The Song of Songs: Christ, His Bride, and Meditation on God's Love for Us.

 The Song of Songs: Christ, His Bride, and Meditation on God's Love for Us. 

    Historically, within the Christian tradition, allegory, and typology have played a key role in understanding sacred scripture in its synthesis with the teachings of Christ, and the sense that may be drawn from it for our spiritual growth. The Song of Songs has not been an exception to that custom, if anything, it is the most recognizable book in the bible to receive the treatment of allegory or typology when we consider this topic. We can see the most preeminent figures in each tradition, both West and East, devoting their pen to this book. 

Here, moved by a beautiful sermon I heard on the Song of Songs, I have decided to continue in the tradition of our spiritual fathers by offering my meditation and reflections on a verse from the eighth chapter of the Song of Songs. 

I hope this benefits you and allows you to contemplate the wonderous mystery given to us in this section of sacred scripture. 

SS. 8:6 “Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; For love is as strong as death…”

    Here, speaking in the person of the woman to her beloved, she asks that he set her upon his heart and arm as a seal. Without a doubt, this is to signify that with his entirety, he is to love and defend her. For that which we most love is truly sealed upon our hearts, and what we defend, is defended by our arm.

So, it is the church, in her person, that she cries out to the bridegroom, “set me as a seal upon thine heart.” Oddly, love is compared with death here. This is contrary to most. For, usually, love and death are opposed, and love is compared with life. Here, Solomon signifies that they are of equal strength and related. Of course, knowing the mystery by faith, we know that there really is no better image of love than in death. It is not a coincidence that Solomon signified love and death together, for we know that the Lord Jesus Christ said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (Jn. 15:13)

The signifying of life and death together is seen first in the garden of Eden, "Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them...", but emphatically with the example of our Father, Abraham. For Abraham was given a life to spare his beloved son, Issac, "Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son." (Gen. 3:21; 22:13)

Love was signified by death immediately and prophetically. I mean that although in the first instance, the death of a mere ram saved Issac immediately, this image prophetically foretells of the lamb who would give up his life for the world (Gen 22:13; Jn. 1:19).  And Abraham’s seed, which is Christ (Gal. 3:7,9,16), is that foretold image. Why do I mention these connections and how do they relate to the cry of the woman in the Song of Songs? Because in her cry for her groom, she compares love and death, and our Lord, who is the groom of his bride the Church, demonstrates the strength of his love through his death. 

It is clear that the Church is imaged there, not only by the explanation of the fathers, but if we consider what has been clearly expressed by the Apostle in his letter to the Ephesians when he signifies love and death together with Christ being a husband to his beloved, which is the church,  “…as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us; …husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.” (Eph. 5:2,25). 

Further, in St. John's first epistle, does he not say that we have come to know love in the laying down of life? "By this, we know love, because He laid down His life for us" (1 Jn. 3:16). So for us, that love and death are signified together is not strange, they are of comparable force; and by divine mystery, the image of a husband and a bride, which is Christ and his church, is the image which best shows this as seen from the words of the apostle. 

Returning our consideration to the woman in the Song of Songs, the bride cries out that her bridegroom would love her with his entirety, "Set me as a seal upon your heart...". Now if the church is that woman, and her request is not vain, then Christ, the bridegroom, without hesitation, assuredly has heard our cry and set us as a seal upon his heart and arm. 

Let the Christian then know, that just as strongly as a woman and a man love each other with a fervent strength, a perfect love is given by Christ towards all the faithful. Therefore, Christian, know and feel this love. Recall the image of the Redeemer's wounds, the torn flesh off his back, the broken bones, the piercing of his hands, the humiliation and ignominy which he bore. This was love,  because "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8). Love manifest, he did this for you. 

In this same cry [SS 8:6], the woman rightly says “…jealousy is as cruel as the grave...”

    Two things should be noted. Firstly, the fact that jealousy is described in the woman's cry about love. And secondly, she compares the force of jealousy and the grave. We should not take this jealousy as a sinful excess. Rather, this is what Solomon signifies when he says, “For jealousy is a husband’s fury…” (Prov. 6:24). And is it not written in the law, that the Lord is a jealous God? “…for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” (Ex. 34:14). Does David not convey this when he writes that “they provoked him to anger with their high places and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.” (Ps. 78:58). Is this too not seen when the Lord calls after his people to return unto him and turn away from spiritual whoredom [πνευματικῶς πορνεία]?

For what husband can love his bride and not be jealous of her? For jealousy, of this sort, shows a deep love, not a sinful inclination. Rightfully, the bride says that “jealously is as cruel as the grave…”, that is, they are of comparable force. Considering this mystery, we come to the knowledge that the Lord has a Jealous love for us. And what a wonderful mystery is this! That we, who were at once at war with God and haters of him, have come to know him as our husband and redeemer? And we have come to know not any love, but the rich and jealous love of a righteous husband.

Further, the woman says, SS. 8:6 “…its flames are flames of fire, A most vehement flame.”

    This love that she describes is the flames of fire which are a [שַׁלְהֶבֶתְ יָֽה] vehement flame. But literally, the Hebrew here is the name of God. The latter word is “yah”, which is the shortened form of the sacred and eternal name. 

It is no small thing that the woman, who is the church, speaks of divine love (with a play on words). We are conveyed that this love, for which the bride longs for and describes, is the very love of God. This shows the divinity of her bride, for the eternal Son, the bridegroom, alone could satisfy such a description. Therefore, we see that the church is given the eternal love of God through the Lord Jesus Christ as her divine husband.

A Word of Application 

    Apart from us all reflecting upon God's love toward us, that is between Christ and his church, I want to direct the end of this to men. For the men who are not called to the virtuous and solemn calling of singleness, the words/actions of Solomon, Christ, and Paul, should move and stir our souls to this image of husbandry, the depth of the true sense of love, and the duties required by the faithful who are given a spouse. 

Loving our wives with our whole, giving up ourselves self-sacrificially, demonstrating the image of Christ, etc., all of these should be discerned and then applied to our lives. I urge all to offer up meditation to the example shown forth, prayer to God for our sake and his glory regarding what has been meditated upon, contemplation in what the Lord requires of us, and then action to carry out these duties.