Please turn with me one last time to the Song of Solomon. The Song of Solomon, chapter 8.
We’ve made it to the end of this beautiful, descriptive, and at times puzzling book. We’ve watched as the poetry describes for us the dance of love between a shepherd king, represented by a fictionalized King Solomon, and his beloved bride.
We’ve been led through the dating or courtship phase, led up to the wedding day with all its glory, moved through marital strife or estrangement, and then into reconciliation, and deepening intimacy in the most recent section.
Last time we discussed desire, that deepest longing that each and every person has to be fully known, fully loved and embraced. That desire for intimacy, not merely of the physical kind, but an intimacy of communion or fellowship.
Each of us, married or single, has within our souls a longing for fellowship, for companionship. A longing for presence, for communication, for acceptance.
And we discussed how, on this side of the fall, with sin and separation in this world, nothing on this earth can fulfill our deepest desire for intimacy. There are things that can hint toward it, that can scratch the surface, but even the best of those experiences, the best of marriages, ultimately falls short of meeting our deepest longing.
And it is in that way that we see this book pointing us toward something greater. Something deeper. Something that this earth and all of its pleasures can never truly fulfill. Indeed, I would argue that this book isn’t merely pointing us toward some THING to come. It’s pointing us toward SOMEONE.
It’s pointing us to a fulfilment of our desires that can only come through perfected communion with our heavenly bridegroom, with Jesus Christ, and to an experience with him for all of eternity, in a heavenly garden, the celestial vineyard, where our love will be perfected, will be secure, where love will be unhindered, unmediated, and unending.
That’s where our text will take us tonight. Let’s begin by reading chapter 8, and seeing how the Holy Spirit, through Solomon, will wrap up this glorious section of poetry. Song of Solomon 8, starting in verse 8:
8 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?
9 If she is a wall,
we will build on her a battlement of silver,
but if she is a door,
we will enclose her with boards of cedar.She
10 I was a wall,
and my breasts were like towers;
then I was in his eyes
as one who finds peace.11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;
he let out the vineyard to keepers;
each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.
12 My vineyard, my very own, is before me;
you, O Solomon, may have the thousand,
and the keepers of the fruit two hundred.He
13 O you who dwell in the gardens,
with companions listening for your voice;
let me hear it.She
14 Make haste, my beloved,
and be like a gazelle
or a young stag
on the mountains of spices.
PRAYER
Let’s begin by looking at verses 8-10, and seeing how the author discusses the importance of purity.The importance of purity. Verse 8:
8 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?
9 If she is a wall,
we will build on her a battlement of silver,
but if she is a door,
we will enclose her with boards of cedar.
We have in this text language from a fictional group of brothers. They were first introduced in chapter 1, and they weren’t seen positively. If you will recall, they were angry with the young woman, and made her work in their fields.
But what exactly are they doing in this text? Why are they brought back into the narrative?
There are two main ways that scholars have interpreted this text. They are different in the finer points of the interpretation, but they both land with a similar emphasis and application.
A first interpretation is that this section is emphasizing the value and necessity of purity. The brothers have a young sister, who has no breasts, meaning she is before the age of puberty, before the age of marriage. And they are asking, “what shall we do when she is spoken for?” That is, what shall they do when, in the future, a suitor comes knocking, seeking the hand of their younger sister in marriage?
This interpretation says that the brothers conclude on two possible courses of action, each dependent upon the girl’s behavior. If she is a wall, that is, if she is chaste and modest in her behavior, not promiscuous with other men, then the brothers will build on her a battlement of silver. They will adorn her with silver, enhancing her wisdom, and beauty, and chastity.
But, if she is a door, if she is unchaste and immoral in her behavior, opening to whomever comes knocking, then they will protect her with boards of cedar. They will do whatever is necessary to help her protect her purity.
This interpretation puts a positive “angle on the brother’s concern for their young sister: certainly families ought to have such care for and interest in the sexual well-being of their younger members.”[1]
That’s the first interpretation, and it has some merit to it.[2]
However, the second option is sees things differently. It doubts the previous interpretation for several reasons. For example, doors can be both open and closed, so calling her a door doesn’t mean that she is necessarily unchaste.
Second, the adornment of battlements of silver and boards of cedar, are language of enhancing the strength of defenses, like the walls of a castle or a city.
