Today’s Passage: Song of Solomon 1
The Song opens the way a great melody opens, not with argument but with longing, as a bride gives voice to her heart’s desire for the one she loves. She speaks of him and to him and about him all at once, praising his love as better than wine and the very fragrance of his name. She turns to the daughters of Jerusalem and speaks plainly of herself, of skin darkened by the sun from long days working in the vineyards, yet lovely all the same. She asks where her beloved leads his flock so she might come to him, and he answers her, calling her the fairest of women and praising her beauty with tender delight. By the chapter’s end the two are answering each other back and forth, each naming the other beautiful, each glad in the other without shame. Here at the threshold of the book we are shown what love looks like when it is free and honored and unafraid.
As you read, hold this: Within the covenant God blesses, love may delight openly and unashamedly in the beloved, for to cherish and be cherished is one of His good gifts.
Context The world of Song of Solomon 1
The very first line calls this the Song of Songs, which is the Hebrew way of naming a thing the greatest of its kind, the way we speak of the King of kings or the Holy of Holies. Of all the songs a person might sing, this is the finest, a poem given over entirely to the love between a man and a woman. Ancient Israel sang at its weddings and celebrated the joining of husband and wife openly, and this book gathers that joy up into Scripture itself, teaching us that God is not embarrassed by the love He made, but has set a song of it right in the middle of His holy Word.
The images that fill the chapter come straight from the world of shepherds and vineyards and caravans that the first readers knew by heart. The tents of Kedar were woven from dark goat hair, so to be dark like those tents and lovely like the fine curtains of Solomon was to be humble in station yet beautiful all the same. Myrrh and henna and the lush springs of En-gedi were the perfumes and treasures of that land, and a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots was a picture of rare and striking beauty. Reading this Song, the faithful have long heard in it two harmonies at once: the honest gladness of covenant love between husband and wife, and, sounding underneath, a picture of the deeper love between the LORD and His people, who are called His bride.
Song of Solomon 1:1 (BSB)
¹ This is Solomon’s Song of Songs.
The book signs its own name in a single breath, and the name itself is a claim. This is not merely a song but the Song of Songs, the best of them all, gathered under the name of Solomon, the king to whom God gave wisdom beyond every other. That such a poem stands in the canon of Scripture should settle a question for us before we have read a line further. The love between a man and a woman is not a thing the Bible tolerates and hurries past. It is a thing the Bible sets to music and calls the finest song, because the God who made that love is glad in what He made.
Song of Solomon 1:2–4 (BSB)
² Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is more delightful than wine. ³ The fragrance of your perfume is pleasing; your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the maidens adore you. ⁴ Take me away with you—let us hurry! May the king bring me to his chambers. We will rejoice and delight in you; we will praise your love more than wine. It is only right that they adore you.
The Song begins with the bride’s frank and open longing, and we should not rush past how unashamed it is. She wants to be near the one she loves, and she says so without apology, for his love delights her more than wine and his very name is like perfume poured out, sweetening every room it enters. There is nothing furtive here, nothing hidden away in shame. Within the bond God blesses, love is free to speak its desire out loud, to hurry toward the dod, pronounced DOHD. Strong's H1730, beloved; love. This little word runs like a heartbeat all through the Song, and it carries two meanings at once. It is the word for the beloved himself, the one the bride calls “my dod,” and it is also the word for love and its glad affections, so that when she says his love is better than wine, this is the very word underneath. To say dod is to name both the person and the tenderness in a single breath, for real love does not float free of the one it loves; it fastens on a face and a name. That is the beauty of covenant love as God designed it. It is not a vague warmth cast over everyone alike but a devoted delight in one particular soul, cherished and called by name. And the faithful have long heard in this same word an echo of a greater love, for the LORD too has a people He calls His own and delights in as a bridegroom delights in his bride. , to name him wonderful before others. This is the gladness the world so often cheapens and the God who made it means to keep pure and bright: to be drawn to one’s own beloved, and to say so with a full heart.
Song of Solomon 1:5–6 (BSB)
⁵ I am dark, yet lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon. ⁶ Do not stare because I am dark, for the sun has gazed upon me. My mother’s sons were angry with me; they made me a keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have neglected.
