October 16th, 2025
by Matt Davis
by Matt Davis
Recently, I have been contemplating Song of Solomon's place in the scripture. Is it merely a collection of songs that portray the beauty of married love?
It is certainly not less than that.
But as I was reading a writer I respect a few weeks ago he reminded the me that the scripture is all about Jesus - he is its pinnacle but also the thread that is traced from its beginning chapters to the foot of the cross. So I asked myself, what does Song of Solomon teach us about Christ?
I am just beginning to explore this and am still trying to grasp a faithful hermeneutic (approach to interpretation) that takes what is obviously a picture of intimate love between spouses but also mine it for truth about Christ's love for us as the Bridegroom of the church. What was my first stop in seeing how this might be done? The Prince of Preachers himself, C. H. Spurgeon. Besides opening a sermon from Songs 1:13 where he says only the most mature Christian can understand the depth of fellowship with Christ that the writer is painting (something that made me feel slightly judged from a guy who lived 170 years ago), I was startled by the first point of his sermon. After an extended discussion about how every Christian can enjoy the beauties of this world and the glories of family, he says this:
In all of them added together, he doth not find such substantial delight as he doth in the person of his Lord Jesus. Brethren, there is a wine which no vineyard on earth ever yielded; there is a bread which even the corn-fields of Egypt could never bring forth. You and I have said, when we have beheld others finding their god in earthly comforts, "You may boast in gold, and silver, and raiment, but I will rejoice in the God of my salvation." In our esteem, the joys of earth are little better than husks for swine compared with Jesus the heavenly manna. I would rather have one mouthful of Christ's love, and a sip of his fellowship, than a whole world full of carnal delights. What is the chaff to the wheat? What is the sparkling paste to the true diamond? What is a dream to the glorious reality? What is time's mirth in its best trim compared to our Lord Jesus in his most despised estate? If you know anything of the inner life, you will all of you confess that our highest, purest, and most enduring joys must be the fruit of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God. No spring yields such sweet water as that well of God which was digged with the soldier's spear. As for the house of feasting, the joy of harvest, the mirth of marriage, the sports of youth, the recreations of maturer age, they are all as the small dust of the balance compared with the joy of Immanuel our best beloved.
"No spring yields such sweet water as that well of God which was digged by the soldier's spear". Chew on that for a minute.
I want to keep thinking through this and learning about the Christological implications of a book that I assumed for years had few.
Don't worry. I am not planning any sermon series from the Songs anytime soon.
It is certainly not less than that.
But as I was reading a writer I respect a few weeks ago he reminded the me that the scripture is all about Jesus - he is its pinnacle but also the thread that is traced from its beginning chapters to the foot of the cross. So I asked myself, what does Song of Solomon teach us about Christ?
I am just beginning to explore this and am still trying to grasp a faithful hermeneutic (approach to interpretation) that takes what is obviously a picture of intimate love between spouses but also mine it for truth about Christ's love for us as the Bridegroom of the church. What was my first stop in seeing how this might be done? The Prince of Preachers himself, C. H. Spurgeon. Besides opening a sermon from Songs 1:13 where he says only the most mature Christian can understand the depth of fellowship with Christ that the writer is painting (something that made me feel slightly judged from a guy who lived 170 years ago), I was startled by the first point of his sermon. After an extended discussion about how every Christian can enjoy the beauties of this world and the glories of family, he says this:
In all of them added together, he doth not find such substantial delight as he doth in the person of his Lord Jesus. Brethren, there is a wine which no vineyard on earth ever yielded; there is a bread which even the corn-fields of Egypt could never bring forth. You and I have said, when we have beheld others finding their god in earthly comforts, "You may boast in gold, and silver, and raiment, but I will rejoice in the God of my salvation." In our esteem, the joys of earth are little better than husks for swine compared with Jesus the heavenly manna. I would rather have one mouthful of Christ's love, and a sip of his fellowship, than a whole world full of carnal delights. What is the chaff to the wheat? What is the sparkling paste to the true diamond? What is a dream to the glorious reality? What is time's mirth in its best trim compared to our Lord Jesus in his most despised estate? If you know anything of the inner life, you will all of you confess that our highest, purest, and most enduring joys must be the fruit of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God. No spring yields such sweet water as that well of God which was digged with the soldier's spear. As for the house of feasting, the joy of harvest, the mirth of marriage, the sports of youth, the recreations of maturer age, they are all as the small dust of the balance compared with the joy of Immanuel our best beloved.
"No spring yields such sweet water as that well of God which was digged by the soldier's spear". Chew on that for a minute.
I want to keep thinking through this and learning about the Christological implications of a book that I assumed for years had few.
Don't worry. I am not planning any sermon series from the Songs anytime soon.
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