His Perfect Love

Guest (Male): Today on His Perfect Love, we introduce you to the Song of Solomon, and Pastor Matt is quick to point out not everyone agrees on the best method of interpretation.

Matt VanderVen: Scholars have found this book, probably more than almost any other book in scripture other than maybe Revelation, very difficult to agree on in its origin, its meaning, and its purpose. You could buy 25 commentaries and you could get 25 different interpretations through the book of the Song of Solomon by scholars.

Even in modern scholarship, archaeological discoveries, the recovery of huge bodies of ancient literature, and insights into Oriental psychology and sociology have produced no clear consensus either, as most scholars would want or desire or pastors would love.

Guest (Male): Welcome once again to His Perfect Love, a ministry of Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore. Today, we begin a new series based on the Song of Solomon, a book about love and marriage. But as you'll hear in a second, it's not so easy to interpret. Do we take a literal or allegorical approach? Pastor Matt VanderVen will weigh in on this here in our introduction to the book. You'll find it right after Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament. That's where we join Pastor Matt now.

Matt VanderVen: The Song of Songs is really taken from chapter one, verse one. That's why many people will call it the Song of Songs, or maybe when looking it up on your Bible app, you might just put "Songs" and search on it that way. The reason it's called the Song of Songs is because it is the finest song in which Solomon had ever written, inspired by the Holy Spirit.

The Song of Solomon is a parabolic song. We read in First Kings chapter four, verse 32, that Solomon spoke 3,000 proverbs and his songs were 1,005. So we're told in scripture that not only was Solomon wise and able to write the proverbs and Ecclesiastes, but he was also a songwriter. He was known to write many songs. Even early church fathers go back and talk about how growing up in the oral tradition of the Jewish faith, you could hear about his nomenclature as a songwriter or one that would sing or at least enjoy songs.

Solomon again wrote 3,000 proverbs, but it's quite interesting that if you count the proverbs in the Book of Proverbs, you come up with many less than 3,000. The Song of Solomon is also called the Book of Canticles. It's an alternate name derived from the Latin Vulgate. The song is first among the five scrolls in the Megilloth in the Jewish canon used at festival occasions. It's also assigned to be read over Passover. Every Passover, the Jewish people would gather and they would read the Song of Songs.

The Song of Solomon is literally about love and marriage. If we were just reading this without understanding the application, the context, or the background, you will see that it is about love and marriage. During the week of a marriage celebration, we're going to start with the "pre" before the marriage. In that context, the Jewish bride and the groom are treated like kings and queens. Solomon himself is mentioned in chapter one, verse one.

Please understand that any of the headings that you'll see as we read this book together are extra-biblical. They are not in the original text. Very few books in our Bibles have headings in the original text; one of them was the Book of Psalms. Many of the things we're going to read here, even though it'll say "the banquet" or "the Shulamite," those were added later on for readability or for interpretation, but are not in the original text.

In the Old Testament in those days, rulers often were also called shepherds. The Eastern sheiks, if you start looking contextually at the time, were the fathers of a household. Today we use the term "pastor of the home." In that time, the Eastern sheiks in their culture were considered the fathers of the household and the shepherd of the flock. Even if they didn't necessarily have flocks, they were still considered the shepherd of their flock and the king over the realm.

The key female character in the Song of Solomon is a shepherdess. In chapter one, verse eight, she is called "fairest among women" and told to "follow in the footsteps of the flock." She's a shepherdess and she is a keeper of the vineyard. In verse six, she says, "They made me the keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept." Here we are starting to understand exactly who Solomon is speaking to and who she is.

Let's talk about canonicity. As we read through this book, you will quickly realize this is PG. It's not a G-rated book. I say that because I know there's young people here, but it's not something that we need to be ashamed about. That's what's so beautiful about this book. In our culture, we are so wrecked by the filth of so many different things that when we come to something beautiful that God has designed in marriage, it is meant to be seen as such beauty.

That meant that initially, when this was written by the Holy Spirit, it didn't initially make it into the canon. That's because so many of the Jewish rabbis were hesitant to put that in there. The Mishnah literally hints to the laboring of trying to get this put into canon. Eventually, the objections were overcome because of the poem's connection with Solomon being one of the wisest and a respected king.

By rabbinic and Christian tradition, the allegorical interpretation suggests that people started interpreting this as something other than literal. When that began to be interpreted, everyone said, "Oh, okay, we'll put it in canon now." They felt it was okay because they believed it was actually not talking about the sexual intimacy between a husband and wife, but was more of an allegory between God as the bridegroom and Israel being the covenant children. That helped them to mitigate any sensual tone in the book.

Traditionally, the authorship is Solomonic. It's based on the reference to the king throughout the book, especially in the title "Shir Hashirim Asher L'Shlomo." This indicates his authorship. Some people have come back and said, "What about the proposition before that?" That word in the Hebrew is actually "asher." It is definitely masculine and talking about a male. It's important because some have tried to re-interpret the book, but the pronouns are very unique and distinct in the Hebrew, clearly speaking of a male and speaking to a female.

