Even though the Song of Songs is a song, the Holy Spirit preserved no musical accompaniment for us; only the lyrics, which are God-breathed. So, as we read, we must be sensitive to the text's tonal shifts. We saw this in the previous section of the Song (2:8-3:5). While there are many repeated words and …
Continue reading Altogether Beautiful | Song of Songs 3:6-4:7
On my bed by nightI sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him, but found him not.I will rise now and go about the city, in the streets and in the squares;I will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but found him not.The watchmen found me as they went about in …
Let the insolent be put to shame,because they have wronged me with falsehood;as for me, I will meditate on your precepts. Psalm 119:78 ESV Having just appealed to the LORD in the previous two verses for steadfast love to comfort him and mercy to give him life, the psalmist now turns his attention on the …
Continue reading Let the Insolent Be Put to Shame | Psalm 119:78
The voice of my beloved!Behold, he comes,leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills.My beloved is like a gazelleor a young stag.Behold, there he standsbehind 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 …
Continue reading The Voice of My Beloved | Song of Songs 2:8-17
Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves.Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful.Our couch is green; the beams of our house are cedar; our rafters are pine.I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.As a lily among brambles, so is my love among …
The hope of eternal life is at the very center of the Christian faith. Christ said, "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly" (John 10:10). Indeed, in John 17:3, Jesus says that eternal life is knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. That is why Christ …
Continue reading Question 52: What Hope Does Everlasting Life Hold for Us?
I am very dark, but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem,like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.Do not gaze at me because I am dark, because the sun has looked upon me.My mother’s sons were angry with me; they made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept! …
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!For your love is better than wine;your anointing oils are fragrant;your name is oil poured out;therefore virgins love you.Draw me after you; let us run.The king has brought me into his chambers.We will exult and rejoice in you;we will extol your love more than wine;rightly do they love you. Song of Songs 1:2-4 ESV I sing of arms and a man. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Call me Ishmael. Marley was dead. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. Great …
Having just finished rereading Genesis, I am struck once more by the life of Jacob. Although all the patriarchs were flawed, Jacob is incredibly so. He is a grasping man, always reaching for his own way whenever the opportunity presents itself. But this reading, I have also noticed Jacob's great fear. Of all the patriarchs, …
The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s. Song of Songs 1:1 Song of Songs has a complicated place in church history. On one hand, God's people have treasured it as though it were a first among equals. Jewish Rabbi Akiva is famous for saying that all the ages are not worth the day that God …
Continue reading Rules for Reading the Greatest Song | Song of Songs 1:1
B. C. Newton 