Immanuel Church Brentwood
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Immanuel Church Brentwood
Song Of Songs Part 1 - Desire and Grace
Andrew Grey starts the series on the book of Song of Songs. The text is 1v1 - 2v17.
This set of talks was given at Immanuel Church Brentwood’s weekend away at Ashburnham on 19th, 20th and 21st Sept 2025.
So we've all got the Song of Songs open in front of us. We're going to be thinking in this first session about chapters one and two. We're going to listen to the word of God read. So the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's.
SPEAKER_01:Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mind. For your love is better than wine. Your anointing oils are fragrant. Your name is oil poured out. Therefore, virgins love you. Draw me after you. Let us run. The king has brought me into his chambers. We will exalt and rejoice in you. We will extol your love more than wine. Rightly do they love you. I am very dark, but love thee. O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kidar, like the curtains of Sodom. Do not gaze at me because I am dark, because the sun has looked upon me. My mother's sons were angry with me. They made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept. Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where your path where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon. For why should I be like one who fails herself beside the flocks of your companions?
SPEAKER_00:If you do not know, O most beautiful among women, follow in the tracks of the flock, and pasture your young goats beside the shepherds' tents. I compare you, my love, to a mare among Pharaoh's chariots. Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels.
SPEAKER_01:We will make for you ornaments of gold studded with silver. While the king was on his couch, my lord gave forth its fragrance. My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh that lies between my breasts. My beloved is to me a cluster of hella blossoms in the lineards of Elgade.
SPEAKER_00:Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful, your eyes are doves.
SPEAKER_01:Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful. Our couch is green.
SPEAKER_00:The beams of our house are cedar, our rafters are pine.
SPEAKER_01:I am a rose of shallow, a lily of the valleys.
SPEAKER_00:As a lily among brambles, so is my love among the young women.
SPEAKER_01:As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. Sustain me with braces, refresh me with apples, for I am sick with love. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the doors of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases. The voice of my beloved, behold, he comes, leaping over the mountains, winding over the hills. My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, there he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, looking through the latches.
SPEAKER_00:My beloved speaks and says to me, Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away. For behold, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land. The fig tree ripens its figs, and the vines are in blossom, they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away. O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the crannies of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely. Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom.
SPEAKER_01:My beloved is mine, and I am his. He grazes among the lilies. Until the day breeds and the shadows of flee, turn on my beloved, be like a gazelle or a young stag of left mountains.
SPEAKER_00:Well, thanks be to God for his word to us this morning. Let me pray. Father, it is our desire and your encouragement that we should know the height, breadth, depth, full extent of your love for us in Christ Jesus our Lord. Teach us to that end, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Why are the songs that we write and listen to so often about love? We don't usually have songs about being stuck in the daily commutes, or workplace meetings, or cooking dinner, or trying to find a plumber. We spend a lot of time and energy on all of those things. Think about what has filled up your week this week. We don't write songs about such things. We write and we listen to songs about love. And at the heart of the Bible is a song which is about love and about desire. If you wanted the big thing that the song is about in one word, I'd say it is that desire. And it says that it is the song of songs. That is, it is the highest of all songs. Like the holy of holies, is the most holy of all places. But why has God given us this song in his word, the Bible? Now we will answer that as we proceed, and it's a very precious answer. The song, though, it just dives straight in. All of the introduction we get is chapter 1, verse 1, the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's. That is, this song, it is associated with King Solomon. But hopefully, by the time we get to our fourth talk, I'll have persuaded you that it is not written by Solomon, nor is it about Solomon. But that's all the introduction there is, and it just dives straight in. This love song, it just bursts out. And so we're just going to dive straight in. The song it begins and it ends with the