is why Paul advised Timothy to drink some wine; wine also helped to medicate him in a limited way. Many available alternatives today exist so that it is unnecessary to drink alcohol except in the most extreme circumstances. Those who practice total abstinence from alcoholic beverages will never know drunkenness.

TAKEN FROM: http://www.brfwitness.org/WAW/wine.htm

Imagine the sweetness of the wine so therefore saying that His love is sweeter than wine is amazing. Add to that the fact that wine would give one a heady feeling, a relaxed feeling, a content feeling. Most people drink to forget their bad days and failures. His love covers everything and rains down peace, contentment, rest, ease, joy. His love, to me, is sweeter than all things sweet in this world. His love is all I need.

And that, my friends, is what verse 2 of Song of Solomon 1 means to me.

REFERENCE:

http://www.links2love.com/quotes_kissing.htm

1:1

1:1 THE SONG of songs [the most excellent of them all] which is Solomon’s. (AMPLIFIED)

1:1 The Song – best of all songs – Solomon’s song! (THE MESSAGE)

1:1 This is Solomon’s song of songs, more wonderful than any other. (NEW LIVING TRANSLATION)

1:1 The song of songs, which is Solomon’s. (NEW KING JAMES VERSION)

1:1 This is Solomon’s song of songs, more wonderful than any other. (THE BOOK)

King Solomon was known for his wisdom, his wealth and his writings. He became ruler in approximately 967 B.C. and his kingdom extended from the Euphrates River in the north to Egypt in the south. He built the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Almost all knowledge of him is derived from the biblical books of 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles.

Solomon was the son of King David and Bathsheba. Solomon inherited a considerable empire from his father. In Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream and told Solomon to ask Him for what He would give him. Solomon says, “Give Your servant an understanding mind and a hearing heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and bad. For who is able to judge and rule this Your great people?” (1 Kings 3:9)

The Lord was pleased with Solomon’s request since he did not ask for wealth or long life and so God granted him all of these: wisdom, wealth and long life, so long as Solomon followed God in all his ways.

It is said that Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes and Proverbs but it is unsure if he wrote this book or if someone wrote it for a wedding. Most lean toward Solomon being the writer and some have said that Song of Solomon was written when he was still young and subject to the wiles of youth, that Proverbs was written when he was in middling years and that Ecclesiastes was written when he was an old man, bitter and distraught.

1 Kings 4:32 He [Solomon] also originated 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. (AMPLIFIED)

King Solomon wrote 1,005 songs and yet this song is called the song of songs, the greatest of all the wisest king ever to live wrote. That is saying a great deal.

The focus of Song of Solomon is the intense desire and love between the Shulamite and the Beloved. It’s strongest focus for believers today is the intimacy Jesus Christ wants with His bride (the church) and with each individual believer. The deep emotions expressed in Song of Solomon often makes people uncomfortable and so it is often skipped over.

The wonder of God’s love must be realized in order for Song of Solomon to be opened up to you in a clear way. One must realize the depth of His love for them, the true depth, in order for one to completely trust Him and let go of one’s fears. He is nothing like us.

When Jesus loves you, He loves you. His love is complete. He can’t love you anymore than He does right now, though as we grow to know Him, we are fully capable of falling deeper and deeper in love with Him every day…if we let Him in. One must have a revelation of His love in order to fully grasp it’s depth.

Words cannot express the wonder of His love to one that hasn’t had a revelation, a personal touch or experience. In order to be known, His love must be experienced, imparted straight to one’s heart from God. Read Hosea. This is a picture of God’s love for the lost, for the ones that turned away, for He always pursues. Always seeks.

The King is wild for you! A heart needs to be stirred toward Jesus and God and the owner of the heart is the one that stirs it. God and Jesus stirs it as well but as you declare your love, your heart is stirred. Verbally declare your love for God. Jesus came to make us godly and God is love. His word and a love relationship with Him makes your heart strong.

Seek Him in genuine love and discover the depth of His love for you. Only then will the harvest laid out in Song of Solomon be yours for the reaping. And it is a very bountiful harvest of love, peace, strength, worth and joy.

