8The voice of my beloved!
Behold, he comes,
leaping on the mountains,
skipping on the hills.
9My beloved is like a roe or a young deer.
Behold, he stands behind our wall!
He looks in at the windows.
He glances through the lattice.
10My beloved spoke, and said to me,
“Rise up, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.
11For behold, the winter is past.
The rain is over and gone.
12The flowers appear on the earth.
The time of the singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
13The fig tree ripens her green figs.
The vines are in blossom.
They give out their fragrance.
Arise, my love, my beautiful one,
and come away.”
Lover
14My dove in the clefts of the rock,
in the hiding places of the mountainside,
let me see your face.
Let me hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely.
15Catch for us the foxes,
the little foxes that plunder the vineyards;
for our vineyards are in blossom.
Beloved
16My beloved is mine, and I am his.
He browses among the lilies.
17Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away,
turn, my beloved,
and be like a roe or a young deer on the mountains of Bether.
We live in a non-committal culture that encourages friends with benefits and no strings attached, and yet the Song of Songs offers a different picture of what it means to be in relationship. Some of the most well-known verses from Song of Solomon are, “My beloved is mine and I am his” and “I am my beloved and my beloved is mine” (2:17 and 6:3). These verses urge us to see intimacy as a commitment to faithfulness and reciprocity.
Intimacy is first seen as faithfulness. Within this faithfulness there is a sense of ownership and commitment. I belong to my beloved, and my beloved belongs to me. This is more than simply, “I like her, she likes me”; it involves the giving of one’s self completely to another. This kind of commitment is difficult as it requires a great deal of vulnerability which comes with a lot of risk. Opening up completely to someone else and allowing them to see you as you are is a daunting task, but true intimacy is not possible without vulnerability. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7, “The wife gives authority over her body to her husband, and the husband gives authority over his body to his wife.” In marriage there is a sense of ownership and belonging that one gives to their significant other. Can this be abused? Unfortunately yes, but when two individuals give themselves completely to one another in love, not focused on what they will receive but instead how they can serve and give, the result is life! Literally!
The second part of this which is essential is reciprocity. For the cultures in which Song of Solomon and 1 Corinthians were written, women would have been seen as property. It would not have been revolutionary for the woman’s body to belong to the man, but for the man to belong to the woman? This would have been incredibly profound! And yet, the Song sings of a relationship that is bound in love and respect, commitment and service, faithfulness and reciprocity.
While this is focused literally on the relationship between Solomon and this woman, we too are called to give our entire lives completely to Christ, even giving him ownership to our present and future as he has already given his life for us.