The lack of historical reference in the song makes dating difficult. Many of the other books are narrative, allowing us to say this happened at this time or this was the king that was in power. Other than Solomon himself, it's very difficult to land on an exact date. But the song's lavish setting accurately reflects Solomon's glory. He was the wealthiest and had more possessions and ability than at any other time in Israel's history.

So much of this book's setting and tone reflects a Solomonic age. Just as with the proverbs, the nucleus or the core of the Song of Solomon may have been transmitted initially through oral tradition. Possibly a Shulamite shared her most internal feelings with Solomon. In this book, you're going to see her sort of sharing her heart about Solomon. Today we might say that guy is handsome or this woman is beautiful. Many people ask how Solomon knew what she was thinking. It's very possible that she was able to share that and Solomon would write those things down.

It's very possible that Solomon recorded the song from three viewpoints: God's, the Shulamite's, and Solomon's. We see something similar in his other writings. In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon references himself in the third person all the time. In chapter 12, verse 9, he says, "And moreover, because the preacher was wise." He was calling himself the preacher and referring to himself in the third person. Therefore, the Song of Solomon was probably written sometime during his reign between 971 to 931 BC.

There's probably someone listening to this and wondering how Solomon could have authored the book that extols faithfulness in marriage when he himself was unfaithful. He had 700 wives and 300 concubines. I'm very careful in reading my scriptures, especially when I think of the New Testament or the Old Testament. There were many prophets that were chosen to write a book for the Lord that would struggle with all kinds of sin. God chose them to write about it in spite of their sin, because it really wasn't about us. It was about what the original author, God, intended for the viewpoint of the people of that day.

Perhaps the answer is that the beloved in the song whom he married was his first wife. If so, maybe the book was written soon after his marriage before he fell into the sin of polygamy. We simply don't know enough about that. We know this: that God desired through the Holy Spirit to capture this for you and me to have a better understanding of God's heart and the marriage covenant.

Strictly speaking, the song should not really be classified as wisdom literature since its dominant form is love poetry. What you have in front of you is really love poetry with minimal instruction and minimal debate. But because it's connected with Solomon, it can be studied alongside the wisdom corpus. Most of the song is stylized conversation between love and the beloved.

The first interpretation I'd like to talk to you about is called the allegorical approach. This is the earliest recorded Jewish interpretation. In the Mishnah, the Talmud, and the Targum, it's found that it was a portrait of God's love for Israel. The account for this book uses the Passover, which celebrates God's covenant of love. What a beautiful time that when they would gather for the feast of Passover, this book would be read as they were celebrating their covenant with God.

Not content with general allusions to a God-relationship with Israel, the rabbis also sought to discover specific references to Israel's history. At that same time, or even a thousand years later, we then have another opportunity to re-interpret this book, and that happened by the early church fathers. This makes sense because during the time of the Apostle Paul and slightly thereafter, you now have Jews that are getting saved and becoming Christians. They go to the word of God and get revelation directly from Jesus Christ.

The early church fathers saw Christ's love for the church or the individual believer in it. Christians have also contributed detailed imaginative interpretations attested by headings found in the King James and other books regarding the mutual love of Christ and His church. Again, the headings are not inspired by God; those are manmade. If it's helpful, just don't look at it. Read the inspired word of God and develop the understanding in which God would have you. It was simply given to us for readability, but it was added by men.

What some will call the typical or I call the literal, it's more or less what we do here at Calvary Chapel. We take the word and we understand it literally. If it says "The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth," that means we understand that literally, taking this at face value. The Shulamite, the heroine in this case, is saying, "Let Solomon kiss me with the kisses of his mouth."

We have a lot of evidence to think that because if we go into the Hebrew, we can see examples of these words with the pronouns that are used in other books that have similar language. That's what we call the literal or typical approach. It is to avoid the allegorical approach of subjectiveness and to honor the poem's literal sense. The method stresses the major theme of love and devotion rather than other details that may not directly be in there but must be stepped back and seen in a bigger picture.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Pastor Matt VanderVen and our very first message in the Song of Solomon. We've been learning how to best interpret the book. As you heard, not everyone agrees on that. You can catch a replay when you visit hisperfectlove.org. We're also at oneplace.com and look for us wherever you get your podcasts.

We also have a mobile app. This is a great way to take Pastor Matt's teachings with you wherever you may go. You can learn more about the mobile app and start your download when you visit our website, hisperfectlove.org. Thank you for your prayers and financial support. You can make a contribution to the ministry and send us your prayer requests through the website again at hisperfectlove.org.

Those of you that are in the Mechanicsburg, PA area or will be visiting the area, we want to cordially invite you to join us for a worship service. Just like on the radio, Pastor Matt teaches verse by verse through the Bible here at Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore. Sunday morning services begin at 8:30 and 10:30. We have a midweek service on Wednesdays at 7:00 PM. You'll find us at 28 North Locust Point Road in Mechanicsburg, PA. Go to ccharrisburg.org for more information. Then set aside another half hour to join us tomorrow at the same time on this same fine station when Pastor Matt will pick up where we left off in the Song of Solomon here on His Perfect Love.