Song of Solomon 1

If you were going to write the “song of all songs” to be published in the Bible, what would you write about? What subject would you choose for the song that would be greater than any other song? I don’t know about you, but I suspect most Christians would choose to write a song of praise and worship to God. Don’t you think that’s what God would want? A song that exalted Him?

I’m not so sure.

For it is not a song about God that is given the prestigious title of “song of all songs.” It is, instead, a song about a love story between a man and a woman. A song about love and marriage and sex. This Song of Songs in the Bible is described as:

The most excellent of them all. (AMP)
The best of all songs. (MSG)
More wonderful than any other. (NLT)
The most beautiful of them all. (NLV)
The ultimate song. (CJB)

Why would the song-to-end-all-songs be about love and intimacy between a man and a woman? Oh, I know, lots of people say that this song is only in the Bible to symbolize Christ’s love for the church, but I don’t buy that. I mean, I think there are certain things that we can apply to Christ and the church from this song, but I think that the Song of Songs is primarily to be taken literally, not symbolically.

In the New Testament, John put it just about as plainly as possible: God is love (1 Jn 4:8). Everything He is, everything He says, everything He does is motivated by one thing—Love. And I believe that’s why He created us in the way that He did. He created us to exist in families, where one man and one woman unite in love and together (because of and through that love) create little people in their own image.

I think He did that because He wanted to help us understand (1) how He Himself exists in the unity of love within the Trinity and (2) that His motivation for creating is love! He intended that our creation of little people would only occur in an atmosphere of total love, trust, and intimacy because that’s the same environment out of which He creates.

In that sense, then, the “song of all songs” is a song about God, because any song about true love is also a reflection of our Creator—who is true love personified. That love is characterized by trust, honesty, loyalty, passion, commitment, friendship, and intimacy. This is how God loves us, and it is also how He has created us to love another in the context of a marital relationship.

God is love, and Love is the ultimate song.