Song of Solomon Explained

"Daddy, explain your Song of Songs to me," said Rehoboam's little sister Sophie Louise, kneeling before the king.

Solomon sighed a little and motioned for a seat for her. "What do you want to know, dear?" he asked.

"Well, it's about one special lady, but it says 'There are threescore queens and fourscore concubines,' and now you have hundreds. So is it about you and one of them? How can it be your first if you had 140 when you wrote it? How can #141 be special? If one was special, why didn't you stop getting new ones? (Pause). I wish I had just one Mommy, at least if she was a good one."

"You're right to wish that, dear. Do you remember what Moses's Law said to the king about multiplying wives?"

"It said not to, but you and Grampaw David and King Saul had more than one."

"We sinned. I knew better. Excuses bore me. I was wrong. God is faithful to Israel. I haven't followed His example. Look at God more than at me. But you were asking about my Song?"

"Yes, it keeps mentioning you, so we call it 'The Song of Solomon,' but the special man in the Song has one special lady. So how can it be about you, but how can it not be about you?"

"Have you read Ayn Rand and Thomas Sowell and Mortimer Adler?"

"No, who are they?"

"God knows...but they said autobiographies are tall tales about oneself, about what one wants to be or wants to be thought of as. So I wrote the Song, but it's more about who I should have been than who I am. It's about an ideal Solomon, an ideal Son of David, an ideal anointed King."

"About the real kinsman-redeemer of Israel?"

"Yes, dear, and great is his redemption if Israel has as much sin against God as I have."

"Is the shepherd in the Psalm you or someone else?"

"Does a man have to be the king of Israel to love a lady, or to do right or wrong?"

"No...so an ideal Solomon, or even an ideal shepherd, can set a good example for anyone who follows."

"And do you remember your Grandfather's song about the Shepherd?"

"Yahweh is my shepherd, I shall not want?"

"Yes, that one and others like it."

"Oooh, Shepherd and Husband and King...Wow. (Pause). But how much of you is really in the Song, daddy, you as you are and not just as you wish you'd been?"

"Well, by the time I had dozens of wives and concubines, I knew something about loving and longing--probably less in some ways than I'd have learned with just one, but something--and something about losing and being lonely; and they told me an earful, or at least some of them did. So I had lots of bits and pieces of experience to use, mine and others'. Lots and lots of sand to sift gold from to make a lovely bracelet...with some dark spots in it."

"I'm a virgin and don't have a boyfriend; is loving someone really like that?"

"It can be, dear. What do you think is the moral of the Song?"

"Don't stir up love to frolic like a gazelle until the time is right?"

"Yes; make sure you have the right one, as our parents Boaz and Ruth made sure."

"Mmmmm...she knew he was Godly and rich and would treat her right, and he knew she was Godly and hard-working and would treat him right."

"Those are good things to keep in mind."

"That's a cliché, daddy."

"There's a reason a cliché becomes a cliché, dear. And make sure you have the right God as well as the right man."

"But is your Song about God, daddy? It's a book that will last, like Moses's, but it hardly mentions God, just 'the flame of Yah'--and what does that bit mean anyway? And some people say it's about God's love for Israel, is that true?"

"Well, is God's love for Israel like a shepherd's for his sheep, or a king's for his people, or a husband's for his wife?"

"Well, all of those, but God is perfect, so none of those pictures is perfect...but all of them show us something...none of them tells the whole story."

"And neither does my five-page Song--but there are similarities. Sometimes God has been close to Israel, and sometimes in the Song the lovers are close. You can look for detailed similarities if you want to."

"And sometimes there are problems...are you sometimes close to God, daddy?"

"I've had my ups and downs, but his mercy is bigger than my sin, if I really, really go to Him for it and really repent."

"And you may even get hurt going to him, like the lady was hurt by the watchmen?"

"Is it worth it, dear?"

"If Yah's own flame is jealous, daddy, the pain of not going to Him is even worse."

"Yes...you were asking about that bit, about Yah's flame?"

"Yeah. We all know that everyone dies and dead men stay dead, it's just some nutty professors who think we don't know, so how can love be as strong as death, and how is the Song about Yah's love as well as man's love?"

"Are there similarities? We're created--man and woman--in the image of God."

"So your Song can be about a man's love, and about God's love, and about Israel loving God or not, all three at the same time?"

"It can...and like Moses, there are other depths to it and other ways to think about life using it. I'm wise; I know good literature, and even prophecy."

"Good literature...I don't think any of your wives is named Shulamith, which sounds kind of like your name, daddy. Why did you use that name?"

"A lady Solomon, an ideal lady Solomon, would be what kind of lady?"

"A wise lady, I guess, like you and like lady Wisdom in your Proverbs. Ummmm...what about love and death?"

"Does Yahweh die?"

"Of course not...and we're in his image...he said Adam wouldn't die if he ate the tree of life. Maybe death...maybe Yahweh can...Yahweh must be stronger than death...but if Yahweh can handle death, how can we handle it? Love is strong as death...can a man be perfect in love?"

"Those are good questions, darling, and most of your life is before you to consider them and live according to the answers Yahweh gives you. "

"Daddy, you hardly started answering my questions--you just gave me things to think about!"

"To think about and to do. Yes, dear."

By Andrew Lohr, in Chattanooga; www.lohr84.com and youtube and associated content http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3jW0Up68w0 --'Osama bin Laden' sings Mozart; one of 100 you tube videos as of 18 Jan A.D. 2011. http://www.associatedcontent.com/video/681150/hymn_from_isaiah_53.html?cat=33 --Hymn from Isaiah 53; one of 60+ pieces on www.associatedcontent.com , some videos, some text, as of 18 Jan. A.D. 2011.

Thanks to triune Jehovah for all his mercies, including Biblical Horizons on Song of Songs (notably Peter Leithart at the A.D. 2010 conference); to Wendy my wife who got us to the '10 conference; children Kira Kathy Nicholas and Nina with their questions, and 'Sophie Louise' born fall A.D. 2010.