Song of Solomon 1:1-17

Song of Song of Solomon 1

I. Though written very possibly by Solomon with reference to the daughter of Pharaoh, this Song seems evidently to have had a deep symbolical meaning from the very beginning. All things in Scripture are for Christ's sake from the beginning of the world. The forms which, floating by, cast their shadows on the elder world were shades of that greater Figure which was to absorb the attention of mankind and of the Church for ever and ever. Such is the power which underlies the Song of Solomon. The Church has ever in her days of earnestness and special devotion used the Song of Solomon. It has been the thermometer of her condition; when and where her energy and love were strong, then and there the Song of songs became the mode and form of her expression.

II. The Song of Solomon is peculiarly suited to form a manual of devotion for those who, as penitents or saints, are seeking after Jesus, (1) Its images are the images natural to the earnest-minded. (2) Its expressions of penitence, humility, and self-condemnation make it beautifully fitted to the life of those who "mourn after a godly sort," and to become a manual of expression for the returning sinner. (3) The yearnings of love are among the most striking parts of the Song. The language is that of the deepest affection; and no expressions seem so natural a channel through which the stream of love may flow as those we find here. (4) The Song is typical of the acts of our Lord's life. His passion and resurrection are unmistakably shadowed forth in it; so much so, that the natural illustration of the Song would be the scenes of the Gospel.

E. Monro, Practical Sermons,vol. iii., p. 355.

References: Song of Solomon 1:2. Spurgeon, Morning by Morning,p. 92. Ibid., Evening by Evening,p. 8; J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs,p. 5.Song of Solomon 1:3. J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,2nd series, p. 235; A. Fletcher, Thursday Penny Pulpit,vol. xi., p. 317.