voice of a woman. There is a bride who is longing for the love of her husband, or most likely her husband to be. So consider with me, chapter 1, verses 2 to 4, as the bride longs for her husband's love. Transparently, she wants her husband to be. He is deeply desirable. She desires him. She desires his kisses, his love, his loving, his caresses. They are more intoxicating than wine. Even his fragrance, his name, too, his name, his reputation. It is beautiful. Now in the unfolding story of the song, she is not yet speaking to her man. She's speaking about him. She's singing about him. And what she has in mind here, even in these opening verses, well, it's not a cup of tea in a Bible study, is it? In verse 4, draw me after you, carry me off, quickly, let's run. She desires her husband, she desires his love. Now, the desire to be loved, it is a familiar one to us. Whether that is something that we are able to express in a marriage, we're not able to, whether the realm of desire is broadly fulfilling or deeply painful, even when desire misfires in us, it reminds us that we have desire hardwired into us. This is actually hugely relatable. But what's it doing in the Bible? It shows us, or rather, it sings to us in these opening verses that our desire is significant. Our affections matter. Our loving matters. That desire to be loved, to love very intensely, that is how the Lord in his infinite wisdom chose to make us, you know, creatures formed in his image. There is a goodness to desire, it's not a product of the full, it's not a quirk of human evolution, as atheistic scientists claim. It's a good gift of God, and it's rooted in our Trinitarian God and His own eternal and perfect love. So it's not something to be ashamed of, though it is something to be stewarded to the glory of God. And that is why the others join in in verse 4. As we go through the song, you hear three voices. Mainly you hear from the bride and her beloved, but there are also little points where the others pop in. Sometimes they're called the daughters of Jerusalem, and they're a bit like a chorus. They are onlookers, commenting, spectating. Chapter 1, verse 4, they add their own voices, not to berate the woman, you know, pull yourself together, no, but actually to join in singing about how desirable her man is. They are like the voice of community approval. And they actually remind us that even in the privacy of the bedroom, love between a man and a woman is never an entirely private act. But that's not the only reason why the song is in the Bible. The Lord wants us to deeply desire Him. That is why He formed us as He did, with our bodies and our souls, with our affections, that we might love Him, glorify Him, enjoy Him forever. Christian people, we are those loved by Christ, and we are called to love Christ in return. I showed us briefly last night in our introduction how the story of the whole Bible is a love story. Christ is the bridegroom. His people are his bride. And that's not a fiction, it is real, it is most real. And the love with which Jesus loves us and the love which Jesus desires for us to respond to him, that love, that affection, that desire, we are educated in that as we consider in the Song of Songs the love between husband and wife. And that is true for all of us, whether we are married or unmarried, whether we are happy in our life situation, or whether we are unhappy. And overall, the song will lead us from what you might call human marriage, and it does have plenty to say about it, it will lead us up and always to the spiritual marriage that Christians enjoy with the Lord Jesus. And God has connected those things. So down here, if you like, things like sex and marriage, they are never only about sex and marriage. They are always bound up with worship and with the Lord. And the song carries us up, up to Christ. And we will be reminded in the Song of Songs that He is the end of all our longings. So you are made to love and to be loved. This kind of desire which we hear articulated in the song, well, it will find fulfilment only in the loving arms of our Saviour. And even in these opening verses of the Psalms, the woman sings about her bridegroom. Well, did you notice what she says, how she sings? Verse 3, he is anointed. Verse 4, he is a king. Verse 7, he is a shepherd. And by the way, this man is not Solomon. Can't be. Solomon was never a shepherd. But she has an anointed king who is a shepherd. And we know, don't we, that there is someone who is anointed and a king and a shepherd, and we are built to love him. We're built for our desires to terminate on him, our good shepherds. So the song, the song leads us to, sings about the Lord Jesus, his love for us and our love for him. What do you do, though, when the one you love discovers what you are really like? Well, that takes us on to our next verses, where we read most wonderfully how the shepherd loves his Imperfect Bride. Will he really love me? That's what lies behind these next verses. This woman, she says, I'm dark and beautiful, but verse six, I am also scarred by the sun. Can you try and imagine the story behind verse six? She's been misused by her brothers. Where is her father? Should have protected and provided for her. And now she has sun-scorched skin. She