Instead, this second interpretation sees things like this: The thought of the brothers “seems to be that even though right now the woman might be as flat-chested as a wall or a door, with a little suitable decoration (like battlements of silver or adornments of cedar), she could perhaps still be turned into a marketable commodity.
Don’t miss the connection with the previous verse, which speaks [mockingly] about the purchase of love (Song 8:7), and the negative role that silver plays in the following poem about Solomon’s vineyard (v. 11).
The brothers are treating the woman in exactly the same way that the suitor of verse 7 would: as an object to be made presentable to the highest bidder, no matter what her thoughts and feelings on the subject are. On that day, she will be “spoken for” (v. 8), rather than having any voice of her own.”
So rather than interpretation 1, which puts the brothers’ concern in a positive light, the second interpretation puts their concern as more self-interested, seeking to make her and her beauty, and therefore her potential dowry or bride price, as their primary concern.
I tend to lean toward the second interpretation, even though they both end up in largely the same place, emphasizing wisdom and purity and chastity.
The woman in verse 10 pushes back against the efforts of her brothers.
She
10 I was a wall,
and my breasts were like towers;
then I was in his eyes
as one who finds peace.
She declares that she is a wall, but not flat at all. Rather her breasts are like towers. In other words, she picks up “both potential meanings of the metaphor and transforms them to make an entirely different point. She is not flat-chested and immature like an ordinary wall. Rather, her “wall” already has prominent towers.
She doesn’t need the brothers’ adornment to make her attractive. God has given her all the assets that she needs.
Yet at the same time, the military and defensive nature of these metaphors highlights the fact that she has not been promiscuous with her natural advantages. She has not stirred up love before it pleased. She has carefully protected her virginity until the time was right.”[3]
Indeed, she didn’t need her brothers’ help in finding her beloved. She didn’t need their schemes to find a suitor. She has found her “beloved without their assistance and surrenders to him, becoming for him the one who… finds peace.”[4]
In the arms of her beloved, she finds peace. That word is shalom. It doesn’t merely mean the absence of hostilities, but rather a more holistic sense of wholeness, and well-being. And the word shalom is derived from the same word as the name of her beloved, Solomon. You can hear the similarities in the pronunciation.
So, the passage here, regardless of which interpretation you take, lands you in a similar place. Solomon is concluding and summarizing his book by emphasizing the value and necessity of purity, of chastity, and then links that wise behavior with shalom, with peace and wholeness.
The application is clear enough. Within the realm of romantic relationships, purity is a prime concern. Wisdom dictates that abstaining from sexual impurity must be a constant focus.
The book of Proverbs, for example, written by the same author as this book, has purity as a major theme. Wisdom and folly are pictured as two women, each competing for the attention of young men, even though the application certainly isn’t only to men.
Wisdom and folly both call out in the streets. Wisdom is standing beside the crossroads, pleading in Proverbs 8 for young men to come to her to find prudence. She teaches what is right and true. Her words are more valuable than riches and gold, even most fine gold.
But she is contrasted with crass lady Folly, who in chapter 7 calls out to the simple and the young, the men lacking sense. She’s dressed as a prostitute, calling out to and lures in the fools. She seizes them, the text says, kisses them, lies to them, entices them with all manner of sensual treats, promises love and security.
But the tragedy of the scene is that the young men are described as trapped, ensnared like an animal, and they do not know that it will cost them their lives. Her path leads to death.
Proverbs 7:26 says, “Many a victim she has laid low, and all her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is the way to sheol (the grave), going down to the chambers of death.”
For lack of wisdom and purity, many millions and millions of men and women have been led to the chambers of death.
Proverbs 5 emphasizes the same:
“Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman
and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?
21 For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord,
and he ponders all his paths.
22 The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him,
and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.
23 He dies for lack of discipline,
and because of his great folly he is led astray.”
Do you see your purity and holiness in terms of life and death? So often we act like we can play with lady folly, we can taste a bit of her wares without sensing any real harm.
I can indulge a little, it doesn’t hurt anything. I can watch these videos, or read these books, or stare at these pictures. I can use my imagination to linger on what it would be like to be with him or her.
But what we’ve done, is we’ve already wandered down the path of lady folly. We don’t see that we’ve stepped in her trap.
To the unmarried, and especially the young people, do not do near the door of her house. Don’t even get close to her path. Sexual sin is intoxicating, it will make you lose your ability to make sound decisions. It will lead you to do things that you never thought you would do.
If you’re single, and you’re toying with Lady Folly, you’re sinning against your future spouse, and against the one who’s images you are watching.