Song of Solomon 8

Song of Solomon 8

1 [LOOKING FORWARD to the shepherd’s arrival, the eager girl pictures their meeting and says] Oh, that you were like my brother, who nursed from the breasts of my mother! If I should find you without, I would kiss you, yes, and none would despise me [for it].

2 I would lead you and bring you into the house of my mother, who would instruct me. I would cause you to drink spiced wine and of the juice of my pomegranates.

3 [Then musingly she added] Oh, that his left hand were under my head and that his right hand embraced me!

4 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you never [again attempt to] stir up or awaken love until it pleases.

5 Who is this who comes up from the wilderness leaning upon her beloved? [And as they sighted the home of her childhood, the bride said] Under the apple tree I awakened you; there your mother gave you birth, there she was in travail and bore you.

6 Set me like a seal upon your heart, like a seal upon your arm; for love is as strong as death, jealousy is as hard and cruel as Sheol (the place of the dead). Its flashes are flashes of fire, a most vehement flame [the very flame of the Lord]!

7 Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man would offer all the goods of his house for love, he would be utterly scorned and despised.

8 [Gathered with her family and the wedding guests in her mother’s cottage, the bride said to her stepbrothers, When I was a little girl, you said] We have a little sister and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day when she is spoken for in marriage?

9 If she is a wall [discreet and womanly], we will build upon her a turret [a dowry] of silver; but if she is a door [bold and flirtatious], we will enclose her with boards of cedar.

10 [Well] I am a wall [with battlements], and my breasts are like the towers of it. Then was I in [the king’s] eyes as one [to be respected and to be allowed] to find peace.

11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon; he let out the vineyard to keepers; everyone was to bring him a thousand pieces of silver for its fruit.

12 You, O Solomon, can have your thousand [pieces of silver], and those who tend the fruit of it two hundred; but my vineyard, which is mine [with all its radiant joy], is before me!

13 O you who dwell in the gardens, your companions have been listening to your voice–now cause me to hear it.

14 [Joyfully the radiant bride turned to him, the one altogether lovely, the chief among ten thousand to her soul, and with unconcealed eagerness to begin her life of sweet companionship with him, she answered] Make haste, my beloved, and come quickly, like a gazelle or a young hart [and take me to our waiting home] upon the mountains of spices!

Amplified Translation taken from http://www.biblegateway.com

CROSS REFERENCES:

Song of Solomon 8:1 : Psalm 143:6*

Song of Solomon 8:3 : Exodus 19:4; Deuteronomy 33:27**

Song of Solomon 8:6 : Deuteronomy 4:24; Isaiah 49:16; 1 Corinthians 10:22***

*I spread forth my hands to You; my soul thirsts after You like a thirsty land [for water]. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

**You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.

The eternal God is your refuge and dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms; He drove the enemy before you and thrust them out, saying, Destroy!

***For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

Behold, I have indelibly imprinted (tattooed a picture of) you on the palm of each of My hands; [O Zion] your walls are continually before Me.

Shall we thus provoke the Lord to jealousy and anger and indignation? Are we stronger than He [that we should defy Him]?

Song of Solomon 7

Song of Solomon 7

1 [THEN HER companions began noticing and commenting on the attractiveness of her person] How beautiful are your feet in sandals, O queenly maiden! Your rounded limbs are like jeweled chains, the work of a master hand.

2 Your body is like a round goblet in which no mixed wine is wanting. Your abdomen is like a heap of wheat set about with lilies.

3 Your two breasts are like two fawns, the twins of a gazelle.

4 Your neck is like a tower of ivory, your eyes like the pools of Heshbon by the gate of Bath-rabbim. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon which looks toward Damascus.

5 Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel, and the hair of your head like purple. [Then seeing the king watching the girl in absorbed admiration, the speaker added] The king is held captive by its tresses.

6 [The king came forward, saying] How fair and how pleasant you are, O love, with your delights!

