Reading 56 | The Bible in 100 Passages

Saturday, November 8, 2025  

Today's Scripture
Song of Solomon 2:8–17

The voice of my beloved!
Look, he comes,
leaping upon the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
My beloved is like a gazelle
or a young stag.
Look, there he stands
behind our wall,
gazing in at the windows,
looking through the lattice.
My beloved speaks and says to me:
“Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away;
for now the winter is past,
the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth;
the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove
is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth its figs,
and the vines are in blossom;
they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away.
O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
in the covert of the cliff,
let me see your face,
let me hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet,
and your face is lovely.
Catch us the foxes, the little foxes,
that ruin the vineyards —
for our vineyards are in blossom.”

My beloved is mine and I am his;
he pastures his flock among the lilies.
Until the day breathes
and the shadows flee,
turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle
or a young stag on the cleft mountains. (NRSV)

Reflection

On most days, I consider readings from Song of Solomon to be the stuff of wedding liturgies. It is effuse with the imagery of eros, the erotic and affectionate love between two human beings. But, of course, this book and its evocative prose was not written as rhetorical decor for marriage ceremonies. So, the question before us then is what might such earthy love have to tell us about the God who speaks to — as the Christmas hymn suggests — the hopes and fears of all the years?

One interpretive path that has been historically followed is to spiritualize these words attributed to Solomon as an allegory of the deep ties between Christ and the church. While there’s some value in that approach, I have found the sultry language of Solomon worth exploring rather than evading.

And that language most immediately takes me to the American art form of the Blues and the rhythms of the juke joints of old in the African American musical lexicon. Like much of American culture, there was a distinction in this music between the merriment of Saturday night and the solemnity of Sunday morning.

But as theologian James Cone reminds us in his book The Cross and the Lynching Tree, Saturday night rhythm and blues served a dual purpose. It not only provided an escape from oppressive social circumstances, but it also affirmed the value of earthly life characterized by its deep longings and heartfelt desires. For African Americans, it affirmed that their will for better days expressed in the embrace of a beloved ultimately came from God. And as we turn to Sunday morning, we realize those longings are satisfied and made whole before God in whose presence “the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.”

Prayer

Holy One, in you our deepest longing finds fulfillment. May our everyday joys and desires find satisfaction in your love and justice. Amen. 

Written by Joseph L. Morrow, Associate Pastor

Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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