GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
SONG OF SOLOMON 8:13-14
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The Husband
13 You who dwell in the gardens with friends in attendance,
let me hear your voice!
In the beginning of the Song, we met the woman apologizing for the way she looked, having come from the vineyards where she had been sunburned and had not been taking ideal care (so she said) of her own vineyard. Here she is in her true element, in the gardens with her friends. Her husband is there, delighted with her, wanting to hear her voice. This isn’t a command from a victor like in Psalm 137:2-3, but a request from a husband to hear her speak, or even sing. He is delighted with her voice.
“Gardens” is a reminder of the Garden of Eden, where the husband thinks of his bride and places her there in his heart, or in the eyes of his love. She belongs among the beautiful trees and flowers of the very first dwelling place of man, where Eve walked in her youthful beauty without any cares or very many obligations, being her husband’s perfect wife by simply being who she was and doing what she did. He was never angry with her, never at odds with her. She was never tired of him, worried about him, frustrated by him. They were in perfect harmony and in perfect love. This is the status that our Lord Jesus had brought to us once again, so that in the resurrection of the dead, when we will enter into life once again, having shed all sin and guilt like a moth or butterfly leaving its old body behind and sprouting a new and beautiful body, we will soar into the air as St. Paul prophesies, caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air to be with the Lord forever in heaven (1 Thessalonians 4:17).
Is this why Solomon regretfully uses the plural, “gardens,” and mentions the friends who are in attendance? For in this life, the life here below, which is in the world of sin and the valley of tears, we have many little gardens, but none of them is the divine Paradise of Eden. These many little gardens are the places where we clear away some of the dust and thorns of the world and gather to worship together with companions. These little gardens are groups of believers– this is a way of describing the church on earth.
We have seen throughout the Song that the Holy Spirit teaches us here about the mysterious or mystic union between Christ and the church. We see this in the title given to the church in the New Testament: “The bride of Christ” (John 3:29; 2 Corinthians 11:2). But what is the church? The church is in the proper sense, the community of believers (those who believe in Jesus, 2 Timothy 2:19). The Bible teaches that there is only one church on the whole earth from the beginning to the end of the world (Hebrews 12:22-23); it has always existed from the beginning of time, and always will exist (Matthew 16:18). The church has visible marks in the world, which are the presence of the word of God and the sacraments (“How can they hear without someone preaching to them?” Romans 10:14). “For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Corinthiains 4:5). Since there is sin, flaw, and error in the world, the church has always had divisions, which by our time we have begun to call denominations (which means “separate names”). We are part of the one church, but we are, sadly, many. Just as the northern and southern kingdoms became separated, and then the Samaritans, and then Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, and others took their shape, sometimes as groups within groups, and sometimes as groups outside the other groups, so today we have many groups. If we want to remember what God says about joining with those who teach false things, we can read 2 John, and 3 John, and be reminded not to join with those who teach falsely, “sharing in their wicked work” (2 John 1:11). We do not take these things lightly. But we also rejoice that in the resurrection, those differences will be wiped away in the same way that our physical defects and emotional and mental troubles will be over at last.
But what does the Father want from us today? What does the Husband say in the Song? “Let me hear your voice!” He is happy when we proclaim our Lord Jesus, when we sing his praises, when we confess our faith, and when we encourage and love one another. For in worship we most closely approach our role and joy of heaven, saying, “Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever! Amen!” (Revelation 7:12). And if an angel or bystander asks who we are, the ones singing in white robes, they will be told: “These are the ones who are coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14). We are washed clean of all our sins in the blood of Christ, and he has made for us a place with him forever in heaven. This is a fitting end to the Song. But there is one verse left:
The Wife
14 Run, my love,
and be like a gazelle or like a young stag
on the mountains of spice!
The Song truly ends where it began, with the couple happy in their love, and the wife encouraging her husband to be like a buck gazelle or a buck deer, bounding around on the mountains (see Song 2:17).
Physically, in terms of human marriage, the wife is happy about her husband’s role in the family. Like a buck who patrols the area, he has an eye out for danger, but also for good grazing, a good place to build and maintain a home, his relationship with the neighbors, and even where to find the rarities that a family sometimes desires or needs, things he finds “on the mountains of spice.” Of course, the bride might be using talk like this as a sort of private code about their love, but it stands for many other things in marriage, and we must acknowledge that she is content just as he is content. They each have their role, and they are at peace.
Spiritually, the church is happy that the Gospel travels far and wide. We encourage our Lord to carry his salvation and the promise of forgiveness and the resurrection to many places, like a deer running off on the distant hills. He has not deserted us; he will be with us always, “to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). But there are other sheep, not of this sheep pen. Let them be touched by the Savior’s love, just as we have, and be brought into the Holy Christian Church, the Communion of Saints. Let them join us forever in heaven through faith in Jesus our Lord. The Bridegroom has prepared a place for his bride! “For just as a bridegroom rejoices over a bride, your God will rejoice over you.”
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Song of Solomon 8:13-14 The Bridegroom and his bride.