Song of Solomon, book of Worship

I was challenged by a pastor to pray the Song of Solomon every day until I felt the love of God.  Wherever the bride speaks, I was to say those things to Jesus, and wherever Solomon speaks, I was to imagine Jesus saying those things to me.

As I read, I wondered if there was hidden symbolism in the words, since both husband and wife say very intimate things like, “let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.” (SOS 1:2 NIV)

I started looking up some of the key words in Strong’s Concordance, and I wasn’t disappointed. Translating to Hebrew makes a lot more sense.  For example, let’s take a look at that same verse in Hebrew:

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine. (SOS 1:2 KJV)

 In Hebrew, the word kiss, “nashaq,” means "to fasten up, to attach, to equip with weapons." (Strong 1983).  The definition adds that nashaq is “ident with” nasaq, which means “to catch fire, burn, kindle.”

Some people feel uncomfortable with the amorous language of Song of Solomon.  But as we can see, loving and receiving the love of Jesus is where our power is.

And His love is so much better than wine, which is why, years later, Paul would tell us to "be not drunk with wine... but be filled with the Spirit." (Ephesians 5:18 KJV).  

Let’s look at three words from another passage:

While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof. A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.  My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi. (SOS 1:12-14 KJV)

This passage paints a picture of a King sitting at a table eating while his queen pours out a bottle of spikenard, an expensive and highly valued fragrance.  This is intriguing for a number of reasons.  First, it mirrors the story of Mary, the sister of Lazarus.  While Jesus, the King of kings, was eating His supper, Mary took a pound of that same extravagant, fragrant spikenard, and poured it on His feet:

There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. (John 12:2,3 KJV)

The idea of a King eating is also found in Ezekiel 44:

Then the man brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, the one facing east, and it was shut. The Lord said to me, “This gate is to remain shut. It must not be opened; no one may enter through it. It is to remain shut because the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered through it. The prince himself is the only one who may sit inside the gateway to eat in the presence of the Lord.  (Ezekiel 44:1-3 NIV)

And also in Revelation 3:

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. (Revelation 3:20 NIV)

Is there symbolism here?  I think so . . . the Kingdom of God is within us, but the door, that ancient door of Psalm 24, is tightly shut.  We’re on one side of the door, and Jesus is just on the other side, eating with His Father.  He wants us to open the door and if we do, he’ll come in and we’ll all eat together. 

How do we open that ancient door?

The wife in Song of Solomon seems to know the answer.  She’s outside the dining room, yearning to be with her King who is inside at his table eating.  She wants to be with him, and how does she open the door? 

She starts pouring out her perfume, her spikenard – loving him, adoring him.

Spikenard then, is symbolic of worship – when we start to worship and adore Jesus, the ancient doors open up, and the King of Glory comes in.  

Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is he, this King of glory? The Lord Almighty— he is the King of glory. (Psalm 24:7-10 NIV)

This may be a rabbit hole, but it does make me wonder . . .  When Mary washed Jesus's feet with her hair, is it safe to assume that she walked away with a little street dust in her hair?  I think so.  And if this is so, when we spend time worshiping our King of Glory, we shouldn't be too surprised if we sometimes come away with gold dust (from the streets of gold) in our hair or on our hands.

Looking back at our passage, the next verse says, "A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me." We know that Myrrh was used as a purifier in Bible days.  For example, Queen Ester purified herself with oil of myrrh for 6 months before she could meet with her husband the King.  The bride in Song of Solomon says, “A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me,” and the symbolism is beautifully obvious.  Jesus Himself is our purifier; He’s the one who makes us holy.

In verse 14, the bride says, “My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire.” Camphire is the Hebrew word “kopher,” which means “a cover, a coating, redemption-price, ransom, satisfaction, sum of money, henna (a plant used for making a red dye).”  (Strong 1983)

Jesus, our beloved King of Glory, is our camphire.  His red blood covers us, coats us, redeems us, ransoms us, and satisfies the payment for our sin.

We've only looked at four words from Song of Solomon, that ancient book of Worship, and we've just caught a tiny glimpse of the rich symbolism that it holds. 

And there's so much more... 

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.

While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof. A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.  My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi. (SOS 1: 2,12-14 KJV)

 

 

Reference:

Strong, James. Strongs Exhaustive Concordance: Showing Every Word of the Text of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books, and Every Occurrence of Each Word in Regular Order, Together with Dictionaries of the Hebrew and Greek Words of the Original, with References to the English Words. Baker Book House, 1983.

 

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV  Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.  Used by permission of Zondervan.  All rights reserved worldwide.www.zondervan.com.  The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.