says, My own vineyard I have not kept. So the vineyard, as we go through the song, it's a metaphor for her and for her body, which has been neglected and harmed. Don't gaze at me in that way with my imperfections. In verse 7, she turns to her beloved and she speaks directly to him for the first time. She confesses her love. She wants to be alone with him. She doesn't want to be just one in the crowd, sharing him with his companions. But there does seem to be a kind of nervousness there. Do you want me as I actually am? And the words of this good shepherd, and he really is a shepherd, they are most wonderful. And he says, verse 8, you are the most beautiful of women. That is, of all women, you outshine them all. I've got eyes only for you. And he's looking here, he's looking at her face, her cheeks, her neck, and so on. And these are the parts of her body that would have been sunscorched as she was out in the fields, exposed to the sun, and he he praises her beauty. He does not see any imperfection at all. Lovely cheeks, beautiful neck. And maybe there is an application here for husbands, called to an unconditional love. Our wife's appearance. For us, that is beauty, that is its definition. Any weaknesses or sins we are called to love unconditionally. Or a man who wants to marry, will you decide now to love like this? Because that is how our bridegroom loves us. Do you ever wonder about the Lord's love for you? I think we all do, don't we? Do you fear that your sin stains, not sun stains now, but sin stains, mean that his love is perhaps grudging or somehow losable? Maybe especially perhaps because of sins in the arena of sex and relationships. When Christ covenants with us, he binds himself to us in love to sin-stained people. And such ones as us, he faithfully loves and cares and shepherds. And he loves us. He loves his imperfect bride. He loves his imperfect bride. And maybe this is the most shocking of all of the words in the song, words from God, that intense desire is not experienced only in our souls, but also in our Saviour too. He loves, he really loves. And we'll see this articulated in different ways in the song. He sanctifies us, he loves unlovely people, and his love makes us beautiful. The Lord Jesus delights in his bride. And he gives this invitation to the shepherd. He says to his bride, he says, follow the sheep paths. You see that? You want to find me. You want to know my love. If someone didn't know Jesus, where would you go to find Jesus the shepherd? Or verse 8. Follow the tracks of the flock, follow the sheep paths. We would translate that as actually go to church. Follow the sheep. And there you will find the shepherd who loves the unlovely and who makes the unlovely beautiful. And then in the next verses, we hear, we listen in as the couple respond to one another in mutual delight. So chapter 1, verse 12, she imagines her shepherd as a king. And he's lying on a bed, and she has for him the most exotic and expensive oil, nard, or spikenard. And this is a sign and it is a smell of intense desire for him. She loves him, what she gives to him. And if we're Bible people, we will remember another couch on which many centuries later a shepherd king reclined, and a woman who loved him came and poured out Punard because she loved him. John 12, Mark 14. Now, the loving desire of husband and wife, it is not exactly the same as our love for Jesus and Jesus' love for the church. Those two marriages are not identical, but there is enough overlap such that we can rightly say, yes, when I'm in my right mind, I love my Saviour like that. Now, back to the song briefly. In this section, we get this kind of back and forth, this kind of imaginative back and forth. Verse 13, she desires to have him in her arms, bringing his fragrance into her vineyard. He extols her beauty. Verse 16, she sings of their fruitful green couch. And verse 17, it's probably his voice now, he sings of a house with beams and rafters. So they're anticipating a fruitful union. They're going to build a house. Literally, build a house that is a family. And this little section, it finishes with exclusivity. It finishes with exclusivity. Chapter 2, verse 2. As a lily among brambles, so is my love among the young women. So the Shepherd King, he says, all other women, they are like brambles to me. Godly love, covenant love, it is exclusive. One person, never looking elsewhere. So it marrieds, would be married. Fidelity is something we pray for, decide upon, and pursue because this is how Jesus loves. It is exclusive and loyal. That is another reason why Solomon is not the man singing in the song. And I don't think he is the author of the song. 1 Kings 11 tells us terribly he did not love exclusively. But again, we are lifted here from human marriage up to the divine marriage, to the searing and the exclusive love of Jesus and his desire for his people. And when we appreciate his love for that and what that exclusivity means and cost, well, do not we love him in turn? We don't pour out nard upon him, but it is the Christian's desire in our right minds to be close to him, to clasp him to us, to have him consume us. He is my all-in-all. And that kind of love, that is what we were made for. To be loved by and to love our shepherd king. We