7 Your stature is like that of a palm tree, and your bosom like its clusters [of dates, declared the king].

8 I resolve that I will climb the palm tree; I will grasp its branches. Let your breasts be like clusters of the grapevine, and the scent of your breath like apples,

9 And your kisses like the best wine–[then the Shulammite interrupted] that goes down smoothly and sweetly for my beloved [shepherd, kisses] gliding over his lips while he sleeps!

10 [She proudly said] I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward me!

11 [She said] Come, my beloved! Let us go forth into the field, let us lodge in the villages.

12 Let us go out early to the vineyards and see whether the vines have budded, whether the grape blossoms have opened, and whether the pomegranates are in bloom. There I will give you my love.

13 The mandrakes give forth fragrance, and over our doors are all manner of choice fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for you, O my beloved!

Amplified Translation taken from http://www.biblegateway.com

CROSS REFERENCES:

Song of Solomon 7:10 : John 10:28*

Song of Solomon 7:11 : Luke 14:33**

*And I give them eternal life, and they shall never lose it or perish throughout the ages. [To all eternity they shall never by any means be destroyed.] And no one is able to snatch them out of My hand.

**So then, any of you who does not forsake (renounce, surrender claim to, give up, say good-bye to) all that he has cannot be My disciple.

Song of Solomon 6

Song of Solomon 6

1 WHERE HAS your beloved gone, O you fairest among women? [Again the ladies showed their interest in the remarkable person whom the Shulammite had championed with such unstinted praise; they too wanted to know him, they insisted.] Where is your beloved hiding himself? For we would seek him with you.

2 [She replied] My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens and to gather lilies.

3 I am my beloved’s [garden] and my beloved is mine! He feeds among the lilies [which grow there].

4 [He said] You are as beautiful as Tirzah [capital of the northern kingdom’s first king], my love, and as comely as Jerusalem, [but you are] as terrible as a bannered host!

5 Turn away your [flashing] eyes from me, for they have overcome me! Your hair is like a flock of goats trailing down from Mount Gilead.

6 Your teeth are like a flock of ewes coming from their washing, of which all are in pairs, and not one of them is missing.

7 Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil.

8 There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and virgins without number;

9 But my dove, my undefiled and perfect one, stands alone [above them all]; she is the only one of her mother, she is the choice one of her who bore her. The daughters saw her and called her blessed and happy, yes, the queens and the concubines, and they praised her.

10 [The ladies asked] Who is this that looks forth like the dawn, fair as the moon, clear and pure as the sun, and terrible as a bannered host?

11 [The Shulammite replied] I went down into the nut orchard [one day] to look at the green plants of the valley, to see whether the grapevine had budded and the pomegranates were in flower.

12 Before I was aware [of what was happening], my desire [to roam about] had brought me into the area of the princes of my people [the king’s retinue].

13 [I began to flee, but they called to me] Return, return, O Shulammite; return, return, that we may look upon you! [I replied] What is there for you to see in the [poor little] Shulammite? [And they answered] As upon a dance before two armies or a dance of Mahanaim.

Amplified Translation taken from http://www.biblegateway.com

CROSS REFERENCES:

Song of Solomon 6:9 : Colossians 2:8, 9*

*See to it that no one carries you off as spoil or makes you yourselves captive by his so-called philosophy and intellectualism and vain deceit (idle fancies and plain nonsense), following human tradition (men’s ideas of the material rather than the spiritual world), just crude notions following the rudimentary and elemental teachings of the universe and disregarding [the teachings of] Christ (the Messiah). For in Him the whole fullness of Deity (the Godhead) continues to dwell in bodily form [giving complete expression of the divine nature].

Song of Solomon 5

Song of Solomon 5

1 I HAVE come into my garden, my sister, my [promised] bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my balsam and spice [from your sweet words I have gathered the richest perfumes and spices]. I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends [feast on, O revelers of the palace; you can never make my lover disloyal to me]! Drink, yes, drink abundantly of love, O precious one [for now I know you are mine, irrevocably mine! With his confident words still thrilling her heart, through the lattice she saw her shepherd turn away and disappear into the night].

2 I went to sleep, but my heart stayed awake. [I dreamed that I heard] the voice of my beloved as he knocked [at the door of my mother’s cottage]. Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my spotless one [he said], for I am wet with the [heavy] night dew; my hair is covered with it.

