Scripture Daily

Context No. 1413 of 4322 · Song of Solomon

Context · Reflection

Song of Solomon 3:1-11: in context

1By night on my bed, I sought him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I didn’t find him. 2I will get up now, and go about the city; in the streets and in the squares I will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I didn’t find him. 3The watchmen who go about the city found me; “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?” 4I had scarcely passed from 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, into the room of her who conceived me. 5I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, or by the hinds of the field, that you not stir up nor awaken love, until it so desires. 6Who is this who comes up from the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all spices of the merchant? 7Behold, it is Solomon’s carriage! Sixty mighty men are around it, of the mighty men of Israel. 8They all handle the sword, and are expert in war. Every man has his sword on his thigh, because of fear in the night. 9King Solomon made himself a carriage of the wood of Lebanon. 10He made its pillars of silver, its bottom of gold, its seat of purple, the middle of it being paved with love, from the daughters of Jerusalem. 11Go out, you daughters of Zion, and see King Solomon, with the crown with which his mother has crowned him, in the day of his weddings, in the day of the gladness of his heart.

The bride speaks of a restless night of seeking. On my bed by night, she says, I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him but did not find him. So she rises and goes through the city, into the streets and squares, searching for the one her soul loves, asking the watchmen if they have seen him. And scarcely past them, she finds him at last, and holds him and will not let him go. The chapter then turns to a scene of splendor, the wedding procession of Solomon coming up from the wilderness in perfume and glory, borne on his carriage, crowned by his mother on the day of his heart's gladness.

The opening lines carry a longing that the tradition has long read as the soul's search for God: I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him but did not find him. There is a season in the life of faith when God seems absent, when we reach for him and do not find him, when the sense of his presence that we once knew has gone and the bed at night is a place of restless seeking. What the bride does in that absence is worth learning. She does not give up and go back to sleep; she rises and goes out and searches the city, seeking through the dark the one her soul loves, refusing to rest content without him. And her seeking is rewarded: scarcely past the watchmen, she finds him, and having found him she holds him fast and will not let him go. There is a pattern here for the times God seems hidden. The absence is not the end of the story; it is an invitation to seek him with the ardor of love, to rise and search rather than settle for his absence, and the promise woven through scripture is that those who seek him will find him. And when he is found again, the response is the bride's: to hold him fast, not to let the found presence slip away carelessly as perhaps it did before. The soul that loves God will seek him through the night, and the seeking love is not disappointed.

When God seems absent and I reach for him without finding him, do I settle back into his absence, or do I rise and seek him with the ardor of love, and when I find him again, do I hold him fast rather than letting his presence slip away?

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