How to Preach This

Song of Solomon 5:2-6
(2) I slept, but my heart was awake. A sound! My beloved is knocking. "Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one, for my head is wet with dew, my locks with the drops of the night."
(3) I had put off my garment; how could I put it on? I had bathed my feet; how could I soil them?
(4) My beloved put his hand to the latch, and my heart was thrilled within me.
(5) I arose to open to my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, on the handles of the bolt.
(6) I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had turned and gone. My soul failed me when he spoke. I sought him, but found him not; I called him, but he gave no answer.

So given all the controversy surrounding the handling of this book lately, what do you do with a passage like this? To me, it looks pretty racy. I won't get into describing what I think it means. Basically, I think of Nuke LaLoosh in his second day with the Durham Bulls, "Limpid jets of love...Crash -- does that mean what I think it means?"

Personally, I think that Song of Songs is best left for smaller settings. I'm not sure that I want to go into explaining what I think this means to Lily right now. I'm not sure that a lot of parents would want to have to explain that sermon to their kids on the way home.

Yet this is in Scripture. We know from 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that this is profitable to learn about. Do you preach this text? If so, what do you do with it?

Standards of Beauty

Song of Solomon 1:15-16
(15) Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves.
(16) Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful. Our couch is green;

I thought I'd take a little break from Jeremiah to talk about this great book. There is a ton of controversy about the treatment of this book out in the blogosphere. Should it be preached? If so, how much should the pastor unpack the figurative language? What is appropriate for a congregation?

I don't really want to get into all that so much. I don't plan to discuss what the shoots of the garden represent, etc. In fact, I don't know if I'll write about this book every day as I go through it. However, this passage in chapter 1 is worth noting.

Earlier in the chapter the woman bemoaned the fact that her skin was dark because of the time she spent outside. Apparently the standard of beauty in that day was for women to be fair. On a side note, I'm sure that this woman would be mystified at the ubiquity of tanning beds in our culture.

In verses 15 and 16 Solomon reassures her that she is truly beautiful to him. Think about that for a minute. Is that the message you convey to your wife? Is your head on a swivel when you're at the mall or do you have eyes only for your wife? Are you able to resist the temptation of all that is on the internet partly because you are satisfied with your wife's beauty?

I acknowledge that we are 35 and that my wife takes good care of herself. However, that has not always been the case. Plus, going through 3 pregnancies changed her body significantly. Yet through it all I strove for her to be the gold standard of beauty.

Am I sometimes distracted? Of course. However, I am often reminded of just how fortunate I am to be married to my wife. She really is my standard of beauty and that is a work of God's grace in our lives.