LESSON 3: Showcase for a Crown Jewel

INTRODUCTION: The past two weeks we have looked at the background of the author of the Songs, and have considered his purpose in writing the Song. This week we explore the technical, literary side of the Song. This will help us to understand what we are reading.

I. Song of Songs

A. Read Song 1:1. We see that this is Solomon’s Song. But we are also told that it is the “Song of Songs.” What do you think that means? (The Holy of Holies. The war to end all wars. The Cadillac of Cadillacs. It is the best of Solomon’s songs!)

B. What is it about singing that you like in church? (That you are involved in it. It gives you an emotional response. Singing helps to fix the words in our mind.)

C. Many of the great events of the Old Testament were celebrated in song. (Crossing the Red Sea (Exodus 15); defeating the Canaanites (Judges 5); David being rescued from Saul (2 Samuel 22).)

D. We see that songs are special. What do you think will be the “Song of Songs?” (When we stand on the Sea of Glass in heaven, Revelation 15:3 tells us that we will sing the song of Moses and the Lamb.)

E. Love involves emotion. The common belief is that in a long-term relationship, love is more emotional at the beginning. Do you think that Solomon describes his relationship with Shulamith in the form of a song in order to keep up the emotional level?

1. If this song can be part of the Bible, should we, as part of church gatherings (not necessarily church worship), sing love songs?

2. Have we given this over to the secular world?

F. When I started to consider this, my mind started rolling. Let’s see if yours will too:

1. How many of you have had the experience of listening to a song and remembering exactly what it was you were doing when you heard that song?

2. The song triggers the memory?

3. Should we encourage song or poem writing in our families to help remind us of times when God has intervened for us? Or about our love for each other?

II. Format

A. In modern songs, it is often that certain singers or groups of singers sing certain lines. That is also the case with the Song of Songs. It seems that we are sort of dealing with what would be known as a musical today.

B. Look at your Bible. How many of you have a Bible that identifies who is speaking? I looked at several modern translations this week, and most of them (even the RSV) identify the speaker/singer.

1. Those of you who have the speaker/singer identified, tell me who is named in your Bible? (The NIV says, “beloved,” “lover,” and “friends.” The NKJV says, “Shulamite,” “her beloved,” “the beloved,” “the daughters of Jerusalem,” and “her brothers.”)

2. There is some debate over who the beloved is, but our lesson cuts through this and calls him Solomon. So it has “Solomon,” “Shulamith,” and “daughters.” It also adds “the daughters of Jerusalem,” “Shulamith’s brothers,” and “friends.”

C. Let’s try this out to see how it works. Let’s turn to chapter 6 of the Song.

1. 6:1 — Friends

2. 6:2–3 — Shulamith or beloved

3. 6:4–9 — Solomon or lover

4. 6:10 — Friends

5. 6:11–12 — Solomon or beloved

6. 6:13a — Friends

7. 6:13b — Solomon or lover

D. Who wants to be Solomon, Shulamith, and friend(s)? Have them read.

III. The Form

A. Not only is the Song like a musical in that we have different persons or groups saying certain lines, but it is like poetry or music in that it has a certain form.

B. What is the most common form or characteristic in poetry? In general, how do you know a poem from any other piece of writing? (Rhyme. “He was a poet and he did not know it.”)

C. If you were to translate a rhyming poem into another language, how would you guess it would work? (Not well. Like these dubbed foreign films. The words are not the same—not the same length, and they do not sound the same.)

D. Those problems are avoided in the Bible, because the Song and a large portion of the Old Testament use “thought-rhyme” instead of “word-rhyme.” (Our lesson calls thought-rhyme “thought-rhythm.”)

E. Let’s look at this a bit and start with an easy example: turn to Prov. 2:1–5. What are the “thought-rhymes” in each verse?

1. This “thought-rhyme” is also called “parallelism.” The thoughts are parallel.

F. Now let’s look at a little more complex example from the Song: Song 2:14. Draw out:

1. Show me your face [A]

2. Let me hear your voice [B]

3. Your voice is sweet [B1]

4. Your face is lovely [A1]

G. Where is the thought rhyme here? (See brackets above.)

H. This idea of a pattern and thought rhyme gets a lot more complex. When I was reading several authorities about the Song, I noticed that a common theme was the suggestion that the Song is a series of different writings put together, and not one integrated song.

1. Our lesson makes a very interesting argument against this. I will let you be the judge:

2. There is a form of parallelism (thought rhyme) called “chiasm.” “Chi” is the Greek letter “X” (X-ism).

3. Let me draw it out for you:

A                            A

    B                    B

        C            C

            D    D

            D1  D1

        C1          C1

    B1                  B1

A1                          A1

4. This means that the first verse of the book would thought-rhyme with the last verse of the book. Let’s look at that for just a minute (see the diagram).

5. Our lesson points out that the two verses at the exact middle of the Song—4:15 and 5:1 (they are 111 lines on each side)—and deal with the consummation of their sexual relationship. Read these texts. What is happening in them? (She invites him in and he comes in).

IV. Next Week Study your lesson: it touches on the Solomon/Shulamith as opposed to the Solomon/Shulamith/shepherd interpretation.