Friday, November 20, 2015

The Song Of Solomon 8: The Power Of Love

"Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave.  It burns like a blazing fire, like a mighty flame.  Many waters cannot quench love, rivers cannot wash it away.  If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned" (vs. 6-7).
The love song between Solomon and his beloved princess reaches its conclusion after eight chapters.  In this final section, we hear much of what we have heard before, including the beloved's injunction to the daughters of Jerusalem to not arouse or awaken love before it so desires (vs. 4).  We also hear again the metaphor of a "vineyard" that the beloved keeps for her lover (vs. 12).

Some of the language and expressions of this book may strike you as strange or antiquated, but we must remember that Solomon was drawing upon what he knew in the composition of his song.  Animals, pools, towers, gardens...these were in the common cultural mind in the first millennia B.C.  Today we might sing of love reaching to the stars, or having the force of an explosion, or being as powerful as an engine, because such concepts are in our common cultural mind in the twenty-first century.  

Regardless, the truths spoken about love in the Song of Solomon, such as its strength greater than death, that it burns like a mighty flame or stands unquenchable by many rivers, remain true in our experience today.  We still respect and celebrate love's influence in our lives.  That's the power of love!

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