Song of Solomon

Love stories have captured the hearts of men and women since the dawn of time. Lovers are forever linked together, even centuries after their lives are over. The names of Romeo and Juliet, Marc Antony and Cleopatra, Dante and Beatrice, Hosea and Gomer, live on even now, eternally linked together.

The Song of Solomon is a love story. It may very well be the greatest love story ever told. Solomon was named by God Himself as the wisest man who ever lived! He knew as much about women as any man ever has. He had 700 wives and 300 concubines. I think that qualifies him for nomination for a PhD in womanology.

Solomon wrote three books. He wrote the Song of Solomon as a young man. He then wrote Proverbs when in middle age. Later when he was elderly, he wrote Ecclesiastes.

He who wrote 1005 songs and 3000 proverbs, said this was the Song of Songs. Out of the 1005 songs he wrote, this was number 1. Is it feasible that he wrote a song for each of the women in his life? Possibly 1000 women and 1005 songs. We know this song was written to the Shunamite girl and we know she resisted his enticements. So, I suggest it is at least possible his modis operandi was a love song to each woman he courted.

Out of all the songs he wrote, he felt this was the Song of Songs. The question is why? I submit it was because he saw in this young girl the kind of love he wished Israel as a nation had for God. If somehow Israel would fall in love with her Shepard like the Shunamite girl loved her Shepard, then Israel would be blessed.

The story goes something like this. Solomon had a summer home. This we find in the Bible. While making the journey there one summer day he sees a young shepardess and a young Shepard under an apple tree.

That night Solomon sends for the young girl who is black by the sun and very poor. She has never had nice things or even shoes upon her feet. When she is brought to Solomon’s palace she is overwhelmed. When Solomon makes his intentions known, she is speechless and is given until tomorrow to make up her mind.

There are 140 women with Solomon at this time. While she lies upon her bed with her head spinning, she hears the young Shepard boy at her door. He has come looking for her. He is panicked at the thought of losing her to Solomon. He has braved the dangerous night to find her and take her home.

While lying on her bed, she hesitates and he moves on. Finally she rises and goes to the door, and can smell his lingering fragrance. She runs though the night city looking for him but he has gone.

The next day when she appears before Solomon, he makes his plea for her. She is torn between the pull of Solomon and all he can offer and her Shepard lover. Solomon makes a fatal mistake when he mentions the apple tree. When Solomon says that her mouth is like apples, she rises and flees. She runs from the summer palace and runs home.

The Shepard is disconsolate because he thinks she is lost to him. Then suddenly he sees her. She is running to him. Her garments are flying in the wind. Her hair is blowing free. The Shepard realizes she loves him more than all the allurements of money or fame. The time spent under the apple tree with him forged a bond between them that was as strong as death. She is reunited with her Shepard lover.

Back at the summer palace, the whole court of Solomon is aghast. The young girl just ran out. No one had ever done that before. They were stunned. They were stunned because the girl had the nerve to reject the King, but even more stunned by the King himself.

He just sat on his throne with a puzzled look on his face. For a long time he said nothing. Then he asked for a writing instrument and something to write on. They were amazed. Why, he was writing a song! A song of tribute to the woman who could not be bought. To the woman who was so in love with her Shepard, that nothing could influence her to give that love up for another love.

Slowly they began to see what the King saw. If only God’s people would love their Shepard that way. Solomon hummed the tune to The Lord is my Shepard. For the first time in his young life, Solomon understood true love. A love based on time spent together. A love that was not based on things, but rather on value of each other.

The wisest man of all the ages wrote a song about that and declared it to be the “Song of Songs”. A tribute to the love for a shepard that was forged under the Apple tree. A love so strong that even death itself could not sever it.

May God give us that kind of love for our Shepard!


Advertisement