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 …
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 …
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
AUTHOR The superscription for the whole book is Song of Songs 1:1: "The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's." That is why the book is often called the Song of Solomon. Indeed, most evangelical commentators argue for Solomon as the author. A popular speculation throughout church history is that Solomon wrote Song of Songs in …
Psalm 45 is a love song. But it may not be the kind of love song that we are expecting. One commentator writes: This psalm is a hymn celebrating a royal wedding. As its title says, it is a love song. The term translated "love" (Hb. yedidot) indicates deep personal attachment but is not in …
The Lord used Martin Luther mightily to start the Protestant Reformation. While other Reformers like John Calvin would refine Protestant doctrine, Luther was a bull in a China closet who brought the Middle Ages to a close and ushered in the Modern Era of history. And like Athanasius before him, Luther stood contra mundum, against …
Karl Marx had a point. If you need to be refreshed on the overall concept of Marxism, allow me to help. Marx viewed life as one great power struggle between socioeconomic classes. Specifically, he saw capitalism as creating a large gap between the bourgeoisie (elite upper class) and the proletariat (poorer lower class), and that …
Continue reading The Christian Vision of Marriage | Ephesians 5:22-33
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2JPkDOzgTHsVWIfi0xgHmc?si=xU-pHpQ2RXey3dIF7bk6PQ Moving through the first section of the catechism, we have focused upon God's good design for human sexuality and some of the challenges that our sin-scarred world brings against them. In questions 3-5, we studied the goodness of being made male and female to image God, while questions 6-8 addressed the present-day challenge that …
https://open.spotify.com/episode/51kjrYtWJxgDOGEMuCNRlt?si=Kr1aBVndRASiu-ecUvx6cg We should keep in mind that questions 3-41 of this catechism are explaining to us the things that we must know to live happily in the comfort of our new identity in Christ, and in this first section, we are focusing upon God’s good design for humanity. In questions 3-5, we studied the goodness …
Given how topsy-turvy is our society’s understanding of marriage and sexuality, I very nearly preached a standalone sermon on Hebrews 13:4: "Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous." Yet since I intend to teach through Christopher Gordon's excellent …
B. C. Newton 