The voice of my beloved!
Behold, he comes,
leaping over the mountains,
            bounding over the hills.
My beloved is like a gazelle
or a young stag.
Behold, there he stands
behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
            looking through the lattice.
My beloved speaks and says to me:
“Arise, my love, my beautiful one,
and come away,
for behold, 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 ripens its figs,
and the vines are in blossom;
            they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my beautiful one,
and come away.
O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
            in the crannies of the cliff,
let me see your face,
            let me hear your voice,
for your voice is sweet,
            and your face is lovely.
Catch the foxes for us,
the little foxes
that spoil the vineyards,
            for our vineyards are in blossom.”

My beloved is mine, and I am his;
            he grazes among the lilies.
Until the day breathes
            and the shadows flee,
turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle
            or a young stag on cleft mountains.

Song of Songs 2:8-17 ESV

So far, we have covered two major sections of the Song of Songs. The first three verses opened with an explosion of eros and introduced us to four motifs that will appear throughout the poem: desire, integrity, royalty, and community.

We covered the second section over the last two weeks. It began with the woman reflecting on her appearance and past and expressing her desire to be with her husband at midday while he was shepherding his flocks. Last week, we saw them together, lying in the grass, surrounded by trees, delighting in one another. It was like they were in a miniature Eden.

The scene ended with the couple’s embrace and a quick cut away to the first appearance of the Song’s refrain addressed to the daughters of Jerusalem: Do not awaken love until it pleases.

Thus, it is helpful to think of the passage before us as being a new scene or movement in the Song. Indeed, I believe that it continues to 3:5, which will give us the second usage of the refrain. But for the sake of time, we will save 3:1-5 for next week.

In this passage, we find the man approaching the woman in verses 8-9. Verses 10-15 tell us what he said to her. [Note: some translations stop the man’s speaking at verse 13 or 14, but I think the ESV is right to conclude it with 15] Then, in verses 16-17, she responds to him. After we walk through the text, we will pass through it again while considering how it ultimately points us to Christ.

BEHOLD, HE COMES // VERSES 8-9

The voice of my beloved!
Behold, he comes,
leaping over the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
My beloved is like a gazelle
or a young stag.
Behold, there he stands
behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
looking through the lattice.

Again, this is clearly a new scene, so what is happening here? First, she calls our attention to her husband’s voice, but she then immediately tells us to behold him. It is worth noting that the Song of Songs is an intensely sensory poem, engaging all of the senses. In every section, we encounter fragrances, tastes, sights, and textures. Here we begin with sound but quickly shift to sight.

Behold, he comes, leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills. He is coming toward her. Maybe he is returning from shepherding his flocks. And as he approaches, she compares him to a gazelle or a young stag. Both are graceful, swift, and strong. They move across hills and mountains with ease. So, she sees him moving toward her with strength, vitality, and beauty.

Interestingly, this connects to verse 7, where the daughters of Jerusalem were adjured “by the gazelles or the does of the field.” She now refers to her beloved as the masculine form of those same animals.

She then calls to us again:

Behold, there he stands
behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
looking through the lattice.

He is no longer bounding over mountains. Now he stands behind their wall. Is this an actual wall around their home? Probably not. Just like he was probably not literally bounding over the mountains.

Wealthier homes have walls around their home and a garden courtyard within those walls. Latticework would allow someone to see into the garden, even though the wall prevents entry. That fits the imagery that appears later. In 4:12, the man will call her a garden locked, and only a few verses later, she will invite him to enter her garden. He is outside the wall of her garden, looking in and desiring to enter.

Up to this point in the Song, the woman has been expressing her desire for her beloved. She has longed for him and sought him. But now the source of desire shifts. He now expresses his desire for her. Fittingly, her desire was for him to come to her and for her to be with him, while his desire for her is expressed by him having come to her. Crucially, both desire one another, and both pursue the other.

For married couples, do you actually desire one another? But beyond that, how are you expressing that desire? How are you actively pursuing one another?

We can ask the same in relation to belonging to Christ’s church. We ought to actively desire and pursue one another.

THE BELOVED SPEAKS // VERSES 10-15

After beholding her beloved, we now return to where she began: with the voice of her beloved. The section began with her anticipation of his voice, and now he actually speaks. She delights to hear his voice.

A question that my wife and I often ask in premarital counseling is: Do you like the voice of your spouse?