3 [But weary from a day in the vineyards, I had already sought my rest] I had put off my garment–how could I [again] put it on? I had washed my feet–how could I [again] soil them?

4 My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my heart was moved for him.

5 I rose up to open for my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, and my fingers with liquid [sweet-scented] myrrh, [which he had left] upon the handles of the bolt.

6 I opened for my beloved, but my beloved had turned away and withdrawn himself, and was gone! My soul went forth [to him] when he spoke, but it failed me [and now he was gone]! I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.

7 The watchmen who go about the city found me. They struck me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took my veil and my mantle from me.

8 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him that I am sick from love [simply sick to be with him].

9 What is your beloved more than another beloved, O you fairest among women [taunted the ladies]? What is your beloved more than another beloved, that you should give us such a charge?

10 [She said] My beloved is fair and ruddy, the chief among ten thousand!

11 His head is [as precious as] the finest gold; his locks are curly and bushy and black as a raven.

12 His eyes are like doves beside the water brooks, bathed in milk and fitly set.

13 His cheeks are like a bed of spices or balsam, like banks of sweet herbs yielding fragrance. His lips are like bloodred anemones or lilies distilling liquid [sweet-scented] myrrh.

14 His hands are like rods of gold set with [nails of] beryl or topaz. His body is a figure of bright ivory overlaid with [veins of] sapphires.

15 His legs are like strong and steady pillars of marble set upon bases of fine gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, excellent, stately, and majestic as the cedars.

16 His voice and speech are exceedingly sweet; yes, he is altogether lovely [the whole of him delights and is precious]. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem!

Amplified Translation taken from http://www.biblegateway.com

Song of Solomon 5:3 –

Song of Solomon 5:16 –

CROSS REFERENCES:

Song of Solomon 5:1 : John 16:33*

Song of Solomon 5:2 : Job 11:13-15**

Song of Solomon 5:3 : Isaiah 32:9; Hebrews 3:15***

Song of Solomon 5:8 : Psalm 63:1****

Song of Solomon 5:9 : John 10:26*****

Song of Solomon 5:10 : Psalm 45:2; John 1:14******

Song of Solomon 5:16 : Psalm 92:15; Colossians 1:15*******

*I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]

**If you set your heart aright and stretch out your hands to [God], If you put sin out of your hand and far away from you and let not evil dwell in your tents; Then can you lift up your face to Him without stain [of sin, and unashamed]; yes, you shall be steadfast and secure; you shall not fear.

***Rise up, you women who are at ease! Hear my [Isaiah’s] voice, you confident and careless daughters! Listen to what I am saying!

Then while it is [still] called Today, if you would hear His voice and when you hear it, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion [in the desert, when the people provoked and irritated and embittered God against them].

****O GOD, You are my God, earnestly will I seek You; my inner self thirsts for You, my flesh longs and is faint for You, in a dry and weary land where no water is.

*****But you do not believe and trust and rely on Me because you do not belong to My fold [you are no sheep of Mine].

******You are fairer than the children of men; graciousness is poured upon Your lips; therefore God has blessed You forever.

And the Word (Christ) became flesh (human, incarnate) and tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile) among us; and we [actually] saw His glory (His honor, His majesty), such glory as an only begotten son receives from his father, full of grace (favor, loving-kindness) and truth.

*******[They are living memorials] to show that the Lord is upright and faithful to His promises; He is my Rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

Now] He is the exact likeness of the unseen God [the visible representation of the invisible]; He is the Firstborn of all creation.

Song of Solomon 4

Song of Solomon 4

1 HOW FAIR you are, my love [he said], how very fair! Your eyes behind your veil [remind me] of those of a dove; your hair [makes me think of the black, wavy fleece] of a flock of [the Arabian] goats which one sees trailing down Mount Gilead [beyond the Jordan on the frontiers of the desert].

2 Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes which have come up from the washing, of which all are in pairs, and none is missing among them.

3 Your lips are like a thread of scarlet, and your mouth is lovely. Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil.

