Chapters 1&2

Solomon is not the hero of this book. He failed. He represents a man designed by God for a right woman and he failed to get his right woman, whoever she was. Everything that God intended for Solomon’s right woman would have been the Shulamite woman but God knew in eternity past that Solomon was going to fail and that he would never find his right woman. So what God did was design the most beautiful woman of her day for an unknown shepherd — the shepherd lover. God actually designed the Shulamite woman for the shepherd lover. It was a case of right man, right woman. Yet, everything that Solomon saw in this woman could have been absolutely perfect for him had he waited for his right woman, which he didn’t. Out of this comes a phenomenal story of category #1 love, our relationship with the Lord. Also category #2 love.

There are three main characters. This was originally sung. There was Solomon, the Shulamite woman, and the shepherd lover. Solomon is the most glamorous man if his day and probably one of the most glamorous men of all time. He is everything that is humanly attractive, physically and mentally. He lacks one thing. He lacks that right lobe power that comes from doctrine. When you lack doctrine you lack everything, so it is possible for you to have everything and have nothing. It is also possible for you to have nothing and have everything.

This is a book which deals with category #2 love, right man, right woman. But by application it also gives us the principle of occupation with the person of Jesus Christ, of category #1 love. In the doctrine of right man, right woman we have an analogy between the Lord and the believer as a responder to the Lord. So by interpretation this is category #2 love, by application we will se principles of occupation with Christ or category #1 love. It is the shepherd who represents the Lord Jesus Christ, it is Solomon who is the villain and represents temptation and in some parts of the book, evil. The book is actually written as a five-act drama. This is the Jewish concept of drama — 5 acts. The Greek concept is three.

Act 1 is 1:1-3:5. I this we see the background of the story. The Shulamite woman is working in a vineyard in the northern part of the country. The reason is because she and her right man have had a few dates and the brothers disapprove. The father is dead. Solomon is on a visit to northern Israel and as he is traveling down a highway he looks into the vineyard and see this beautiful woman chasing foxes who eat the tender grapes. He is immediately smitten and desires her for his harem. It has to be remembered that a harem is composed of three categories. The first category are called the queens. These are people who have a sexual relationship with Solomon and he has actually married them. Next are the concubines who also have a sexual relationship; but there are other things too, they play music, carry on conversations, and so on, but they are not married to him. Then there are the virgins of the harem, and these are the ones who do all of the sowing and cooking, etc.

When the Shulamite woman volunteered for the harem she was trying to get away from her brothers. She joined as a virgin of the harem but Solomon has other ideas. Now that she is in the harem Solomon wants her to become his queen. A great deal of this book is Solomon trying to persuade her. The virgins of the harem in this book are called “the daughters of Jerusalem.”

Act 2 is 2:6-11. It is designed to do two things in a drama. Solomon is coming from the north, back to Jerusalem. Acts 2 picks up Solomon coming through the gates of Jerusalem and the purpose of Act 2 is to describe the glamour and the human glory of Solomon.

Acts 3 is 4:1-7:9. This scene takes place in the royal palace in Jerusalem. Here Solomon attempts the woo the Shulamite woman to persuade her to marry him. She refuses him and continues to be occupied with her shepherd lover.

Acts 4 is 7:10-8:4. This is the rescue scene. The Shulamite woman escapes, the shepherd lover comes to the place of death for him, the palace of Solomon to deliver his love, his right woman.

Acts 5 is 8:5-14. It describes everything falling into place. The Shulamite woman returns with her shepherd lover to the home and they lived happily ever after.

The title of the book is given in 1:1. The first verse is a title, it is not actually the content. The name of the book is “The Song of Songs which belongs to Solomon.”

Verse 2 — the Shulamite woman speaks. We start with the heroine. Remember that she has everything that it takes. She has been the recipient of doctrine which she has cycled into her right lobe, and as far as her norms and standards are concerned that is shepherd lover. In addition to that she has frame of reference, a memory centre in which her relationship with her shepherd lover is going to come out.

