Song of Solomon 4:1-16: a reflection

1Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are like doves behind your veil. Your hair is as a flock of goats, that descend from Mount Gilead. 2Your teeth are like a newly shorn flock, which have come up from the washing, where every one of them has twins. None is bereaved among them. 3Your lips are like scarlet thread. Your mouth is lovely. Your temples are like a piece of a pomegranate behind your veil. 4Your neck is like David’s tower built for an armory, on which a thousand shields hang, all the shields of the mighty men. 5Your two breasts are like two fawns that are twins of a roe, which feed among the lilies. 6Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away, I will go to the mountain of myrrh, to the hill of frankincense. 7You are all beautiful, my love. There is no spot in you. 8Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, with me from Lebanon. Look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards. 9You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride. You have ravished my heart with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck. 10How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine, the fragrance of your perfumes than all kinds of spices! 11Your lips, my bride, drip like the honeycomb. Honey and milk are under your tongue. The smell of your garments is like the smell of Lebanon. 12My sister, my bride, is a locked up garden; a locked up spring, a sealed fountain. 13Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, with precious fruits, henna with spikenard plants, 14spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree; myrrh and aloes, with all the best spices, 15a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, flowing streams from Lebanon. 16Awake, north wind, and come, you south! Blow on my garden, that its spices may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and taste his precious fruits.

The Song of Songs sings of the love and delight between two lovers, and in it the bridegroom pours out his delight in his beloved: Behold, you are beautiful, my love; you are all beautiful, my love; there is no spot in you. He sees her as altogether lovely, delights in her, calls her without flaw in his sight. The church has long read this song as picturing, beyond human love, the love and delight of God for his people, of Christ for his bride the church. Read so, it speaks of how God sees those who are his: not with a grudging or critical eye, but with delight, calling them beautiful, altogether lovely, without flaw in his sight. God delights in his people; he sees them, in Christ, as beautiful and without spot, and pours out his love upon them. To be loved by God is to be looked upon with delight, called altogether lovely, seen as beautiful in his sight.

Notice how the beloved is seen in the song: as altogether beautiful, without flaw, delighted in. The bridegroom does not look on his beloved with a critical or grudging eye, cataloguing her faults; he delights in her, calls her all beautiful, says there is no spot in her. Read as a picture of God's love for his people, this is a striking thing: God looks on those who are his, in Christ, not with disappointment or reproach, but with delight, seeing them as beautiful, altogether lovely, without flaw in his sight. This is not because they have no faults, but because, in Christ, they are clothed in his beauty, seen through his love. God's love for his people is a delighting love, a love that calls them beautiful and looks on them with joy. To be one of God's people is to be delighted in by him, seen as lovely, loved without reproach. God does not merely tolerate his people; he delights in them, and calls them altogether lovely.

That is worth resting in, for God delights in his people, seeing them, in Christ, as altogether lovely and without flaw. We can imagine that God looks on us with disappointment or a critical eye, cataloguing our faults; but the Song, read as a picture of his love, shows God delighting in his people, calling them beautiful, altogether lovely, without spot in his sight. In Christ, God sees us clothed in his beauty and looks on us with delight. To be one of God's people is to be delighted in, not merely tolerated. When you imagine God looking on you with disappointment, remember that in Christ he delights in you, and calls you altogether lovely. Rest in the truth that God delights in his people, seeing them in Christ as altogether lovely and without flaw, as the Song sings, you are all beautiful, my love, there is no spot in you; for the church has long read this song of love as picturing God's delight in his people, and God looks on those who are his, clothed in Christ's beauty, not with a critical or grudging eye but with delight, calling them beautiful and altogether lovely, so that to be loved by him is to be looked upon with joy rather than reproach.

Lord, the Song of Songs sings of the love and delight between two lovers, and in it the bridegroom pours out his delight in his beloved: Behold, you are beautiful, my love; you are all beautiful, my love; there is no spot in you. He sees her as altogether lovely, delights in her, calls her without flaw in his sight. The church has long read this song as picturing, beyond human love, your love and delight for your people, of Christ for his bride the church. Read so, it speaks of how you see those who are yours: not with a grudging or critical eye, but with delight, calling them beautiful, altogether lovely, without flaw in your sight. You delight in your people; you see them, in Christ, as beautiful and without spot. Show me how the beloved is seen in the song: as altogether beautiful, without flaw, delighted in. The bridegroom does not look on his beloved with a critical or grudging eye, cataloguing her faults; he delights in her, calls her all beautiful. Read as a picture of your love, this is striking: you look on those who are yours, in Christ, not with disappointment or reproach, but with delight, seeing them as altogether lovely. This is not because they have no faults, but because, in Christ, they are clothed in his beauty. You do not merely tolerate your people; you delight in them. Let me rest in that, for you delight in your people, seeing them, in Christ, as altogether lovely and without flaw. I can imagine that you look on me with disappointment or a critical eye, cataloguing my faults; but the Song, read as a picture of your love, shows you delighting in your people. In Christ, you see me clothed in his beauty and look on me with delight. When I imagine you looking on me with disappointment, help me remember that in Christ you delight in me, Lord, and call me altogether lovely, looking on me with joy rather than reproach.