Song of Solomon - Introduction

The unity of subject throughout, and the recurrence of the same expressions ( Song of Solomon 2:6 Song of Solomon 2:7 ; 3:5 ; Song of Solomon 8:3 Song of Solomon 8:4 ; 2:16 ; 6:3 ; 7:10 ; 3:6 ; 6:10 ; 8:5 the unity of the poem, in opposition to those who make it consist of a number of separate erotic songs. The sudden transitions (for example, from the midnight knocking at a humble cottage to a glorious description of the King) accord with the alternations in the believer's experience. However various the divisions assigned be, most commentators have observed four breaks (whatever more they have imagined), followed by four abrupt beginnings ( Solomon 2:7 ; 3:5 ; 5:1 ; 8:4 Thus there result five parts, all alike ending in full repose and refreshment. We read ( 1 Kings 4:32 thousand and five." The odd number five added over the complete thousand makes it not unlikely that the "five" refers to the Song of songs, consisting of five parts.

It answers to the idyllic poetry of other nations. The Jews explain it of the union of Jehovah and ancient Israel; the allusions to the temple and the wilderness accord with this; some Christians of Christ and the Church; others of Christ and the individual believer. All these are true; for the Church is one in all ages, the ancient typifying the modern Church, and its history answering to that of each individual soul in it. Jesus "sees all, as if that all were one, loves one, as if that one were all." "The time suited the manner of this revelation; because types and allegories belonged to the old dispensation, which reached its ripeness under Solomon, when the temple was built" [MOODY STUART]. "The daughter of Zion at that time was openly married to Jehovah"; for it is thenceforth that the prophets, in reproving Israel's subsequent sin, speak of it as a breach of her marriage covenant. The songs heretofore sung by her were the preparatory hymns of her childhood; "the last and crowning "Song of Songs" was prepared for the now mature maiden against the day of her marriage to the King of kings" [ORIGEN]. Solomon was peculiarly fitted to clothe this holy mystery with the lovely natural imagery with which the Song abounds; for "he spake of trees, from the cedar in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall" ( 1 Kings 4:33 higher qualification was his knowledge of the eternal Wisdom or Word of God ( Proverbs 8:1-36 prepared the way, in Psalms 45 and 72; the son perfected the allegory. It seems to have been written in early life, long before his declension; for after it a song of holy gladness would hardly be appropriate. It was the song of his first love, in the kindness of his youthful espousals to Jehovah. Like other inspired books, its sense is not to be restricted to that local and temporary one in which the writer may have understood it; it extends to all ages, and shadows forth everlasting truth ( 1 Peter 1:11 1 Peter 1:12 ; 2 Peter 1:20 2 Peter 1:21

Three notes of time occur [MOODY STUART]: (1) The Jewish Church speaks of the Gentile Church ( Solomon 8:8 speaks to the apostles ( Solomon 5:1 speaks of the coming of Christ ( Solomon 1:2 have, in direct order, Christ about to come, and the cry for the advent; Christ finishing His work on earth, and the last supper; Christ ascended, and the call of the Gentiles. In another aspect we have: (1) In the individual soul the longing for the manifestation of Christ to it, and the various alternations in its experience ( Song of Solomon 1:2 Song of Solomon 1:4 ; 2:8 ; Song of Solomon 3:1 Song of Solomon 3:4 Song of Solomon 3:6 Song of Solomon 3:7 enjoyment of His sensible consolations, which is soon withdrawn through the bride's carelessness ( Solomon 5:1-3 Him, and reconciliation ( Solomon 5:8-16 ; 6:3 (3) Effects of Christ's manifestation on the believer; namely, assurance, labors of love, anxiety for the salvation of the impenitent, eagerness for the Lord's second coming ( Song of Solomon 7:10 Song of Solomon 7:12 ; Song of Solomon 8:8-10 Song of Solomon 8:14