The first thing she mentions is the kiss. However, the kiss of the ancient world is not the type of kiss where two lips meet briefly and that is all there is to it, or a peck on the cheek. This is a real kiss. So we are to understand that they have had a very beautiful and wonderful relationship. This is courtship, they are very much in love, and she dreams of his kisses. She is occupied with the shepherd lover. By way of application our Lord kisses us — Bible doctrine. He has thousands and thousands and thousands of kisses stored up. Notice that the Shulamite woman is responding to her shepherd lover in his absence, he is not here. And notice that the shepherd lover is not kissing her now; yet, in her mind she is thinking of her shepherd lover. He is in her soul, and because he is in her soul she is protected. And since he is in her soul she can dream of him.

Right in the middle of this the chorus comes in from the daughters of Jerusalem. “For thy love is better than wine.” The words “they love” refers to the Shulamite woman. This is a woman’s love for the right man. And notice that the daughters of Jerusalem make an analogy to wine. There is a reason for this. Wines are all different. There are different things you need to know about wine; no two women are alike. Also, some people like some types of wine and do not like others. Everyone has a different taste. Principle: there is a right man for a right woman.

Verse 3 — “savour” here is smell, the smell of good ointments. Ointments were like perfume in the ancient world; “thy name” means the character. The person has wonderful character. That means that when she surrenders to her right man and when she responds and gives her love to the right man it is going to mean something. When she tells her shepherd lover that she loves him he can count of that because of her character. He character is like a sweet smell; “ointment poured forth” is the sweet fragrance going forth. And because she has such wonderful character, because she has all of this stability, because she is free from mental attitude sins, when she loves it counts. Principle: the best preparation for marriage is all the Bible doctrine you can get. The best preparation is character, not experience.

Verse 4 — the Shulamite woman speaks again. “Draw me.” In other words, she wants her shepherd lover to find her and take her away. She is occupied with him. The daughters of Jerusalem hear that and they speak up: “We will run after thee.” If you leave with your shepherd lover we are going too. And then the Shulamite woman speaks again: “The king hath brought me into his chambers.” She didn’t count on his doing this.

Then the daughters of Jerusalem say, “We will be glad and rejoice in thee; we will remember thy love more than wine. The upright love thee.” In other words, they respond and say, ‘Listen, we are going to be so happy to have you as the queen around here we will do anything we can to serve you.’ This is the stimulation of approbation lust. Not only is Solomon glamorous but now the daughters of Jerusalem are trying to sell the Shulamite woman on becoming queen, and they are doing so by appealing to approbation lust.

Verse 5 — she is now saying she is not worthy of Solomon. The reason: she has a sun tan. It just so happened that 1000 years before Christ a tan was not considered beautiful. “I am black [blackened by the sun]” — the daughters of Jerusalem say, “but comely [beautiful].” Then she says, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, [I am] like the tents of Kedar” — they were made out of black goat’s hair. And then they say no, you are “like the curtains of Solomon.” Solomon had white drapes. Verse 6 — the Shulamite woman: “Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me.” Then she describes her brothers: “My mother’s children [her brothers] were angry with me; they made me the keepers of the vineyards, but mine own vineyard have I not kept.” She has not been able to keep the vineyard to keep her grooming. Her own vineyard describes her own personal appearance.

Verse 7 — she continues. Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth.” True love starts in the soul. It is the soul that makes the identification of right man, right woman.

“where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon” — she is aware of the fact that he is a shepherd, that he does his job well. He doesn’t leave his flock and come running to her, he stays right with it.

“for why should I be like one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?” The shepherd lover is faithful to his job and this indicates his stability of character. She is the one, as it were, that is turned aside.

Verse 8 — the daughters of Jerusalem speak out. “If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth in the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside they shepherd’s tent.” In other words, they are saying, well if he is all this great why don’t you go to him? Why doesn’t she? Because she is a woman in love. There is a time when a woman in love goes to a man but he is the aggressor and she is not going to put trouble on him when he is doing his job. This is human viewpoint suggested by the daughters of Jerusalem. True love only advances on human viewpoint when the lovers are unbelievers. But once you are a believer you are stuck and true love advances on divine viewpoint.