Now the bride turns to the daughters of Jerusalem and speaks with a lovely, humble honesty about herself. Her skin has been darkened by long days laboring under the sun in her brothers’ vineyards, and she is aware that some might look down on her for it. Yet notice how she holds two things together without flinching: I am dark, she says, yet lovely. She does not pretend to be what she is not, but neither does she let anyone’s stare make her forget that she is treasured. There is a quiet dignity in this. To be loved does not require us to be flawless or to hide the marks that ordinary life has left on us. The one who cherishes her sees her whole and calls her beautiful, and in his love she is free to be exactly who she is.
Song of Solomon 1:7–8 (BSB)
⁷ Tell me, O one I love, where do you pasture your sheep? Where do you rest them at midday? Why should I be like a veiled woman beside the flocks of your companions? ⁸ If you do not know, O fairest of women, follow the tracks of the flock, and graze your young goats near the tents of the shepherds.
The bride’s love is not only feeling but seeking; she wants to know where he is so that she can be with him. Tell me where you pasture your sheep, she pleads, that I might come to your side and not wander lost among strangers. And here comes the first answer from the one she loves, and it is full of tenderness. He calls her the fairest of women, and he does not send her away but gently shows her the path, follow the tracks of the flock and come to where I am. This is how honored love answers longing. It does not toy with the heart that reaches for it or leave it guessing. It calls the beloved beautiful and shows her the way home.
Song of Solomon 1:9–11 (BSB)
⁹ I compare you, my darling, to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots. ¹⁰ Your cheeks are beautiful with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels. ¹¹ We will make you ornaments of gold, studded with beads of silver.
Now the beloved praises her openly, and the images he reaches for are the finest his world knew. To liken her to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots is to say she is rare and striking, the sort of beauty that turns every head. He delights in her face and her neck adorned with jewels, and then he goes further still, promising to make ornaments of gold and silver to grace her yet more. See the generosity in love that is glad and secure. It does not merely admire from a distance; it wants to honor the beloved, to add to her beauty, to give good gifts. To cherish another is to take joy in that person’s worth and to long to see it crowned. This too is written into the love God made.
Song of Solomon 1:12–14 (BSB)
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 in the vineyards of En-gedi.
The bride answers his praise with praise of her own, and her words are all fragrance and nearness. Her beloved is to her like a small pouch of myrrh worn close to the heart through the night, like a cluster of sweet henna blossoms in the well-watered vineyards of En-gedi. These are pictures of something treasured and kept near, something whose sweetness stays with her all the day and all the night through. This is what it is to hold another dear, to carry the thought of the beloved close like a fragrance that will not fade. Love that is honored and returned becomes a constant sweetness, a gladness the heart keeps near itself and does not want to set down.
Song of Solomon 1:15–17 (BSB)
¹⁵ How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how very beautiful! Your eyes are like doves. ¹⁶ How handsome you are, my beloved! Oh, how delightful! The soft grass is our bed. ¹⁷ The beams of our house are cedars; our rafters are fragrant firs.
And now the two voices answer each other back and forth, and the chapter ends in mutual delight. How beautiful you are, he says, how very beautiful, your eyes like gentle doves. How handsome you are, she answers, how delightful. Neither one holds back; each names the other lovely, and each is glad to be so named. Then together they picture their shared life as a home built among the cedars and firs, sheltered and green and good. Here is the whole truth of the chapter drawn to its close. To cherish and to be cherished, to delight in another and to be delighted in without shame, is one of the good gifts of God, meant to be spoken aloud and enjoyed within the covenant He blesses. What He has made lovely, we may call lovely, with a full and thankful heart.
Study notes Going deeper
If we ever wonder whether God approves of the frank gladness this Song sings, we need only turn to how His wisdom speaks elsewhere of love within the covenant of marriage. The same Solomon who gathered these verses also wrote in the book of Proverbs, and there, plainly and without embarrassment, he tells a man to rejoice in the wife of his youth and to find his delight in her. The Song is not an odd exception tucked into Scripture; it is the poetry of a truth the whole of God’s Word affirms, that love honored and kept within His covenant is a fountain of blessing, meant for joy.
"May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:" Proverbs 5:18 (BSB)
So let the Song teach us to receive love as the good gift it is, neither cheapening it nor blushing at it, but delighting openly in the one we are given to cherish and giving thanks to the God who made such gladness and blessed it. To be treasured and to treasure another is no small mercy but a bright and holy thing, and it points us at last to the truest Lover of our souls. Learn the Word, delight in the good gifts of the God who made you, and give thanks.