This morning I read Song of Solomon chapters 1-8

If you’re married and want God’s blessings on your Agape and Romantic love, this is a great book to read. I’m so blessed with my wife Shelly – the greatest gift after salvation.

Here are some highlights and thoughts from today’s reading:

The Song of Solomon can be seen as a love relationship between God the Father and Israel, Jesus and His Bride (the Church), or the love between a husband and wife. I leaned towards the latter this time around (for the most part).

3 times in the book we have that exhortation, “I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem…do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases.” (until the time is right).

• Isn’t that the way it is (should be) for us as Christians? Don’t stir it up. WAIT on the Lord, He will bring that person your way when you’re both ready!

Song of Solomon 2:10, “My beloved spoke, and said to me: ‘Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.’”

• I love that, “Come away…” And together we ride off into life, as husband and wife, the Great Adventure.

Song of Solomon 2:16, “My beloved is mine, and I am his.”

• After marriage we belong to each other, we take care of each other. Paul said the same thing in 1 Corinthians 7:4.

Song of Solomon 3:4, “Scarcely had I passed by them, when I found the one I love. I held him and would not let him go.”

• So applicable in marriage – til death do us part, don’t let anything separate you. Also applicable in our relationship with the Lord, hold tight Manny, hold tight, ‘cuz the world is trying to rip Jesus out of your heart.

Song of Solomon 4:9, “You have ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; you have ravished my heart with one look of your eyes.”

• Look what you’ve done to my heart, my sister, my spouse. I’ll never forget the first day I first set eyes on Shelly. I can still see her beauty, her smile, her dimples, her big brown eyes, her thick bushy beautiful brown hair, her sculptured curves – and after just one look, I somehow knew I would marry her.

Song of Solomon 5:16b, “Yes, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend.”

• This must be the heart of our marriage relationship – friendship; the deeper the friendship, the greater the trust, we can tell each other secrets, we can be there and help each other for the rest of our lives.

Song of Solomon 6:9a, “My dove, my perfect one, is the only one.”

• The only one. Out of all the billions of women alive, out of all the fish in the sea, Shelly, you’re the only one for me!

Song of Solomon 8:7a, “Many Waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it.”

• The storms and Tsunamis of life will hit hard, but true love will prevail, endure it all, it is absolutely impossible to drown true love, and that true love is rooted in a true and genuine relationship with the living-loving God.

Song of Solomon 8:13, “You who dwell in the gardens, the companions listen for your voice – Let ME hear it!”

• How many husbands would say that to their wives? “Let me hear it. Talk to me babe, don’t just talk to your friends, talk to me, tell me your heart.”

Song of Solomon 8:14, “Make haste, my beloved…”

• As Song of Solomon comes to an end, I can’t help but shift gears to the other Beloved of the book, how it pictures the relationship of  the Lord Jesus with His bride (the Church). In closing we pray, “Make haste, my beloved, come Lord Jesus, “O Lord, come.” (1 Corinthians 16:22b)