The relationship between the shepherd lover and the Shulamite woman is a picture of the ideal relationship between the believer and the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the shepherd and the believer is pictured by the Shulamite woman as a responder. The basic response is the response of GAP. This is the way in which we hold fast and cling to the Lord.

Verse 9 — Solomon is complimenting the Shulamite woman in a very special way. He is comparing her to the horses, not to the chariots. When he says this it is a fantastic compliment from the ancient world. The chariots were very beautiful and often on display but they could not produce any action unless they were hooked to horses. They were designed to move, to go from point A to point B. They were designed for warfare and for many things, but even though they had all of this design they are absolutely no good without the horses. The principle is very simple. Solomon is saying in effect, ‘I understand the doctrine of right man, right woman. In understanding this doctrine I understand that you are the only one who can ever make me move and be useful, like the chariot.’ He is saying in effect that she is his right woman. He is not only calling her beautiful. He is comparing her to the horses that pull the chariots. He is saying that she is the horses that make his chariot move. In other words, he is making a claim that this is a right man, right woman relationship. But since she has already found her right man we will see in the rest of this passage that having discovered her right man she is protected from this. If she had not already had a very wonderful relationship with her right man this could have been a very deceptive thing and she probably would have bought the package. But she is protected from Solomon who is pseudo right man because she has true right man in her shepherd lover.

The principle is that you, the believer, are designed to make the plan of God roll in phase two. You are the horses. You are designed to make the plan of God move on earth in the devil’s world in the angelic conflict intensified during the time when Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. But this design cannot be fulfilled apart from the daily function of GAP — knowledge of Bible doctrine. So when Solomon compares the Shulamite woman to horses and chariots he is using a true doctrine but he is giving it a false application because he is not the chariot, the shepherd lover is, and she knows that and is protected by this knowledge.

The first analogy is to indicate a principle. When Solomon says “I have compared” he means he has considered this very carefully. “O my love” — notice the possessive pronoun in front of the word ‘love.’ He has a great deal of confidence and he assumes that she will accept his wooing.

Verse 10 — he now describes her as a person. In verse 9 he had described her as a principle — right man, right woman. As a person she is very beautiful. “Thy cheeks are comely with rows” you will notice that the words ‘with jewels’ are in italics. Some commentator simply went back to the ancient world and made a study of face jewels which women wore in those days. Actually this is not the case here at all. ‘The cheeks are comely with rows’ has to do with the bone structure of her face and nothing whatever to do with jewels. The bone structure in her face determines beauty. Then he mentions the neck because there must be symmetry between the bone structure and the neck. The whole point is that from her bone structure she has symmetry. There is something so charming about a woman who has responded to her right man that even women like her.

Verse 11 — the daughters of Jerusalem were divided. They had a cooking division, a division for sewing, etc. They chime in here and there is a principle of doctrine which comes out of this. They are describing the wedding dress. There is a second point of doctrine here. They are describing something that will be extremely beautiful, they are describing a detail of life — clothing. Either you are a slave to the details of life (a clothes horse) or you are a master of the details of life and you can enjoy fine clothing. If the Shulamite woman had been a slave to the details of life this would have been a great temptation to accept Solomon just to wear beautiful clothes for the rest of her life. So this verse deals with the principle temptation to the details of life. The Shulamite woman doesn’t fall for this. What protects her? Her love for her shepherd, her right man. There is the memory of the things that they have had together that protects her from everything. She is occupied with her shepherd lover.

The analogy: In GAP we have Bible doctrine coming into the left lobe. This is, as it were, Jesus Christ the great shepherd providing His thinking. The Bible is the mind of Christ — 1 Corinthians 2:16. We cycle it into the human spirit, we cycle it up into the right lobe, we build and ECS, and there is the daily exhale toward God. Occupation with Christ comes only through the daily function of GAP and this is the highest expression of the priesthood of the believer.