Not only that, you may think that you’re getting away with it because nobody sees it. But God sees it. Your immoral behavior is before the eyes of God. Indeed, he’s everywhere, and in the very room while you engage in your sexual immorality.
Don’t listen to the lies of Satan who wants you to believe that you are safe in your sin. That you deserve a bit of enjoyment, and that you’ve earned it.
Run from it. Get help. Cry out to God and confess your sin before it is too late.
Reach out to someone, a wiser and more mature believer, and let them help you. Let them help shore up your weaknesses like the text says, and board you up with cedar. We all need help in the battle for holiness, and to think that you can do it alone is foolishness.
And for the married, just because you’re married doesn’t mean you can let your guard down. Remember the words from Hebrews 13: “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.”
Don’t let impurity creep into the marriage.
Nobody wakes up in an otherwise healthy marriage bed and decides to become an adulterer. That is the fruit of sustained foolishness, a woeful lack of vigilance. Protect your marriage and its purity. Fight for it. Know that the consequences for failure here are tragically painful.
But Pastor, I hear what you’re saying. But I am so lonely. The battle is so hard.
You’re right. It is a hard battle, perhaps the hardest of your life. But we’ve already considered the consequences. They are dire. They are tragic. That’s why Jesus tell us that if our hand causes us to sin, to cut it off.
We may not start with that course of action, but his words show us the magnitude of action that might be necessary. You might not need to have a computer. You may not need to have a phone, or at least not a smart phone. You probably need to get off social media, if your purity is compromised through it.
But also, in the battle, I would urge you to consider the promises of God.
Consider the purity of Christ himself. He was the perfectly chaste and faithful one, even though he possessed the same humanity that we do. He had the same body with the same desire for communion and the same natural urges. And yet he never once fell for lady folly’s call.
He knew loneliness in a way that none of us could ever feel, hanging alone on the cross, exposed, forsaken by the very people that he came to save. His own bride is disloyal to him and unfaithful. And yet he remained pure.
And if you trust in Christ, remember that he sends his same Holy Spirit, the spirit of all purity and wisdom, to fill your very soul. He promises to never leave you or forsake you, even when the moment of temptation seems strongest.
He is your ever-faithful spouse, who loved you so perfectly that he gave his own life for you, to wash you, to forgive you of your own foolishness.
And what’s more, he promises to you this: that if you want to have peace, if you want to experience shalom, if you want to see your great Bridegroom fully and completely and have your deepest longing for intimacy fulfilled, that he will give you that desire.
Do you remember what he says in Matthew 5 about purity? He says to you, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. If you want to have satisfaction and fulfillment, if you want to experience closeness and communion in a way that nothing in this world could ever provide, then come to Christ, and have your heart made pure.
Experience purity and forgiveness and holiness, given to you in such boundless measure that the call of lady folly will begin to fall on deaf ears.
That’s the promise that God makes: if you trust in Christ, you’ll be given a new heart, a heart that is pure, and that increasingly strives after purity in this life, until it is perfected in God’s own presence, when we gaze on the face of our beloved spouse.
Trust in Christ today, and let your peace, your shalom, which you receive from him, melt away the impurity that remains. For as we gaze on your beloved husband, the luster of sin will wash away, and we will see God.
Let’s move on to the final few verses, and see a bit of how Solomon describes this communion with God, in terms of a Garden of love. A garden of love.
The scene now shifts, one final time, as Solomon wraps up this book in a final dialogue that serves as a fitting summary of the aims of this book.
The key to understanding this section is verse 11, which explains for us something of the economics of vineyards in Solomon’s day:
11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;
he let out the vineyard to keepers;
each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.
12 My vineyard, my very own, is before me;
you, O Solomon, may have the thousand,
and the keepers of the fruit two hundred.
So, this fictional Solomon had a piece of land, used as a vineyard. The location given is Baal-Hamon is mentioned nowhere else in scripture, so we’re unsure if it is an actual place or a fictional place.
Either way, this Solomon would lease it out to some people who would keep it, tend it, care for it. And when the vineyard bore fruit, they would sell the fruit of their labor, and return to Solomon a thousand pieces of silver as payment for being able to use the land.
The end of verse 12 explains that the workers would also keep two hundred pieces of silver for their labor. So, this arrangement seems to be in the background, explaining a bit of what the woman says in verse 12 about her own vineyard being given entirely to the king.