That is not a trivial matter. Your spouse is the voice that you will hear more than others for the rest of your life. It is wise to enjoy their voice.

Of course, more broadly, the question becomes: do you enjoy talking together?

Friedrich Nietzche, who was thoroughly critical of Christianity, nevertheless made this insightful observation:

It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages. When marrying, one should ask oneself this question: Do you believe that you will be able to converse well with this woman into your old age? Everything else in marriage is transitory; but most of the time during the association belongs to conversation.

Most of life involves conversation. If you do not enjoy speaking together, your marriage will eventually suffer.

What then does he say to her?

There are two parts to his words, verses 10-13 and 14-15. But the overall message is clear. He wants to be with her, to be in her presence.

Many interpret this as essentially his marriage proposal. But as I have said, it seems more natural to read the whole poem as set within their marriage, especially since we have already seen language of deep intimacy between the couple. This does not appear to be a distant courtship but a covenantal union.

This is an invitation to intimacy, and it is expressed as spring coming into bloom.

Winter has passed. Physical winter? Grief? Affliction? Marital conflict? A time of waiting? The particulars are unimportant. The time of dormancy and barrenness is gone. The earth is bursting with life, color, and fertility again.

Because life is filled with different seasons, we must inevitably experience winter, when everything around us feels cold and lifeless. But winter always gives way to spring. Song of Songs is a fundamentally hopeful book. Winter and wilderness may linger in the background, but love, like spring, triumphs over death.

So, spring has come. Flowers bloom. Singing is breaking forth. The turtledove’s voice runs through the land. Figs ripen, and vines blossom.

Vines and figs trees are a picture that is repeatedly used throughout Scripture. When they flourish, it signals the peace and prosperity of God’s people under His shining face. When they wither, it signals judgment and wrath.

Life is blessed and flourishing.

Therefore, he repeats his initial invitation: Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.

Those are beautiful words, and husbands would do well to consider the example that the beloved sets. Generally speaking, women tend to be more verbally expressive than men, which we see in this poem. She speaks first, last, and most, and here she is treasuring the words that her beloved has spoken to her.

So ought we to speak well to our wives. That does not mean that poetry or elaborate speeches are necessary. But communicate your love and delight. Woo your wives with your words.

In verse 14, he calls her a dove, which was commonly seen as a symbol of gentleness and purity. In 1:15, he compared her eyes to doves. But they also have another characteristic: they are shy and easily frightened. In ancient Israel, doves would hide themselves in the clefts and crannies of the rocky cliffs. So, she is like a dove that is tucked away and hidden in the rocks.

This appears to be the opposite of how she presented herself earlier in the poem. She was bold and open with her desires, but now she is like a dove hiding in the cliffs.

That tension is another factor that makes the Song so honest. Emotions are never consistent throughout our lives (sometimes not even moment to moment!). A person can feel confident one day and nervous the next.

This could indicate that there was some sort of conflict between them, and this is his invitation to reconnect. But since she has already expressed insecurity about her appearance, this seems more likely to be a moment of self-consciousness, where she doesn’t feel lovely enough to be with him. That also fits more with the image of dove hiding in the rocks.

Either way, he calls gently to her, declaring that he wants to see her face and hear her voice.

Then we reach verse 15:

Catch the foxes for us,
the little foxes,
that spoil the vineyards,
for our vineyards are in blossom.

The ESV adds a footnote that foxes could also be translated as jackals. In Scripture, jackals are associated with desolation and destruction. They roam the wilderness and ruined cities. God’s judgment can leave a once thriving city or nation to become nothing more than a haunt of jackals.

The potential presence of jackals adds tension to the poem, as though the wilderness is intruding into the garden. But the second line clarifies: the little foxes. These are not jackals but foxes, little ones that sneak into the vineyards and damage the vines, especially when they are still tender. The threat is not as frightening as we might have assumed.

Is she hiding herself out of insecurity? There is certainly nothing wrong with shyness and moments of insecurity. But when it hinders intimacy, it is a little fox within the garden, threatening to ruin the vineyard.

More broadly, this reminds us that gardens must be tended. And that even little foxes can ruin vineyards.

The same is true of any relationship, especially marriage. No one stumbles into a happy marriage. There is a tendency to look at successful relationships, particularly marriage and parenting, as being pure luck. Deep friendships, healthy marriages, and good parenting all require work.

Just like a garden.