Verse 12 — “While the king is at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the fragrance thereof.” In other words, there is no problem. All of these temptations to marry Solomon are headed off because in the right lobe of the Shulamite woman is a frame of reference. There is the memory centre, she has memories of her shepherd lover. When these memories go into the memory centre they form the fragrance of memory that protects her. Memory is one of the great factors in the soul part of love. The Eucharist: “This do on remembrance of me” is the fragrance of memory of Jesus Christ. He is absent, we are on the earth, and the communion table is a reminder of category #1 love. The communion table is meaningless really to people who do not have Bible doctrine. There is a fragrance of soul and it is based upon the principle of love. And based on the principle of love, whether it is category #1, #2, or #3 all of these categories of love are based upon fragrance of the soul. This means you must have something in the soul. The Shulamite woman is telling us right now how important it is to function under GAP.

She calls him ‘my spikenard.’ Spikenard was a very beautiful scent from the ancient world — “sendeth forth the fragrance thereof.” Solomon is sitting across the table but her soul and the memory centre of her right lobe is bringing back the fragrance of memories of her right man.

Verse 13 — the big problem in this verse is that it isn’t the shepherd lover lying all night between her breasts. To do so he would have to be very small or an acrobat. In the ancient world when a woman went to bed she had a little bag that hung around her neck on the end of the chain or string. That little bag was filled with sweet-smelling things. Women in the ancient world slept with this around their neck and it fell between the breasts to give scent to the whole body. Analogy: You take in a little doctrine today, it is like that bag between the breasts. It gives you a scent. You take in some doctrine tomorrow, that gives you a scent. The sweetness, the fragrance of Bible doctrine is the analogy.

“a bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved to me; it [the scent bag] shall lie all night between my breasts.” Literally, she is saying that he is in her soul, he will always be in her soul, he is a fragrance in her soul. But by application this is saying that you can’t live without GAP. “It” refers to Bible doctrine.

Verse 14 — “My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphor in the vineyards of Engedi.” The vineyards of Engedi were famous but they were attacked by various pests. They used the cluster of camphor to keeps the pests off of the vineyards so that they could continue to have great vineyards. The vineyards of Engedi were protected vineyards, they were protected by the cluster of camphor. The shepherd lover is on the inside of her soul and therefore is a sweet smell. This same sweet smell goes to the outside and keeps the wolf out. On the inside there is the sweet smell, on the outside it drives off the predatory male. When the right man is on the inside he protects the woman on the outside. Camphor is not designed to be a sweet smell here, it is designed to chase off the wolves.

Verse 15 — notice “my love.” Solomon has a fantastic pride here and he assumes that she is going to fall all over herself to get to the altar with him.

“thou hast doves eyes” — a dove has several things that should be noticed. a) A dove has symmetry. She has a beautiful face. b) The eyes are also indicative of certain things. A dove has a very white part of the eye. This indicates health and various other things, but Solomon is describing the fact that she has symmetry and beauty of face. They eyes are the window of the soul. They are not giving Solomon anything.

Verse 16 — the Shulamite woman speaks about her shepherd lover. “Behold, thou art beautiful, my beloved.” Solomon calls her ‘my love,’ she calls her shepherd lover ‘my beloved.’

“yea, pleasant” — the word ‘pleasant’ connotes rapport; rapport of soul, rapport of relationship; “also our bed is green” — this is an idiom and it refers to the fact that they always constructed a new bed for the bride and the groom. The green wood indicates that ‘our marriage is still future.’ She is recognising the fact that there is only one thing that can happen, inevitably she as the right woman will be married to her shepherd lover, the right man. But at this point ‘our bed is green’ means that she has more pressure than usual from this situation because they have not been able to consummate their relationship. First the brothers were in the way, there was geographical separation, and then she decided she was going to solve the problem by going into the harem of Solomon and to work as a virgin. Little did she realise that it would trap her and put her under this pressure. She is under this pressure because of her decision. If she had stayed in the vineyard and waited on the Lord the Lord would have worked it out in other ways, but she decided to solve the problem. Principle: You cannot solve your own problems. Every time you try you postpone whatever God has for you in right man, right woman.

Verse 17 — “The beams of our house are cedar, our rafters of fir.” She is dreaming now of their home. They will have a beautiful home in the future, she has already planned that.

