Context No. 2513 of 4322 · Song of Solomon

Song of Solomon 7:1-13: in context

1How beautiful are your feet in sandals, prince’s daughter! Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a skillful workman. 2Your body is like a round goblet, no mixed wine is wanting. Your waist is like a heap of wheat, set about with lilies. 3Your two breasts are like two fawns, that are twins of a roe. 4Your neck is like an ivory tower. Your eyes are like the pools in Heshbon by the gate of Bathrabbim. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon which looks toward Damascus. 5Your head on you is like Carmel. The hair of your head like purple. The king is held captive in its tresses. 6How beautiful and how pleasant you are, love, for delights! 7This, your stature, is like a palm tree, your breasts like its fruit. 8I said, “I will climb up into the palm tree. I will take hold of its fruit.” Let your breasts be like clusters of the vine, the smell of your breath like apples. 9Your mouth is like the best wine, that goes down smoothly for my beloved, gliding through the lips of those who are asleep. 10I am my beloved’s. His desire is toward me. 11Come, my beloved! Let’s go out into the field. Let’s lodge in the villages. 12Let’s go early up to the vineyards. Let’s see whether the vine has budded, its blossom is open, and the pomegranates are in flower. There I will give you my love. 13The mandrakes produce fragrance. At our doors are all kinds of precious fruits, new and old, which I have stored up for you, my beloved.

The Song of Songs celebrates the delight of two lovers, and this chapter is a tumble of admiration and longing, ending in the beloved's confident words: I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me. Come, she says, let us go out to the fields and the vineyards; there I will give you my love. It is unabashed, mutual delight, each belonging wholly to the other.

At the center is that line of settled belonging: I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me. It is not anxious or grasping; it rests in being wanted and in belonging. The Church has long read the Song also as a picture of God's love for his people, and the same security holds there. To be able to say I am my beloved's, and to know his desire is toward me, is to live from a settled love rather than to scramble for it. Much of our restlessness comes from doubting whether we are truly wanted; this verse answers with a quiet certainty.

Can I rest in belonging and being desired, by those who love me and by God, or do I live scrambling to earn a love I already have?

Sources

Song of Songs 7:10: I am my beloved's. His desire is toward me.
Song of Songs 7:11: Come, my beloved! Let's go out into the field. Let's lodge in the villages.
Isaiah 62:5: as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you.