4 Your neck is like the tower of David, built for an arsenal, whereon hang a thousand bucklers, all of them shields of warriors.

5 Your two breasts are like two fawns, like twins of a gazelle that feed among the lilies.

6 Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away, [in my thoughts] I will get to the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense [to him whom my soul adores].

7 [He exclaimed] O my love, how beautiful you are! There is no flaw in you!

8 Come away with me from Lebanon, my [promised] bride, come with me from Lebanon. Depart from the top of Amana, from the peak of Senir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.

9 You have ravished my heart and given me courage, my sister, my [promised] bride; you have ravished my heart and given me courage with one look from your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.

10 How beautiful is your love, my sister, my [promised] bride! How much better is your love than wine! And the fragrance of your ointments than all spices!

11 Your lips, O my [promised] bride, drop honey as the honeycomb; honey and milk are under your tongue. And the odor of your garments is like the odor of Lebanon.

12 A garden enclosed and barred is my sister, my [promised] bride–a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

13 Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates or a paradise with precious fruits, henna with spikenard plants,

14 Spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh, and aloes, with all the chief spices.

15 You are a fountain [springing up] in a garden, a well of living waters, and flowing streams from Lebanon.

16 [You have called me a garden, she said] Oh, I pray that the [cold] north wind and the [soft] south wind may blow upon my garden, that its spices may flow out [in abundance for you in whom my soul delights]. Let my beloved come into his garden and eat its choicest fruits.

Amplified Translation taken from http://www.biblegateway.com

Song of Solomon 4:8 – Do I heed Christ when He bids me to come away from the lions’ den of temptation and dwell with Him?

Song of Solomon 4:16 – Am I willing to have the north wind of adversity blow upon me, if it will better fit me for Christ’s presence and companionship?

CROSS REFERENCES:

Song of Solomon 4:7 : John 14:18; Ephesians 5:27*

Song of Solomon 4:8 : 2 Corinthians 11:2, 3**

Song of Solomon 4:10 : John 15:9; Romans 8:35***

Song of Solomon 4:13 : John 15:5; Ephesians 5:9****

Song of Solomon 4:15 : John 4:10; 7:37, 38*****

*I will not leave you as orphans [comfortless, desolate, bereaved, forlorn, helpless]; I will come [back] to you.

That He might present the church to Himself in glorious splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such things [that she might be holy and faultless].

**For I am zealous for you with a godly eagerness and a divine jealousy, for I have betrothed you to one Husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

***I have loved you, [just] as the Father has loved Me; abide in My love [continue in His love with Me].

Who shall ever separate us from Christ’s love? Shall suffering and affliction and tribulation? Or calamity and distress? Or persecution or hunger or destitution or peril or sword?

****I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing.

or the fruit (the effect, the product) of the Light or the Spirit [consists] in every form of kindly goodness, uprightness of heart, and trueness of life.

*****Jesus answered her, If you had only known and had recognized God’s gift and Who this is that is saying to you, Give Me a drink, you would have asked Him [instead] and He would have given you living water.

Now on the final and most important day of the Feast, Jesus stood, and He cried in a loud voice, If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink!

Song of Solomon 3

Song of Solomon 3

1 IN THE night I dreamed that I sought the one whom I love. [She said] I looked for him but could not find him.

2 So I decided to go out into the city, into the streets and broad ways [which are so confusing to a country girl], and seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I could not find him.

3 The watchmen who go about the city found me, to whom I said, Have you seen him whom my soul loves?

4 I had gone but a little way past them when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him and would not let him go until I had brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her who conceived me.

5 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the hinds of the field that you stir not up nor awaken love until it pleases.

6 Who or what is this [she asked] that comes gliding out of the wilderness like stately pillars of smoke perfumed with myrrh, frankincense, and all the fragrant powders of the merchant?

7 [Someone answered] Behold, it is the traveling litter (the bridal car) of Solomon. Sixty mighty men are around it, of the mighty men of Israel.

8 They all handle the sword and are expert in war; every man has his sword upon his thigh, that fear be not excited in the night.