2:1 — the Shulamite woman continues. “I am the rose of Sharon. the lily of the valley.” This must be connected with the previous verse and the previous paragraph. The Shulamite woman represents the believer in the analogy, but what she is saying here has to do with category #2 love. She is saying by this verse that she is a responder. A rose is a responder. A rose has a natural scent and the scent represents everything that makes up the Shulamite woman — her physical beauty, her body, her soul, her doctrine, her right lobe filled, her norms and standards. Everything that makes up this woman is designed to respond to someone. Sharon and the valley is where the shepherd is located. In other words, she is saying, ‘I belong to my shepherd.’ She doesn’t belong to Solomon.

Verse 2 — Solomon is trying hard. He says, “As a lily among the thorns, so is my love among the daughters” — the daughters of Jerusalem. In other words, he is saying she is a lily all right and everyone else by comparison is a thorn.

Verse 3 — what is the meaning of the apple tree? We have to start with the apple. An apple split open was used for smelling salts. While it was not true, the apple was considered an aphrodisiac in the ancient world. The apple and the tree itself is considered a picture of love ecstasy. Only an apple goes with an apple tree. The apple and the apple tree is the fact that this woman has in her mind the experiences which she has accumulated with her right man. Her experiences have been discontinued temporarily because her shepherd lover is somewhere else. Therefore her experiences with him are recalled and brought into the memory centre. In the memory centre is the ideal situation. The doctrine is there and it is brought in from the right lobe, the experience is there and is brought in from the left lobe, and when a doctrine and an experience meet the result is stability in the life of the most beautiful woman in Israel at that time.

Stick with the doctrine, the doctrine is the reality. But when you have experience, the inhale of doctrine, doctrine in the human spirit, doctrine cycled, etc., and the experience of exhale, category #1 love; because occupation with Christ is the basis for everything in your experience. Historically and grammatically we are talking about category #2 love, this is an actual historical incident and must be so interpreted, and the basic interpretation is right man, right woman. But we also have the analogy or the illustration. This passage is not talking about occupation with Christ, this passage illustrates occupation with Christ.

The Shulamite woman speaks from now until the end of the chapter. “As the apple tree among the trees of wood, so is my beloved among the sons.” The word ‘sons’ here means people. She regards the shepherd lover as the tree, and she is the apple that belongs to the tree. Again, the apple is used for love ecstasy. Notice that she compares here beloved to an apple tree, and that doesn’t mean that he is built like a tree. It means that he is the only one. There is one man to stimulate a woman, to give her love ecstasy, to make her burn when he is not there; just one.

“I sat down under his shadow” — she responded to him; “with great delight” is literally, ‘with intensive ecstasy.’ There is one man designed for any woman, and that one man is intensive ecstasy; “and his fruit was sweet to my taste” — under his shadow was the soul relationship, the tasting of the fruit simply means that they made love.

Verse 4 — “He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.” They went out to a public place and she so responded to him that his very presence was protection. This woman walked into a public place with occupation with one person, just one. She is totally occupied, she is not looking around, she is not interested in other people, she doesn’t care who is there. No woman is ever designed to pursue any form of stimulation or ecstasy apart from her right man. She is not so designed.

“his banner over me was love” — banners were used in the ancient world to define a regiment, to define a unit, an organisation. She belongs to him. So ‘banner’ is a military metaphor to indicate that right now she recognised, even before their marriage, that she was his completely.

Verse 5 — “Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples. Apples are smelling salts — because Solomon is leering at her as though already he has her in the bag. “Stay me with flagons” means a quick shot of brandy to revive her; “for I am sick with love” — she is love sick; a very vulnerable time.

Verse 6 — his embrace. “His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me.” He has his arm around her and he is touching her. In other words, they have had coalescence of soul and she responds to him. The right hand, by the way, is the hand of power and ability. He has the ability to make love, to make her respond.

