For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, as with studies elsewhere, each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read on the main Bible page.

Throughout the main male and female speakers (identified primarily on the basis of the gender of the relevant Hebrew forms) are indicated by the captions He and She respectively. The words of others are marked Friends. In some instances the divisions and their captions are debatable. [NIV text]

Passage:  1:1-4

1 Solomon’s Song of Songs.

She

2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth—
    for your love is more delightful than wine.
3 Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes;
    your name is like perfume poured out.
    No wonder the young women love you!
4 Take me away with you—let us hurry!
    Let the king bring me into his chambers.

Friends

We rejoice and delight in you;
    we will praise your love more than wine.

She

How right they are to adore you!

A. Find Out

• 1. What does she dream of happening? v.2a
• 2. Why? v.2b
• 3. What does she like about him? v.3a
• 4. Indeed what does she feel about his name? v.3b
• 5. What does she want him to do? v.4a
• 6. What do the “friends” confirm about the beloved? v.4b

B. Think:

• 1. What do different kisses signify?
• 2. What therefore is she wanting?
• 3. What are we told about the lover here?

C. Comment:

A kiss can be a peck on the cheek, indicating affection. It can be the kiss on the neck, a kiss of forgiveness & reconciliation (Lk 15:20). But a kiss directly on the lips is a kiss of intimate relationship. This girl wants nothing less than intimate relationship.  Do we know and want that with Jesus – to be known intimately. He knows us like that but do we know him like that?

She is aware of his fragrance. Today we might say she knows the deodorant he uses. This indicates again a closeness of proximity, to even know what he smells like!  His very name, when it is mentioned seems to bring a fragrance into the room. When his name is mentioned everything changes.  See the blush that comes to a young girl’s face when the name of her sweetheart is mentioned. Even his name has effect.  Is that how it is with Jesus, for us?

“Take me away with you” – oh whisk me away from the humdrum life to a place where we can share together in intimacy. Do we sometimes feel that? We know we do when we put everything else aside to just wait on him. Into the king’s chamber?  Yes, into the place of his dwelling. For us the heavenly realms (Eph 2:6)

D. Prayer Suggestion:

Oh Lord, draw me close, hold me close, let me have a sense of your intimate closeness. Help me, Lord, to put aside everything else to be with you.  Stir that sort of love in me!

Passage:  1:5-8

5 Dark am I, yet lovely,
    daughters of Jerusalem,
dark like the tents of Kedar,
    like the tent curtains of Solomon.
6 Do not stare at me because I am dark,
    because I am darkened by the sun.
My mother’s sons were angry with me
    and made me take care of the vineyards;
    my own vineyard I had to neglect.
7 Tell me, you whom I love,
    where you graze your flock
    and where you rest your sheep at midday.
Why should I be like a veiled woman
    beside the flocks of your friends?

Friends

8 If you do not know, most beautiful of women,
    follow the tracks of the sheep
and graze your young goats
    by the tents of the shepherds.

A. Find Out

• 1. How does she describe herself? v.5a
• 2. Why was that? v.6a
• 3. What had actually happened? v.6b
• 4. What did she want to know? v.7a
• 5. What didn’t she want to just be? v.7b
• 6. What was she told to do? v.8

B. Think:

• 1. Of what is she aware about herself?
• 2. How might that apply spiritually to us?
• 3. What is obvious about her seeking in v.7 & 8?

C. Comment:

As she dreams about  this young man, Solomon, she is aware of her own ruddy complexion. There is none of the pale fragility of the women who spent most of their time indoors.  No she’s been made dark by the sun because her family insisted she work for the family.

Spiritually we may say the same: I am dark, in my innermost self, left to myself, I am dark and within me no good thing dwells (Rom 7:18). This shows itself on the outside, my words, my acts are sometimes less than perfect.  Yet she says, “I am lovely”. It is at this point so many Christians stumble.  Can we say that in Christ “I am lovely”?  It sounds strange to our ears perhaps, but true!  When God looks at me He sees me clothed in Christ, in righteousness. I am a child of God, redeemed, and an heir with Christ, wonderful and much loved!

Then she overcomes this self justifying and her mind  wonders where she will now find him. He goes out with his sheep (to check his shepherds and their flocks),  but where is he? She feels like an onlooker or even perhaps a servant with others. She wants to find him, to come to him. Where is he? Follow the tracks, she is told. Where is the presence of Jesus, we sometimes feel.  Follow the tracks of old, reading the Bible, pray, wait on him and worship, and you’ll find him.

D. Prayer Suggestion:

Lord I feel so unworthy and so inadequate, but thank you that  you have made me your child, perfect in your sight!

Passage:  1:9-11

He

9 I liken you, my darling, to a mare
    among Pharaoh’s chariot horses.
10 Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings,
    your neck with strings of jewels.
11 We will make you earrings of gold,
    studded with silver.

