Love Poetry - The Song of Songs has been interpreted in four ways: as an allegory, as a cultic reenactment, as dramatic performance, and as a collection of love poems. Thus, the love/marriage metaphor in our lesson could refer, for example, to the love relationship between YHWH and Israel (Is. 54:5; Hos 2:14-20) and later of Christ for the Church (2 Cor. 11:2, Rev. 19:6b-8). But on the other hand, the similarity shared with some Egyptian love poems leads to the possibility that such are the Song of Songs. [1]

Art Of Invitation - Inviting a beloved is an age-old art form. The yearning of the lovers for each other is deep and expresses that yearning in verse 10: "Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away . . ." She invites him to come near. [2]

The Cost of Love - Lovers cannot take their love for granted, no more than humans can take their relationship with God for granted . . . These brief verses remind us that human-human relationships, like human-divine relations, must be cultivated, nurtured, safeguarded, and cherished. Special moments do not just happen; they are cultivated. Intimacy with God and with each other costs; it costs us our time and our energies . . . [3]

[4] With what time of the year and time of your life do you associate romantic love? Whey then?

Recall the circumstances around your first heart-throb moment (middle school?)

What if the "winter" could be applied to a very difficult time in some couple’s relationship? How do they appear transformed? As their relationship grows, how do they protect and preserve their love from anything that might ruin it?

All the world is not worth the day that the Song of Songs was given to Israel; all the Kêtûbîm [the writings] are holy but the Song of Songs is the holy of holies (Mishna Yadim, 3:5).

Please see DPS’s homily posted for this week based on this passage.

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[1] Dianne Bergant, Israel’s Wisdom Literature: A Liberation-Critical Reading (Fortress, 1997), p. 124.
[2] Richard J. Clifford, The Wisdom Literature (Abingdon Press, 1998), page 163.
[3] The New Interpreter’s Bible V (Abingdon Press, 1997), page 395.
[4] Questions adapted from the Serendipity Bible (Zondervan, rev. 1998), page 936.