Verse 7 — Solomon is willing to take this woman whether she is willing or not. He is willing to dangle bait in front of her. There is just one thing wrong, he is not the apple tree. “I charge you” means to make a solemn declaration; “O ye daughters of Jerusalem,” the virgins in the harem; “by the roes, and by the hinds of the field” — reference to the deer family in Palestine, and there is one roe for one hind. This became an idiom for the concept of right man, right woman in that day; “that ye stir not up” — do not try to stimulate me; “nor awake love” — not ‘my’ love; “till she pleases” not ‘it.’ ‘She’ refers to this woman’s love. This is the whole principle of the woman’s free will. A woman has free will! A man is an aggressor … and a gentleman. A true gentleman is a man who recognises that a woman has a free will, and respects that free will, and encourages that free will, and strengthens that free will.

Notice the principle: In verse 3, doctrine of right man, right woman; apple tree and apple. Verse 4, application of right man, right woman: protection. Verse 5, stimulation. Verse 6, his embrace. Verse 7, she responded of her own free will.

Verse 8 — as she faces Solomon and his wooing she begins to recall and experience of right man, right woman. Doctrine from memory centre and history meet, and they say to Solomon, No. “The voice of my beloved” — she is tone oriented; “he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.” She is oriented to his symmetry.

Verse 9 — “My beloved is like a roe or a young hart” is a reference to symmetry. To her, even as his soul is beautiful so his body is beautiful to her. He has her eye. So first of all here ear is oriented, and secondly her eye is oriented. She is oriented to her love, not to Solomon. She sees Solomon across the table and she is thinking of her shepherd lover.

“behind, he standeth behind our wall” — the father is dead. There is her mother and her two brothers, and they disapprove. Therefore when the shepherd lover comes he has to come by way of the back door or by way of a wall because they are out to get him; “he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice.”

Verse 10 — “My beloved spoke.” He went to her window and spoke; “and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.” He does not call her ‘my spouse.’ He doesn’t take credit to himself. Principle: A man cannot take credit to himself and have the capacity to love, even when he finds his right woman.

Verse 12 — “the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing is come,” not ‘of birds.’ You can have the worst voice in the world but if you are with your right woman you can have a ball. This is fellowship, not birds singing!

“and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land” — it is spring and the sap is running. Here is the same concept, it is a time for fellowship. Apparently he has been away during the winter, busy, and now that it is spring he has some time off.

Verse 13 — she recalls all this now and her recollection protects her. Better to have memories of a right man than misery with the wrong man.

Verse 14 — “O my dove, who art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs.” Dove refers to symmetry. The clefts of the rock simply means some place on the mountainside where they were together. The secret of the stairs is some place they were together in a house.

“let me see thy face” — it isn’t that she can’t visualise his face but in these places she wanted to look at him. Apparently he was embracing her and she wanted to look him in the eye. She wanted to see the one who was touching her. That is a right man, right woman relationship.

“let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice” — the word ‘sweet’ isn’t here, it is ‘beautiful thy voice, and beautiful thy countenance,’ literally. This means in embrace, when he is initiating some form of love and she is responding, she wants to look at him.

Now it breaks off. That is her recollection.

Verse 15 — her brothers apparently broke in on this one, probably at the secret place of the stairs. They tossed him out and they turned to her and said literally, “Catch [trap] the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines; for our vines have tender grapes.” They took her north to a vineyard and put her to work.

Verse 16 — Then even though she is separated and even though the brothers have made it impossible for them to continue their relationship she says, “My beloved is mine.” He isn’t there. How does she possess her beloved? In the soul. “I am his” — right man, right woman.

“he feedeth among the lilies” — even when he is eating he is completely surrounded by her love. Not only is the right man in her soul, and therefore she is protected when Solomon is making his pitch, but it is two-way street. Wherever he is he is surrounded by her love. They both have faced the reality of the situation and it is a beautiful thing to see.

Verse 17 — with all of this in mind she has a desire for her shepherd lover to come and rescue her. “Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn [rescue me], my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.” Be aggressive and rescue me.

The believer is like the woman because the believer is a responder to doctrine. All believers are like the woman. The word ‘soul’’ is even in the feminine gender because the soul is a responder. So doctrine is the love of God for the believer and as the believer responds to doctrine his soul is implemented. Doctrine in the ECS is analogous to the right woman. The provision of doctrine is analogous to the right man.