Scripture Daily

Context No. 3188 of 4322 · Song of Solomon

Context · Reflection

Song of Solomon 1:1-7: in context

1The Song of songs, which is Solomon’s. 2Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth; for your love is better than wine. 3Your oils have a pleasing fragrance. Your name is oil poured out, therefore the virgins love you. 4Take me away with you. Let’s hurry. The king has brought me into his rooms. We will be glad and rejoice in you. We will praise your love more than wine! They are right to love you. 5I am dark, but lovely, you daughters of Jerusalem, like Kedar’s tents, like Solomon’s curtains. 6Don’t stare at me because I am dark, because the sun has scorched me. My mother’s sons were angry with me. They made me keeper of the vineyards. I haven’t kept my own vineyard. 7Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you graze your flock, where you rest them at noon; for why should I be as one who is veiled beside the flocks of your companions?

The Song opens with the bride's longing. Let him kiss me, she says, for your love is better than wine; draw me after you, let us run. The king has brought me into his chambers. And then a note of humility: I am dark, but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem; the sun has weathered me, for my brothers made me tend the vineyards, and my own vineyard I have not kept.

The Song opens with desire and with honesty. The bride longs for her beloved, your love is better than wine, and asks to be drawn to run after him. And she is candid about herself: I am dark, but lovely, weathered by hard labor, feeling she has neglected her own vineyard, and yet still beloved and lovely in her beloved's eyes. The church has heard here the soul's longing for Christ, and the wonder that we, weathered and imperfect, are still called lovely by the One who loves us. Love that says you are lovely even to the one who feels unworthy is the beginning of the whole song, and a picture of grace.

Do I let my sense of being weathered or unworthy keep me from the Beloved, or believe that I am called lovely by the One whose love is better than wine?

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