Listen to this Class: 06132012IntroducingTheSongOfSolomonDonRuhl

Download the Incomplete Notes: 06132012IntroducingTheSongOfSolomonDonRuhl

Introducing the Song of Solomon

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • June 13, In the year of our Lord 2012

These notes are incomplete

Prelude: 

  1. Where do you turn to help troubled marriages, or simply to strengthen marriage?
    1. Why do you choose that source?
      1. Is the source of the world, or of the Lord?
      2. If it is of the world, why did you choose it?
        1. Do you believe that the Lord has anything to say about marriage?
        2. Who created marriage?
    2. If you do happen to go the Bible, where do you go in the Bible?
      1. The whole Bible teaches you how to be the kind of person you need to be in marriage, or any relationship.
      2. There are also specialized passages that teach about marriage, including, but certainly not all of the passages:
        1. Genesis 1, 2
        2. Esther
        3. Proverbs 5
        4. First Corinthians 7
        5. Ephesians 5
      3. There are countless other passages and teachings that would apply:
        1. The Beatitudes
        2. First Corinthians 13
        3. Colossians 3.12–14
    3. Yet, I rarely hear anyone recommend the Song of Solomon.
      1. Have you considered it as a source to strengthen your marriage?
      2. If not, why not?
  2. In Ephesians 5.22–33 Paul uses marriage to illustrate the relationship between Christ and the church, but the apostle first had to teach what God intended for marriage before Christians could see the beauties of our relationship with Christ.
    1. Could that also be going on with Song of Solomon?
    2. The Lord looked at His people, namely, Israel as His bride, but their marriages were in bad shape.
      1. Therefore, just as Paul taught what marital love ought to be that they might understand the relationship between Christ and the church,
      2. so the Lord used Solomon to write this beautiful song on marital love that ultimately Israel then, and the church now, might see the beauty of the relationship that He has with His people.

Persuasion: 

  1. The Name of the Song
    1. The opening verse declares,1 The song of songs, which is Solomon’s.
      (Song 1.1)

      1. Much of the Song views things from the Shulamite’s perspective.
      2. Also, in some older versions you will see the name Canticles, which is the Latin for “Songs” in this verse.
      3. First Kings 4.32, 33 reveals the vast writings of Solomon.
        1. However, of all his songs, this is the one the Holy Spirit calls the “Song of Songs.”
        2. What else did he write in the Bible?
    2. The Song highlights Solomon’s love of the Shulamite also, but
      1. one might wonder how he could speak of her as his only bride
      2. when he already had
        1. sixty queens,
        2. eighty concubines, and
        3. virgins without number (See 6.8).
      3. No doubt, Solomon wrote the Song before his plunge into sex and idolatry.
        1. Most, if not all of these women, came from political alliances,
        2. whereas, the Shulamite was his only true romance, for
          1. she was not a queen or royalty, or of noble blood,
          2. rather she was a vineyard worker (1.6),
            1. perhaps working one of Solomon’s vineyards, and
            2. that might be where he met her (8.11).
    3. She had been a vineyard worker, but
      1. after meeting Solomon she had her own vineyard (8.12).
      2. Obviously becoming queen she became a woman of great means.
Related Articles