Hour by hour I place my days in your hand, safe from the hands out to get me. Psalm 31:15 (TM)

Faith is not a permanent state of being; It is a moment-by-moment choice.

(note: We are breaking up Psalms into five sections of 30 chapters each. Today begins our journey through chapters 31-60.)
Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and PPDigital.

Hour by hour I place my days in your hand, safe from the hands out to get me. Psalm 31:15 (TM)

Faith is not a permanent state of being; It is a moment-by-moment choice.

(note: We are breaking up Psalms into five sections of 30 chapters each. Today begins our journey through chapters 31-60.)
Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and PPDigital.

Dear brothers, I’m a walled-in virgin still, but my breasts are full — And when my lover sees me, he knows he’ll soon be satisfied. Song of Solomon 8:10 (TM)

One of the reasons people avoid the Old Testament is that it confuses them. The Old Testament often confuses people, because it is often hard to place things written 30 centuries ago into a context we get today. In an age of population control, abortion on demand and "the pill", it’s sometimes hard to imagine a time when, for a woman, being fertile was the single most important thing to your family, your friends and to society as a whole.

For a woman in Solomon’s day, you were expected to produce children – especially sons – who could inherit the family estate, work the land, and provide for the family. If you weren’t fertile or perceived as an unlikely candidate for fertility – your chances of getting married were reduced and the family had the added pressure of providing for an old maid. Even in today’s society, women who don’t get married feel the skepticism of their families and the culture as a whole. In Solomon’s day it was infinitely worse.

This is why the woman’s brothers, in Chapter 8, are concerned with the size of their sister’s bosom. The family’s job – especially the male members of the family – was to broker the deal to get little sister married off and take another mouth-to-feed off the family’s hands. A young girl would have been watched closely to make sure she had the physical signs of a fertile woman – baby makin’ hips and adequate breasts.

The woman in the Song of Solomon is celebrating her womanhood and declaring that she is fertile, that is is ready to marry and bear children for her husband-to-be.

The feelings I get when I see the high mountain ranges — stirrings of desire, longings for the heights — Remind me of you, and I’m spoiled for anyone else! Song of Solomon 7:6 (TM)

I am my lover’s. I’m all he wants. I’m all the world to him! Come, dear lover— Song of Solomon 7:9-10a (TM)

One of the things I love, as a stage director, is getting to watch Wendy on stage. I love it on several different levels. I love that she’s a wonderful, capable actor and I appreciate her talent. I love watching her do something she loves and enjoying herself thoroughly. But, I also love that she’s my wife and lover. I think she’s beautiful and desirable and I love watching her knowing that – when the show is over – I get to take her home!

What struck me in today’s chapter is the differences in what got the man and woman’s motor running. The man gazes upon his bride and it’s the visual stimulation that turns him on. He describes his woman’s looks and the more he describes her, the more his eyes feast on her, the greater his desires build. In fact, all he has to do is look at the mountains and his mind wanders back to her breasts.

As Wendy would say, "such a boy."

The woman, on the other hand, makes it clear that it’s being the object of desire which turns her on. She sees that look in his eye, she feels how much she turns him on and that turns her on. I see the same reaction in Wendy when she catches that look in my eye 🙂

Creative Commons photo of the Grand Tetons courtesy of Flickr and Vulcho.

Never mind. My lover is already on his way to his garden, to browse among the flowers, touching the colors and forms. Song of Solomon 6:2 (TM)

I believe that we’ve lost an appreciation for the Song of Solomon because our culture has lost its appreciation and understanding of metaphor. One cannot read the Song of Solomon and appreciate the sensuality, the celebration of sexual love, that God is expressing without an understanding of the metaphor involved. The garden and the flower have, since ancient times, been a literary metaphor for a woman’s vagina. Why? In nature, the flower is the precursor to fruit. In sexual terms, the vagina is the precursor to bearing the fruit of children.

When the woman says, "my lover is on his way to his garden to browse among the flowers" she is anticipating him coming to gaze upon her, to touch her sexually – to make love to her.

Now, apply that same metaphorical understanding to the man’s words later in the chapter…

One day I went strolling through the orchard, looking for signs of spring, Looking for buds about to burst into flower, anticipating readiness, ripeness. Before I knew it my heart was raptured, carried away by lofty thoughts!

In technical terms, the man has been looking for a young woman who is ready to marry and bear him children. That’s not exactly the stuff for a Hallmark card, so enraptured by love he finds her body "budding," "ripe," and "bursting into flower," he is "carried away by lofty thoughts." In other words, he looks upon the body of his young lover and gets turned on.