GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
SONG OF SOLOMON 8:8-10
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The Brothers
8 We have a little sister. She has no breasts.
What shall we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for?
9 If she is a wall, we will build towers of silver on her.
If she is a door, we will panel her with boards of cedar.
The Bride
10 I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers;
In his eyes I am now the one who finds peace.
The main part of the book ended with the crashing of the many waters and the blazing flame of love in verse 7. Now we have a string of poetic afterthoughts that reflect various things from the beginning of the book: the sister (8:8-10), the vineyards (8:11-12), and the one who dwells in the garden (8:13-14).
I identify the speakers here (“we”) as the bride’s brothers. They were already mentioned in 1:6 (“my mother’s sons”). If it is not them speaking, then who is the “we”? Is it the married couple who looks upon the wife’s sister as the sister of them both? Or could the “daughters of Jerusalem” be speaking? It’s probably the brothers.
It is also possible, perhaps even likely, that the bride is quoting what her brothers once said. They used to watch out for her, letting people know that she was not yet mature enough to marry. To this, she replies: “But now my breasts are like towers!” She is old enough, mature enough, to marry. And if they were teasing her, or reminding her of what they used to say about her, she now counters with: “What matters now is my husband. In his eyes– and his are the eyes that matter– I am the one who finds peace.”
The brothers seem to be protecting their little sister’s virtue for “the day when she is spoken for,” which is not her wedding day, but her betrothal day; the day when we would say that she gets engaged. She must be a virgin, ready to give her virginity to her husband in their marriage. Therefore she is like a wall (which suggests that she is inaccessible), and they will adorn her with battlements of silver, displaying the impressive success of the wall and showing her purity with the silver. “Treat younger women as sisters, with absolute purity” (1 Timothy 5:2).
But she is also like a door. In this case, the door is a deleth, not just an opening, but a door that can be closed, locked and barred. Her brothers say that they will panel her in cedar! They will overlay the door to make it harder to break in. This is probably a way of reminding her, and all girls, to save their virginity for their marriage, where “the two will become one flesh” (Matthew 19:5). One flesh; not one plus all the others who had the bodies of the married couple before their marriage.
But the bride assures her brothers: I am ready for my marriage, and my husband is ready for me. And, she adds: “Now, in his eyes, I am the one who finds peace.” Shalom can mean completion, peace or contentment; in the Song, contentment is certainly part of the meaning, in both the marital and the spiritual applications. She is content in their marriage; he is content in their marriage. Christ is pleased and content with us; we are pleased and absolutely content with him. But above all, he brings us peace, we find peace in him.
In the days before a marriage, when a man is looking for a woman who might be his wife, he yearns for peace and contentment. Many men never find it in their wives, because they were unwise, choosing a wife with a fiery temper or who, along with her attractiveness, was always prone to argue, or to hold him to a standard she herself could never achieve. When Christ teaches us to be humble, to throw ourselves at his mercy, to give up being proud or vain, and to see that we have nothing to be proud of or vain about in our own achievements, then we can be truly happy in our status before him as redeemed, liberated from shame and sins. “Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).
Finally, let’s notice once again her words: “In his eyes.” In the mystic union between Christ and the church, there is nothing that matters more than what is “in his eyes.” A person might seem righteous and marvelous in their own eyes, but what are they in his eyes; God’s eyes? They are nothing but a miserable sinner, unrepentant, ignorant of his will, unloving, hateful, spiteful, slanderous, covetous, adulterous, impure, unholy, and condemned. In the righteous eyes of God the Father, we are unworthy of eternal life, and this has been our status since we were conceived in the wombs of our mothers (Psalm 51:5). We are subject only to his wrath, and deserve nothing but everlasting punishment.
What changed? What made all the difference? It was Christ who leapt into the world to pick up our sins, to take the sentence of death and even of everlasting death away from us and throw it over his own shoulders and march out of the city to be put to death in our place. He died, and in doing so he killed our death sentence, and after he truly died in the flesh, he rose again from the dead, seen by hundreds of eye-witnesses, but believed by millions upon millions. And in each and every case of a human being who believes in Jesus for forgiveness, in the eyes of the Father, we have found peace simply through faith in Christ. This is the peace that transcends all understanding (Philippians 4:7). As we confess: “Men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works, but are freely justified for Christ’s sake through faith when they believe that they are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven on account of Christ, who by his death made satisfaction for our sins” (Augsburg Confession). In his eyes we are righteous. In his eyes we have found peace. And that’s all that matters, forever.
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 8:8-10 In his eyes