Saturday, November 29: Song of Solomon 7-.

The song continues… the man ‘singing’ the praises of his beloved’s beauty. She ‘sings’ back to him. The delight, love and desire each has for the other is infectious.

It may be a surprise to read this suggestive talk in the Bible, but isn’t God the designer of love and intimacy? Yes, He is. He created us to love in all facets of love, from agape to eros. And as long as love and desire is within God’s order of ‘one man-one woman’ for a life, it is beautiful and wonderful gift of God to humankind.

I am so thankful for the gift of my wife. For 3⁺decades she has been my beloved and my life is blessed because I have lived with her and grown and been changed because of her.

God’s gifts are many and varied… spiritual gifts; life & health gifts; education & vocational gifts; and relational gifts. And for each one I am thankful and blessed. The Lord is so good and living in His world is a gift. Today I am very thankful for the relational gifts God has given me, particularly the wife of my youth.

Lord, God, thank You for all your blessings. You are the great and almighty God and I am so blessed to be part of Your family. Thank You and bless you, Lord. In Jesus’ name, I pray Amen.

 

Friday, November 28: Song of Solomon 6- The gift of relationships.

Today is mostly the man speaking, expressing his love for his beloved. I confess that some of the things he says wouldn’t work well for me J! Like verse 6: Your teeth are like a flock of sheep coming up from the washing. Each has its twin, not one of them is missing.

Honestly reading it again has me laughing again… especially the not one of them is missing line!

I am not sure what to do with this devotionally. Then again I smile at our Lord, his understanding of people. Many couples and families have their own words, lines or phrases that are meaningful for them but not outsiders. I am not sure if verse 6 is an insider line or just a word picture from Solomon’s day.  Either way it got me thinking about insider lines and the way people close to each other express love, care and fun.

The gift of relationships that God gives us is such a gift. Why is it that we don’t treasure those relationships more than we do?

The ravages of sin run deep in us humans…

O, God, I am feeling myself drawn to confession and particularly confessing the MANY ways that I do NOT treat people around me, and particularly those close to me, the way I should. Lord, as I sit here with You today I am realizing that I am hurting myself as well as the other people when I don’t act with Your grace, love and relational connection.

Forgive me, Lord, and help me to get my priorities right with You.

O the ugliness of the ravages of sin in my life!  Help me gain victory, O, Lord! In Jesus’ name. Amen.

 

Thursday, November 27: Song of Solomon 5- insecurity in love, in relationship.

For years I have struggled with verses 1-8. What is going on? Just yesterday we read the bliss of marriage and now this???

Again, I was helped by doing some outside reading. And again, as in chapter 3, this is likely a dream. One commentator put it like this:

This section most probably is to be taken like 3:1-5, as a dream sequence. Love brings its joys, but those joys are seldom unalloyed for long. We are such flawed and fragile creatures, and interpersonal relationships contain such subtleties. With our joys come fears. Often they surface in our dreams, arising from some sense of failure or fear of inadequacy. (Expositor's Bible Commentary)

The ecstasy of marriage and honeymoon give way to realities and we are flawed imperfect people and we bring our flaws into every relationship. Insecurities can lead to wild dreams. I have had them but we don’t need to allow them to rule our lives or destroy our love.

In verses 10 through the end, she returns to her love and begins to recount that she remains head over heels in love for her man.

My thoughts return to insecurities; having them is one thing, what we do with them is another. Do we stay there? Do we stew over them and let them simmer and grow until they control us? Or do we lay them at the feet of our Lord, asking for strength to change where necessary and to let them go where they are false and unfounded.

Hmmm, think about this…

Lord, I surrender all my relationships to You. Lead me to be a better person, one who reflects You and Your character more and more as I grow. Open me to honest correction and protect me from false guilt.

And, Lord, as I pray this about my human relationships, I pray even more for this in my relationship with You. I seek to be Yours, to live breath and find my being and center in You, Lord Jesus. In You. Amen.

 

 

Wednesday, November 26: Song of Solomon 41- Marriage is a gift from the Lord and I should treat it as such!.

If chapter 3 involves the wedding, then chapter 4 captures scenes from what we would call ‘the honeymoon’, those early days of marriage.

I have never been particularly expressive. I am a quiet, reserved person. The man in this chapter is anything but. His lips drip with loving words for his wife, his beloved. How loved his wife must feel…

Immediately, thoughts fill my mind, “Do I do things that announce to my wife how loved she is?” I may not be as expressive as the man in this chapter, but I also know ways that connect with my wife and cause her to feel loved and appreciated.

Do I do these things freely and regularly?  Do I take her for granted?

Marriage is a gift from the Lord and I should treat it as such!

Lord, thank You for the wife of my youth, the only wife I have known. Thank You for the years we have lived together, the good and the difficult, the joys and the sorrows.