So, what does this mean, and how does this stand as a concluding summary of the book? Well, for the married women among us, we see that the final scene has the bride yielding herself to the king.
She’s saying my vineyard is before you and open to you. All of it is yours, my beloved Solomon.
The lingering picture at the end of this book is of the woman, now wife of the king, in a posture of submission and willing openness to her king.
In a healthy marriage, there ought to be openness to intimacy, a regular willingness to embrace the king.
And in as much as the bride here reflected the nation of Israel, which was wedded to Yahweh in the old Covenant, the nation of Israel should have retained a continual posture of faithful submission to Yahweh.
But the marriage metaphor doesn’t end there in scripture either, because Paul tells us in Ephesians 5 that the church is the bride of Christ. From the beginning, God planned for every human marriage to point toward the covenantal relationship between Christ and his bride, which is the church.
And when we think of things in that way, the church is likewise to be joyfully open and submissive to her king. Committed to the words of the king, found in the bible. Submissive to the teaching found therein.
Not tempted, like Israel was, toward unfaithfulness, to whoring after other Gods, as the Old Testament frames it. Unwilling to listen to lady folly, pursuing satisfaction and joy in no one else, other than the faithful bridegroom.
But the application in closing isn’t merely for the wives. Verse 13 likewise compels the men in the room. The king says to his bride:
He
13 O you who dwell in the gardens,
with companions listening for your voice;
let me hear it.
He has identified her before as a garden, in chapter 4, and now she has identified herself in verse 12 as a vineyard. And now the king, speaking to his beloved bride, is seeking her joy and satisfaction. He asks to hear her voice.
And in this reciprocal interaction, where the bride is opening herself to the king, and the king is seeking the voice and therefore closeness of his bride, we see the mutual satisfaction. We see the reciprocal blessing. She provides what he wants, and he provides what she wants.
She opens up her vineyard for the King to enjoy. He tells her that he wants to hear her voice, to be close to her, to know her and have her as his own.
This mutual understanding of each other’s desire, is a fitting end to a wonderful book on love. Each spouse is focused on the desire of the other. Each is concerned with the care of the other, with the wants of the other. Each is motivated to seek the peace, the shalom, the wholeness and joy of the other.
That’s what love is. A committed faithfulness and loyalty, seeking the good of the beloved, seeking their delight and their joy.
And the result is that the wife is eager to have the king in her vineyard:
She
14 Make haste, my beloved,
and be like a gazelle
or a young stag
on the mountains of spices.
This final verse is very similar to things she has said before, in chapter 2 verse 17.
It’s as if Solomon is finishing up the book by saying if you both listen to wisdom, if you both pursue love and faithfulness and purity, if you model your marriage like the marriage of this book of poetry, your desires will be fulfilled.
In a healthy marriage, you will see love and desire and intimacy, not grow stale. It will not wane over time.
Rather, you will see the fires of romance sustained. Love will deepen. It will not fade.
And in as much as this book pictures our spiritual marriage, the marriage of Christ and his church, the exact same is true.
The poetry depicts the love between the true Son of David, the greater Solomon who has come, and it is that love, his love, that gives ultimate meaning to any human love we experience.
So, by way of final exhortation, I will close our study with these thoughts:
To the men, seek to model yourself after the king in this book. Pursue your bride, value her, protect her, and guard your heart and eyes for her and her alone.
And when you fail, and we all undoubtedly do, remember the only truly-faithful bridegroom, who has come wash you of all your impurities, and to give you the purity of heart that you need.
And to the women, strive to be like the bride in this book, who honors and pursues her husband, making herself open to him, remembering that in your faithfulness in the marriage, you are picturing the church itself, redeemed by the great king and submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ himself.
None of this will be perfect in this life, but one day all of us, married and unmarried, will taste of the perfection of THE glorious marriage, when Christ returns for his marriage feast, and his bride will finally experience the day of her communion, when all her deepest and most intimate desires will finally be fulfilled.
When we will finally be at peace, and have shalom.
[1] Ian M. Duguid, Song of Songs, Reformed Expository Series (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2016), 157.
[2] Some that take this interpretation: Daniel L. Akin, Exalting Jesus in Song of Songs, Christ-Centered Exposition (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2015), 186; Roland E. Murphy, The Song of Songs: A Commentary on the Canticles or Song of Songs, Hermeneia (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 1990), 157.
[3] Duguid, Song of Songs, 158.
[4] Duguid, 158.