go on to this last section of the first part of the song, and we hear here of how the shepherd king grants sweet protection and invitation. Remember at the start of the song how the bride told us about her backstory. In the fields, being burned, being scorched under the heat of an unforgiving sun. Now she brings us to a forest. There are many trees in this forest, but really there's only one tree. There is one tree. There are many men, but there is only one man. As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men. So he is that apple tree. He is like a tree of life to her. He provides her with shade, so protection from the scorching heat, just like our Lord Jesus protects us from the fire of God's wrath. He provides her with sweet refreshment. She tastes his good fruit, just like the Lord Jesus gives to us his sweet gifts, grace and righteousness and holiness. And the song goes on, it's in her imagination, or it's a daydream, something like that. And in these next verses, she comes to, well, she comes to her wedding night. We enter the house of wine, this intoxicating experience of being with him. And she finds herself in his arms. Now the song is veiled in how it speaks. I mean, not meant to peel back the veil, but it is clear that this bride is anticipating the joy of union. And it's in this context that she gives a warning. Chapter 2, verse 7. I adjure you, that is, I put you on oath, swear to me, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles of the does of the field, that you do not stir up or awaken love until it pleases. And this warning, it's so important that it comes twice more in the Psalm. That this desire, this intensity, this power, it's so great, it's so dangerous, you must not stir it up until the right time. It presupposes, doesn't it, that there is a right time to stir up such love. It reminds us that desire and its expression, that is God's gift, it's to be stewarded according to God's plan in Scripture. And until that time, well, you don't stir it up, you wait. If you're not married, you wait. And that's the message of the bride to her friends, to the daughters of Jerusalem. And obviously, that's a warning for all Christian people. Desire, sexual union, it belongs only within the covenant of marriage. And that's for all Christian people to take on board. But particularly here, it's addressed to the daughters of Jerusalem. It's a word particularly for girls and for women. They are especially warned. You know, don't believe lies or false promises that draw you towards bodily union outside of the covenant of marriage. Well, then, in the rest of this poem, mainly we hear the voice of the bridegroom, the shepherd king. He speaks and he invites. A wonderful invitation. Verse 10, come away. Verse 13, come away. And then he sings this beautiful song of springtime. There are blossoms to see and turtle doves to hear, and there are blooms to smell, and ripening figs to eat. Here is God's fruitful creation. It cries out to all of our senses that now is the time for fruitful union and the time for love. There is a time for love. And that invitation, yes, we we hear these words of an ancient shepherd calling to his bride, but we also hear the words of our Saviour calling to his bride. Come away, come away, enjoy fellowship with me. And what's at the heart of that fellowship? Well it's this. A question. Do you like the sound of your voice? Do you like the sound of your voice? I hate the sound of my voice. Most people do. As in hate, hopefully hate on the third imagine. Jesus doesn't hate the sound of my voice. Jesus doesn't hate the sound of your voice. In fact, quite the opposite. Verse 14. Let me see your face, let me hear your voice. For your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely. That's what the Lord Jesus says to us. Let me hear your voice. Your voice is sweet. Delights to hear us when we come to him. And whenever a husband or wife says something like verse 16, My beloved is mine, and I am his, we are touching the deepest reality in the universe. A covenant love. If you get up the clock of history and you wind it backwards, backwards and backwards and backwards, and you go back past creation. I guess your kind of time clock goes bing at that point. But what do you find? You find God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit giving themselves to one another in perfect love. You find exhaustive personal relationship. That's how Cornelius Van Til put it. Exhaustive personal relationship. Father, Son, and Spirit giving themselves to one another wholly and lovingly. And that is the reality of covenant, of covenant love, bound together, a mutual giving of oneself. It's at the heart of a faithful marriage. More than that, it is at the heart of the covenant of grace. What is the catchphrase of the covenant all through the Bible? The Lord comes to us. He comes to us and he says, You know, though your sins be scarlet, I will make them white as snow. He says, I give myself to you. I will be your God. You give yourself to me, you will be my people, mutual self-possession. My beloved is mine, and I am his. So, why do we write songs about love? Because we've been hardwired to love, to desire, that we might know the love of God in Christ and love him in return.