The voice of my beloved! Look, he comes, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills. My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look, there he stands behind our wall, gazing in at the windows, looking through the lattice. My beloved speaks and says to me: “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. (Song of Solomon 2:8-13)

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     I love the Song of Solomon. It is one of the most beautifully written and, at the same time, most mysterious books you will find in the Bible. It has over the centuries received a myriad of interpretations. It’s essentially a love poem (or perhaps more appropriately it’s a drama about love) and it’s written in language that must have made the more uptight Christians of generations past blush when they read it, and it still does, I guess, which explains why we hardly ever talk about it! I was once told by someone that if you want to get teenagers reading the Bible tell them to read the Song of Solomon, because it has some rather exotic (and one could even say erotic) language in it. Many years ago, as an intern at Central Avenue United Church in Fort Erie, I conducted a four part Bible study for couples on this book, giving the advice to those who attended that they should go home and read this book to one another. Many showed up with happy faces the next Sunday, which is not surprising, since this is a romantic piece of literature – one that I’m sure every woman who has gathered with us today for worship can relate to. You can all remember the sight of the men who loved you leaping on the mountains and bounding over the hills as they approached you, can’t you? Your husbands come home, leaping and bounding to you now, don’t they? I once leapt over a hedge for Lynn. I really did! And I hurt myself, too! I ripped my shirt and scraped my elbow raw when I fell down! It’s dangerous stuff, this leaping and bounding! Love can be a painful thing!

     But back to the Song of Solomon. What’s going on in this passage of Scripture? Here’s where we get to the difficult job of trying to interpret the Song of Solomon. Basically, there are three possible interpretations as to what this rather exotic and erotic love story is trying to say. The traditional Jewish interpretation has been that the Song of Solomon is describing the passionate love of God for Israel. The traditional Christian interpretation has been that the Song of Solomon is describing the passionate love of Christ for the church. The key point is that the Song of Solomon has traditionally been seen as an allegory, which downplays or explains away the often earthy and physical tone of the Song. But there is another interpretation of the Song. There is the natural interpretation which says that this isn’t an allegory at all; that the Song of Solomon is exactly what it seems to be: a celebration of the passionate and physical love between a man and a woman. Now, if the role of Scripture is to teach us about God, I have no objection to using this Book as a way of understanding that God loves His people with a passion. There’s nothing wrong with that, and the both church and Scripture often interpret God’s love for the world through the lens of human love. I talked about the limitations involved in doing that a few weeks ago, but if it’s done properly it can be very useful. Jesus describes His relationship to the church as a marriage with Himself as the bridegroom (imagery later expanded upon in the Book of Revelation) and Paul describes human marriage in terms of Christ’s relationship to the church. At marriage ceremonies the minister speaks words like this: “In marriage, man and woman give themselves to each other and are united by their love, as Christ is united to His church.” So the bond of passionate love between a man and a woman is often seen as a way of understanding the love of God for His people. If that’s true, then, why not simply acknowledge that the Song is what it is – a love poem – and a very passionate love poem at that! After all, the Song is surely celebrating human love while at the same time teaching something about divine love. Since today is Valentine’s Day – the “Day of Love” as some people call it – it seemed to me that we should celebrate human love today.

     Love is a joyful thing, and the Song reminds us that as we rejoice in the love we feel for those we share our lives with, so does God rejoices in us all. I had some fun at the start of my remarks today with the image of husbands leaping and bounding to their wives. I don’t often use the King James Version of the Bible, but it actually has a wonderful translation of v.8: “The voice of my beloved! Behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.” Most men would not leap and skip. Frankly speaking, we’d be too embarrassed. I was very embarrassed as I lay in the parking lot of the Mandarin Restaurant in Scarborough in pain and with torn clothes after leaping over that hedge for Lynn. I’ve never tried to leap over a hedge for her again to this day! I love her dearly, but neither am I particularly tempted to bound or skip at this point. We laugh at imagery like that. We wouldn’t likely act in such ways because we know that if we did people would laugh at us. The very image of me leaping upon mountains or bounding or skipping over hills makes me want to laugh at myself – and yet, surely this is the joy and fun and passion of love! As I said a few weeks ago, I heard a psychologist once say that love was a form of insanity because it made us act in ways we wouldn’t normally act. I don’t generally leap over hedges – but I did for Lynn! And we’re not only talking romantic love, of course. There are many forms of human love that make us do the strangest things. Recently, Hannah has developed something of a fixation with makeup – and with putting it on her daddy! Why do I let her do it. Because I love her and it makes her happy – and I’ve discovered that I look very cute with lipstick and blush on! It might not quite be bounding or skipping over mountains, but me in makeup is still a pretty dramatic thing! When we really love someone we’ll sometimes do the strangest things to make them happy and to make them laugh; things that might even, in normal circumstances, cause us great embarrassment! In this way, maybe human love does teach us about God’s love. After all, God is willing to do things for us that you wouldn’t expect an almighty God to do. But God doesn’t care! In His love for us God leaps upon mountains and bounds and skips over hills (figuratively speaking at least) and so great is His love for us that He doesn’t care if you want to laugh at the image! God is willing to sacrifice His divine dignity for the sake of those He loves, which is essentially what Paul said in Philippians when he wrote about Christ that

though He was in the form of God, [He] did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross. (2:6-8)

     It’s no coincidence that the greatest testimony to love in the entire Bible is called the Song of Solomon. It has a poetic and even musical sound to it, this paeon of praise to love. Love sonnets apparently didn’t begin with Shakespeare! I’m going to suggest to you today the same thing I suggested to the group in Fort Erie years ago. Pick up a Bible when you get home and celebrate Valentine’s Day by reading the Song of Solomon to someone you love. You might be amazed at the things you learn from it about love.