Lord, give me creativity to express in words, deeds and actions my love for my wife. I thank You for my wife and my sister. It has been such a joy to walk the trail of faith with a partner who has caused me to deepen my love for You again and again.

Lord, even as I thank You now, help me to thank and love her in ways that speak to her deeply. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

 

¹ As previously I realize that not all of my readers are married. The content of this book of the Bible, which is all about love and passion in marriage, may be tough for the non-married.  My prayer is that you will hear something from the Lord in this passage that speaks to your heart as this one did to mine.

 

Tuesday, November 25: Song of Solomon 3- passionate love God's way.

There is a lot of cultural detail that I didn’t understand so I sought some help. Verses 6-11 tell of the bridal procession, but what is going on in 1-5? About verses 1-5 I read:

“Our next poetic unit seems clearly to be a dream sequence. The lover is the maiden's obsession night and day (v.1). So in a dream she seeks him. She goes about the city in the night querying those whom she meets about her beloved (vv.2-3). She finds him and will not let him go until she has brought him into her mother's home, into the very room where she was conceived (v.4). She is not looking for an illicit consummation of their love. Consummation she wants, but even in her dream she wants that consummation to be right. Where in human literature does one find a text so erotic and yet so moral as this?” (Expositor's Bible Commentary)

Marriage not illicit sex is in view throughout.

The commentator’s last line grabbed me. Where in human literature does one find a text so erotic and yet so moral as this?

TV, film, books, magazines are filled with sex, but these days rarely is sex within God’s definition of a man and woman in marriage. In our world, sex is a passionate act with whomever. It may not be a one-night stand, but it is commonplace to move in prior to marriage. And if that relationship doesn’t work out well then it ends and you move in with the next ‘love.’

How refreshing to read the passion of love and the desire for intimacy, but to read it aligning with God’s Will and Word!

Lord, my world is sick.  We are sex crazed with little regard for Your Will, Word and Way. And is seeps regularly into your Church, Your people, Your body. Help us, Your church and the members thereof, to regain Your sexual moorings. O, God, help us; our world has left Your moorings and it is dragging us away too. Forgive us and help us stand for righteousness with our becoming prideful and arrogant in our witness to the world. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

 

Monday, November 24: Song of Solomon 21- His banner over me is love.

Every now and again I hear someone speak of the Lord, commenting that ‘his banner over me is love.’ What a great picture that is, God’s banner over me (us) is love.

In college I remember my college Christian group singing, “He takes us to the banqueting table, his banner over me is love…” It was a song about God’s love and care for us. Again what a comforting image.

This morning I read Song of Songs 2:4, the text from which song comes: He has brought me to his banquet hall, And his banner over me is love (NASB).

Fascinating, in its biblical context it is a statement by the woman about her beloved, her husband! The woman sings that her husband brings her to the banqueting table. His banner over her is love!

This launched me into considering, “How well do I love and care for my wife?” Would my wife say of me, “His banner over me is love?”

Most often my time with the Lord leads me to considering my relationship with Him. But today, God has me considering how well I love and care for my wife...

Lord, thank You for the gift of marriage and for my wife, the wife of my youth. I am a different person in life and in faith because of her. I treasure her as a gift and a gift from You. May I be for her as this man was for his wife. May I be for her as You, Jesus, are for Your church (Eph 5:25ff). I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

 

¹ I realize that not all of my readers may be married, so today’s devotion might not fit you. My prayer is that you will hear something from the Lord in this passage that speaks to your heart as this one did to mine.

 

Saturday, November 22: Song of Solomon 1- Expressing one's love .

Song of Songs perplexes most believers. Dennis F. Kinlaw writing in the Expositor's Bible Commentary notes, Song of Songs is patently a collection of ancient Hebrew love poems celebrating the experiences of a lover and his beloved as they taste the beauty, power, agony, and joys of human sexual love. What do we do with a book like that in the Scriptures?

Let’s see as we take this devotional reading of Song of Songs.

With the first words of this book we understand why many are perplexed. This chapter is a lover’s dialogue, with the words of some friends tossed in as well. This chapter is two lovers expressing their love and attraction to one another.

Love rightly ordered is good. Love, emotion, and beauty expressed to one’s beloved is a beautiful thing.

Biblical believers are oft-time thought of as prudes. If prude means we have a different sexual ethic than the world, i.e. sexual love is to be shared between a man and woman in marriage, then I accept the moniker of prude. However, being a ‘prude’ does not mean that within the marital covenant relationship a couple does not passionately and affectionately express their love for one another.

In this vein, Song of Solomon is refreshing, reminding God-honoring couples that passion and expressing one’s passion for one’s spouse is a good thing… a very good thing!

Readers who are married… express your love today to your mate.

Readers who are not yet married… there is joy ahead if you walk in God’s Will.

Think about it…

Lord, thank You for my wife of many years, a gift from You and a partner in You. Thank You for my wife. Amen.