But even a well-tended garden will still have problems. Probably small ones at first. Small problems ignored eventually become large problems. Deal with them quickly. Catch the little foxes.

MY BELOVED IS MINE // VERSES 16-17

She then responds to her beloved:

My beloved is mine, and I am his;
he grazes among the lilies.
Until the day breathes
and the shadows flee,
turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle
or a young stag on cleft mountains.

She begins by expressing their mutual belonging: My beloved is mine, and I am his. He is not her property, and she is not his. But they wonderfully and truly belong to one another. It is the language of covenant.

In this covenant, he grazes among the lilies. Last week, she was described as a lily. First, she called herself a lily of the valleys, then he called her a lily among thorns. Thus, this is probably a reference to herself.

Until the day breathes and the shadows flee… This lovely phrase likely refers to dawn, when day takes its first breath and begins to disperse the shadows of night.

Then she tells him to turn, to be like a gazelle or young stag on cleft mountains. Many interpret this as her sending him away until the right time for intimacy. Under this view, she is essentially saying, “Yes, I will marry you, and I long to be you. But not yet.”

That reading does not seem to fit the tone of the passage. Instead, this sounds much more like her own flirtatious response, which she does by combining two earlier images. She refers to him again as a gazelle or a young stag, and she does indeed tell him to go back to the mountains. But not just any mountains, the cleft mountains, where the doves hid themselves. Thus, she is saying, “Well, if I am a dove hiding in the clefts, then come find me there.”

That is her response. Mutual belonging and playful acceptance of his invitation.

Paul picks up on this idea of mutual belonging in 1 Corinthians 7 when he says that a husband does not have authority over his own body, but his wife does. Neither does a wife have authority over her own body, but her husband does. They belong to each other. And it has implications for both points of our belonging and our responding to one another.

First, if your body belongs to your spouse, how are you treating it? And this goes far beyond simply looking good for your spouse (though it is certainly not less than that). Are you caring for yourself in ways that reflect love for your husband or wife?

As far as responding to invitations of intimacy are concerned, Paul says that husbands and wives should not deprive one another except for times of prayer. But we must be careful to read those instructions in light of all of Scripture. After all, it is fairly easy simply to read it as a duty that must be fulfilled and an obligation that must be met.

But that mentality resembles the pagan idea of piety, which was the virtue of doing your duty to whomever it is owed. You did what was required for the gods, for your family, for your country, etc.

But Christian piety is different. Christians have long recognized the nobility but also incompleteness of pagan piety. Augustine and Calvin particularly framed true piety within the two greatest commandments. Yes, we should fulfill our duty to whomever it is owed, but we should do so out of love, love for God and love for our neighbor.

Obeying Paul’s command with pagan piety will never foster true intimacy. After all, God rejected Israel’s joyless and loveless sacrifices. Marriage is the same way. A joyless and loveless giving of yourself to your spouse is worthless and ultimately damaging to both of your souls.

Paul gives a real command that ought to be obeyed, but it should be obeyed in joyful, loving Christian piety. So, it is with the woman of the Song. Her response is not begrudging but playful, affectionate, and covenantal. My beloved is mine, and I am his.

THE SHEPHERD’S VOICE

Now that we have walked through this text and seen its plain meaning, let us now consider how they testify to Christ (John 5:39-40) and His union with His bride, the church (Ephesians 5:32).

Our text began with the words: The voice of my beloved! The woman delights in the voice and words of her beloved. If we belong to Christ, then Christ is our beloved. Do you delight in His voice?

We hear His voice in His Word. He speaks to us in the Scriptures. So, we can phrase the same question like this: Do you delight in His Word? Are you like the Psalm 1 man who meditates on it day and night out of your joy in it?

In the tenth chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus says:

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.

Brothers and sisters, do you know the voice of your Shepherd? Do you know the voice of your Beloved?

The only way to recognize His voice is by spending time in His Word. That is the only way that we distinguish His voice from the voice of strangers.

That is also what the author of Hebrews is saying in chapter 5:

Though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

That relates closely to the John 10 because the way that distinguish the voice of Jesus from the voice of strangers, good from evil, and wise choices from foolish choices is by being saturated in the Bible. When you are soaked in the nourishing milk of Scripture, your discernment is trained for the thousands of everyday decisions that you must make. And you learn to recognize the voices that would tempt you.

Listen to the Good Shepherd. Delight yourself in His voice.

