The Song of Songs is a literary masterpiece, unsurpassed in elegance, intricacy, and depth of meaning. It is a work of art, and I’ll be so bold as to call it the best poetry ever written. It is, after all, divine poetry, written by the Spirit of God himself, who inspired the human author. More than poetry, it is a song. Like other Hebrew idiomatic superlatives (Holy of Holies, King of Kings), the title declares that it is the Very Best Song, the Most Sublime Song, the Godliest Song. What if this is not hyperbole? Truly, this is the Song with all the gravity of Eternity that is sung at the heart of the Cosmos, the singing of which is the point of all Creation.
The simple facts that this is a song, and that it is biblical—part of the canon of Holy Scriptures—helps us to understand and interpret it. “It is neither narrative nor didactic, but lyrical, theology intended to be perceived obliquely and savored for its images and allusions; the beauty of these poems is part of their theological meaning” (Robert Jenson). This is theology that sings. By canonizing the Song, God reveals something about himself that we need to know.
“Poetry is by nature deliberately evocative & suggestive… The poetry [of the Song of Songs] causes us to long for the experience of the beauty detailed by the book” (James Hamilton Jr.). Reading Lewis or Tolkien makes me want to write. Hearing Handel or Bono makes me want to sing. Seeing a Van Gogh makes me wish I could paint, wish I could visit those places, experience those things, see everything the artist sees in his subject. Artists impart their vision of reality, and the effect of good art is a longing to share that vision.
The vision imparted in the Song is a vision of true wisdom. It is wisdom literature, and it teaches a surprising and unique kind of wisdom, both in its subject matter and in its very form. It creates in us longings for the good, the true, the beautiful, the divine. It gives expression to the longings that often elude our articulation. It gives us insight into God’s kind of wisdom. The Song sings of the deep things of the world that are hidden in plain sight. The Song sings of Lovers, and of the whole world as a world of their Love.
“The Song sings for what we would long for in our hearts if we knew how to hope for heaven… The Song sings a melody rich with reminiscent beauty, a beauty that resonates with us, a haunting beauty so sharp it sometimes cuts us open and lays us bare with a longing for what we do not now have. The beauty of the Song of Songs has an Eden-like loveliness. It has a harmony, a radiance, a shining innocence with a man and woman gazing on one another’s glory, without an indication of any shame… The closest we get back to the Garden of Eden in the rest of the Bible is in the poetry of the Song of Songs” (Hamilton).
Beauty. Desire. Fiery love. These are the facets of divine wisdom that the Song reveals. “The highest wisdom about the world—all skill in living is tied to sexual wisdom. Sexual knowledge is the model of knowledge, the eschatological knowledge, because at the end the world will be Bride” (Peter Leithart). What kind of God does this Song reveal to us? What kind of God wants his creatures to enjoy him and each other in marital bliss? What kind of God tells us that marital union stands at the heart of true wisdom? The God whose eternal being is three Persons in love—not dispassionate, stoic “love,” but delighted, ardent abandon. He made us in his image with the capacity for his own ardent love. We have such strong desires because we have been made like him, and for him. “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you” (Augustine).
Ultimately, the Song of Songs is about Jesus Christ, the Beloved, the King, the Bridegroom, the Finest among Ten Thousand, whose love is the very flame of the Lord, stronger than death. As we come to this Song, we come to him for life as he offers it in the Gospel. The Song must be interpreted spiritually—that is, with the Spirit’s help as we pray for illumination, understanding the Spirit’s intent in all the Scriptures to point us to Jesus Christ, and enjoying the community of the Spirit who brings us together around Christ. “It is everywhere love that speaks. If anyone hopes to grasp the sense of what he reads, let him love. Whereas someone who does not love will hear or read this song of love in vain” (Bernard of Clairveaux). The love of Christ is the interpretive key that unlocks the Song of Songs.