A. Find Out

• 1. To what does he first liken her? v.9a
• 2. Where has he seen this? v.9b
• 3. What does he observe about her? v.10a
• 4. And what else? v.10b
• 5. How will he enhance that beauty? v.11

B. Think:

• 1. What would horses on one of Solomon’s chariots be like?
• 2. What do you think is significant  about his commenting on her adornments, rather than just her?
• 3. What does verse 11 say about her adornments?

C. Comment:

Remember this is the first description of her by the man.  As an opening gambit they are typically male comments. He likens her to a horse!  Admittedly the horse he used to compare her was probably the best of the best, a thoroughbred mare harnessed to the king’s chariot for all to see, but a horse!  Still, it’s only his opening shot.

He then continues to refer to the beauty of her cheeks and her neck,  but they seem to only be made beautiful because of the jewellery she is wearing and, even more, he promises her that he’ll provide her with better jewellery. What she has at the moment is all right, but….

He means well but it is a limited and restrained description. Later he will extol her beauty without restraint, but these are the comments of early love.

When we first come to Jesus, we are unable to hear anything more than limited endearments. Our level of belief is so shallow that we couldn’t handle the Lord telling us deep endearments about ourselves. Thus the things the new Christian hears are but superficial things about what Christ has done for us, what he has made us. They are not the things of deep endearment, but (in his case) it’s not because he doesn’t feel them, but simply we couldn’t receive them.

D. Prayer Suggestion:

Lord open my heart in belief to hear your words of love and acceptance that you want to whisper into my heart.

Passage:  1:12-14

She

12 While the king was at his table,
    my perfume spread its fragrance.
13 My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh
    resting between my breasts.
14 My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms
    from the vineyards of En Gedi.

A. Find Out

• 1. Where was the king? v.12a
• 2. What happened there? v.12b
• 3. How did she envisage her lover? v.13a
• 4. What was he doing? 13b
• 5. How did she also picture him? v.14

B. Think:

• 1. How is this passage all about fragrance?
• 2. What is the purpose of scent or deodorant?
• 3. What do you think she uses the picture of scent here?

C. Comment:

In v.3 she had referred to the awareness of his personal scent. In a day of deodorants, scents and bath oils we are, perhaps, especially aware of smell.  In each case the smell is to remove or cover up the natural body odours that we consider distasteful.

When she says “my perfume” (v.12) we might first think she refers to herself, but then she goes on to say that her lover, lying against her, resting between her breasts, as they lounge (as is the Eastern custom) around the low table.  No, he is the scent for her. Whereas normally she might wear a small sachet of ointment to give a sweet perfume, her lover lying close to her exudes the same sort of beautiful scent. It may also be that she simply means his very presence is like having a beautiful scent. She goes on, he is like the beautiful scents that come from the aromatic plants from En Gedi.

Everything about this speaks of intimacy, a closeness that generates  a heightened awareness, or fragrance, this fills the senses. Here is the potential of our relationship with Jesus, a closeness that fills our awareness, a sense of his beautiful presence that is almost intoxicating. For so many, more aware of the things of the world, such talk of the beautiful presence of the Lord is quite alien. How sad.

D. Prayer Suggestion:

Dear Lord, please draw close to me, draw me close to you, help me to be aware of your lovely presence, heighten my sensitivity to your presence.

Passage:  1:15-17

He

15 How beautiful you are, my darling!
    Oh, how beautiful!
    Your eyes are doves.

She

16 How handsome you are, my beloved!
    Oh, how charming!
    And our bed is verdant.

He

17 The beams of our house are cedars;
    our rafters are firs.

A. Find Out

• 1. What does he next declare about her? v.15a
• 2. What part of her does he compare to what? v.15b
• 3. What does she next declare about him? v.16a
• 4. How does she describe their bed? v.16b
• 5. How does he describe the “roof” of their “dwelling”? v.17

B. Think:

• 1. What is the difference between the male & female address here?
• 2. Where do they seem to be?

C. Comment:

Remember this is a song or a poem, not factual narrative. The endearments at this point are short and to the point. He says she is beautiful, she says he is handsome and charming, all a little bit restrained, still the expressions of the early days of the relationship, yet as we observe how they speak we note a difference. He refers to her as “my darling”, a term of some emotion, while she simply refers to him as “my lover”, a less expressive term. The strength of feeling seems to come from the man. So it is with us and Jesus, it is he who makes the running who makes the strongest professions of love and commitment (see 1 Jn 4:19) and whatever we say is a response to him.

Again he comments on her eyes, she merely comments on where they are. She has little to say directly to him about him. He describes her eyes as doves.  There is an air of beauty and purity about a dove and her eyes strike him like this.  Doves take flight easily, indicating almost a shyness. The flashing of the eyelids indicate a shy reticence of the heart. So often in the believer there is this shy reticence – surely he can’t love me like that?

She comments that their bed is grass, he comments that the trees form a roof over them. They are in the countryside, in the woods, enjoying lying together. This is a picture of peace and harmony.

D. Prayer Suggestion:

Lord thank you that you take the initiative, that you wooed me and drew me to yourself by your love. Open my heart to be more expressive of my love for you.