Song of Songs: The Bible's Love Poetry

Love and sex. 

Our culture talks about love and sex plenty. Romance is its own—very popular— category of movies, books, and more. You’ve probably even heard the phrase “sex sells” to explain why creators continue to include the subject matter. As humans, most of us know the longing for love, acceptance, and belonging that drives our interest in matters of love and sex. And yet, as Christians, we’re sometimes hesitant to talk about love and sex together. For some of us, it might even feel taboo. But it doesn’t need to if we let God’s Word guide our conversation. Join Groundwork for our series, “Song of Songs: The Bible's Love Poetry,” and together we’ll study the main themes in Song of Songs to learn about God’s design for intimacy, sex, and our relationships, and we’ll discuss how it compares to what we experience in culture. 

Can We Actually Talk about Love and Sex? 

There’s no doubt that culture talks about it, often glorifying sex while minimizing commitment. If we observe cultural messages long enough, we find an emphasis on self-satisfaction that turns relationships into transactions. We long for beauty and belonging in love, but instead we too often find brokenness and pain. Even in many Christian circles, discussing sex brings feelings of embarrassment and shame rather than joy. 

We can’t deny that relationships are an integral part of our daily lives. Relating to people, by nature, means we share a bit of ourselves with the other person. The relationship between lovers is one of the most intimate and sacred; however, this also means our understanding of love and relationships is susceptible to distortion by human sin.

So, can we talk about love and sex in a way that honors and glorifies God? The Bible would say yes; after all, the Bible includes Song of Songs, a whole book of love poetry! Studying Song of Songs helps us understand God’s self-sacrificing, mutually beneficial design for intimacy. It gives us the opportunity to remember that God redeems what is broken. It lets us observe healthy ways to celebrate love and our physical bodies that bring glory to God and honor each other. 

Song of Songs or Song of Solomon?

We find Song of Songs in the Bible’s Old Testament. It comes out of the wisdom tradition of Israel’s poetry and therefore, scholars categorize it with the other wisdom books of the Bible like Psalms, Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes. All these books use figurative language and are gathered prayers, songs, teachings, or poetry. They utilize literary techniques appropriate for their genre and we read them as they are, not as narrative or history. 

Many Christians and Bible translations have long called this book the “Song of Solomon” versus “Song of Songs.” The logic for this comes from chapter 1 verse 1, which says, “Solomon’s Song of Songs” and seems to attribute the book directly to Solomon. However, we also see this type of attribution in the Psalms, and historical studies have shown us this type of attribution did not always mean the named individual composed it. Rather, it commonly meant the piece was composed in honor of that individual or in the same style as that individual, much like we might see songs or books today commissioned or dedicated. This is why just as many Christians and Bible translations know this book of the Bible as “Song of Songs.” 

Read and Study the Bible’s Love Poetry

I invite you to celebrate intimacy and sexuality through our Groundwork series “Song of Songs: The Bible's Love Poetry”:

• A Beautiful Celebration of Love and Intimacy - Song of Songs 1-2
• God's Design for Sex and Relationships - Song of Songs 3-8

...and together, we’ll see how the celebration of intimacy, physical bodies, and sexuality we find in Song of Songs applies to marriage, friendships, community, and conflict, and provides a Biblical picture of redeemed love, sex, and relationships.