In verse 9, the beloved stood behind the garden wall, looking through the lattice, hoping to be with his beautiful one.

We see similar imagery in Revelation 3:20, where Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”

That is language of fellowship, of communion and intimacy. Just like the man in the Song, Christ is inviting His beloved to be with Him. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.

Christ too summons us to come to Him, to follow after Him. We hear that invitation explicitly in Matthew 11 or Revelation 22, but in a sense, the whole of Scripture is Christ calling His people to come away with Him. All of Scripture is calling us to welcome Christ rather than hide from Him.

But we are always hiding, like Adam and Eve first did with fig leaves. But we cannot hide. We are each naked and exposed in His sight, as Hebrews says. He already sees us. He knows our hearts better than we do ourselves. He sees our sin, our shame, our ugliness.

And still He says, “Come.”

Do not let shame, insecurity, or love of sin keep you from Christ. As the great hymn rightly says,

Let not conscience make you linger,
Nor of fitness fondly dream;
All the fitness He requires
Is to feel your need of Him.

Again, Christ did not come to us while we were beautiful but while we were dead in our sins. But He still came for us, and He still calls us.

He calls the unbeliever to rise from the grave as He did with Lazarus.

And He continues calling His people. Very often, whenever we knowingly sin, our instinct is to hide from God, to put ourselves in a kind of time-out or probation until we can safely return to Him. But that is not the gospel. The very moment of conviction is the exact moment that we should fall at His feet in repentance, saying, “Lord, look what I’ve done again. I’ve followed my flesh, the world, and Satan. Save me from myself! Forgive me, and strengthen me my Your Spirit to put this sin to death!”

Do not let the little foxes remain in your vineyard. Do not comfort yourself that you are not a great sinner. As Lewis said through the mouth of the demon Screwtape, “Cards are as good as murder, if cards do the trick. The safest road to hell is the gradual one–the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings.” Little sins are just as damning as big ones.

And our passage ends with the beautiful statement of mutual belonging: My beloved is mine, and I am his. If we belong to Christ, these words are ours. Christ is ours, and we are Christ’s.

And this is the same covenantal language that runs through Scripture: I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

So, do you belong to Christ? There is no question more important than that.

As we come to the Lord’s Supper, we find our Lord inviting us to share a meal with Him. The bread and cup set our eyes are set backward upon Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice for our sins. They testify to our present communion with Him.

But they also point us toward the future. While we are presently blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ our Beloved, the world is still in winter. The great spring has not yet arrived, not has dawn yet broken. Christ’s call to come to Him at this Table points toward His second coming. On that day, He will summon to all His people, whether alive or in the grave, into the everlasting spring:

Arise, my love, my beautiful one,
and come away,
for behold, 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 the land.
The fig tree ripens its figs,
and the vines are in blossom;
they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my beautiful one,
and come away.

Until that Day, we come to the Lord’s Table and taste the promise of that blessed hope. Every Lord’s Day, we take his bite of bread and sip of this cup, saying to our Beloved, Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved.

Lord, come, have communion with us now until the day we will be with You face to face.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

• In verses 8–9, how does the woman describe the arrival of her beloved? What images does she use to describe him?
• The sermon pointed out that earlier in the Song the woman pursued the man, but here the man pursues her. Why is mutual pursuit important in a relationship?
• The woman delights in the voice of her beloved. What role does communication play in healthy relationships?
• The beloved invites the woman to leave winter behind and enter spring. What might “winter” represent in human relationships or in life more broadly?
• What details in verses 10–13 communicate the idea that spring has arrived?
• In verse 14, why might the man compare the woman to a dove hiding in the rocks? What does that image suggest?
• Why are small problems (“little foxes”) often more dangerous to relationships than we expect? What are some examples of “little foxes” that can quietly damage friendships, marriages, or church relationships?
• The sermon compared relationships to gardens that must be tended. What are some practical ways we can cultivate and care for our relationships?
• What does it look like practically to delight in Christ’s voice in Scripture?
• Why do we often hide from Christ when they are ashamed or convicted of sin? How does the gospel encourage us to come to Christ instead of hiding from Him?
• The sermon ends by reframing the beloved’s invitation (vv. 10-13) as Christ summoning His people out of their graves and into the eternal spring, the resurrection of dead and the life everlasting. How does that reframing deepen your delight in the text and your hope in the resurrection of the dead?