9 King Solomon made himself a car or a palanquin from the [cedar] wood of Lebanon.

10 He made its posts of silver, its back of gold, its seat of purple, the inside of it lovingly and intricately wrought in needlework by the daughters of Jerusalem.

11 Go forth, O you daughters of Zion, and gaze upon King Solomon wearing the crown with which his mother [Bathsheba] crowned him on the day of his wedding, on the day of his gladness of heart.

Amplified Translation taken from http://www.biblegateway.com

Song of Solomon 3:1 : Isaiah 26:9*

Song of Solomon 3:4 : Romans 8:35; 1 Peter 2:25**

*My soul yearns for You [O Lord] in the night, yes, my spirit within me seeks You earnestly; for [only] when Your judgments are in the earth will the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God).

**Who shall ever separate us from Christ’s love? Shall suffering and affliction and tribulation? Or calamity and distress? Or persecution or hunger or destitution or peril or sword?

For you were going astray like [so many] sheep, but now you have come back to the Shepherd and Guardian (the Bishop) of your souls.

Song of Solomon 2

Song of Solomon 2

1 [SHE SAID] I am only a little rose or autumn crocus of the plain of Sharon, or a [humble] lily of the valleys [that grows in deep and difficult places].

2 But Solomon replied, Like the lily among thorns, so are you, my love, among the daughters.

3 Like an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved [shepherd] among the sons [cried the girl]! Under his shadow I delighted to sit, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

4 He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love [for love waved as a protecting and comforting banner over my head when I was near him].

5 Sustain me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am sick with love.

6 [I can feel] his left hand under my head and his right hand embraces me!

7 [He said] I charge you, O you daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the hinds of the field [which are free to follow their own instincts] that you not try to stir up or awaken [my] love until it pleases.

8 [Vividly she pictured it] The voice of my beloved [shepherd]! Behold, he comes, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills.

9 My beloved is like a gazelle or a young hart. Behold, he stands behind the wall of our house, he looks in through the windows, he glances through the lattice.

10 My beloved speaks and says to me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.

11 For, behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone.

12 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing [of birds] has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.

13 The fig tree puts forth and ripens her green figs, and the vines are in blossom and give forth their fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

14 [So I went with him, and when we were climbing the rocky steps up the hillside, my beloved shepherd said to me] O my dove, [while you are here] in the seclusion of the clefts in the solid rock, in the sheltered and secret place of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.

15 [My heart was touched and I fervently sang to him my desire] Take for us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards [of our love], for our vineyards are in blossom.

16 [She said distinctly] My beloved is mine and I am his! He pastures his flocks among the lilies.

17 [Then, longingly addressing her absent shepherd, she cried] Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away, return hastily, O my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young hart as you cover the mountains [which separate us].

Amplified Translation taken from http://www.biblegateway.com

Song of Solomon 2:6 – Do I have a constant sense of my Shepherd’s presence, regardless of my surroundings?

Song of Solomon 2:13 – Do I take time to meet my Good Shepherd each day, letting Him tell me of His love, and cheering His heart with my interest in Him?

Song of Solomon 2:14 – Do I realize that my voice lifted in praise and song is sweet to Him, or do I withhold it?

Song of Solomon 2:15 – What is my greatest concern, the thing about which most of all I want Christ’s help? When He asks to hear my voice, what do I tell Him?

CROSS REFERENCES:

Song of Solomon 2:6 : Deuteronomy 33:27; Matthew 28:20*

Song of Solomon 2:8 : John 10:27**

Song of Solomon 2:16 : Matthew 10:32; Acts 4:12***

*The eternal God is your refuge and dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms; He drove the enemy before you and thrust them out, saying, Destroy!

Teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you all the days (perpetually, uniformly, and on every occasion), to the [very] close and consummation of the age. Amen (so let it be).

**The sheep that are My own hear and are listening to My voice; and I know them, and they follow Me.

***Therefore, everyone who acknowledges Me before men and confesses Me [out of a state of oneness with Me], I will also acknowledge him before My Father Who is in heaven and confess [that I am abiding in] him.

And there is salvation in and through no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by and in which we must be saved.