I want you to rethink the Song of Solomon (often called the Song of Songs), or at least expand your understanding, application, and appreciation of the Song to your spirituality. Your soul, and not just your body, needs this book.

While the Song certainly has wisdom to share about the intimate joys of marriage, this isn’t the main message of Solomon’s poem. Like the rest of the Old Testament, the Song foreshadows and showcases the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. As the apostle Paul unveiled in Ephesians 5, marriage is a vehicle for the mystery of Christ and the church. The Song testifies along with Ephesians that “this mystery is profound” (Eph. 5:32).

Throughout the centuries, the Song has been underinterpreted as having no correspondence to Christ and his Bride, and overinterpreted with every word and picture decoded and distorted. To avoid the latter error, many have fallen into the former one. Christ is missing. We need to retrieve the spiritual, Christ-centered reading of the Song. And we can find it in the theological heritage of Reformed spirituality.

Your Favorite Figures Loved the Song

The Puritan Richard Sibbes (1577–1635) says in a sermon on Song 5:1, “This book contains the mutual joys and mutual praises betwixt Christ and his church.” Similarly, John Owen (1616–83) says in The Glory of Christ, “The whole Book of Canticles is nothing but a mystical declaration of the mutual love between Christ and the church.” Jonathan Edwards practiced the Christ-focused interpretation of the Song, writing in his Miscellanies, “The union between Christ and believers is very often represented to a marriage. This similitude is much insisted on in Scripture—how sweetly is it set forth in the Song of Songs!”

Robert Murray M’Cheyne (1813–43), in a sermon on Song of Solomon 2:8–17, shows how important the Song is for our spirituality when he said, “There is no book of the Bible which affords a better test of the depth of a man’s Christianity than the Song of Solomon.” And Charles Spurgeon (1834–92), the focus of my PhD work on the Song, preached more than 80 sermons on the book. I believe it was his favorite book of the Bible. He says,

That Song of Solomon is the central Book of the Bible; it is the innermost shrine of divine revelation, the holy of holies of Scripture; and if you are living in communion with God, you will love that Book, you will catch its spirit, and you will be inclined to cry with the spouse, “Make haste, my beloved.”

Why don’t we treasure the Song like they did? Why does this feel so foreign? What are we missing? They clearly knew how to read Christ from cover to cover.

Read on Key

Beholding Christ in the Song doesn’t require the stereotypical examples of goofy allegorizing. But it does require recalibrating our assumptions and reading habits. We need to read on key.

First, we must believe and practice Christ’s hermeneutic from John 5 and Luke 24. Our Lord shows us that we misread the Old Testament if we don’t see how it points us to him. Therefore, we must consider how the Song sings about Christ. Douglas Sean O’Donnell writes,

The Song is a song about human love set in the context of marriage, which is found in the Bible, and the Bible’s ultimate reference point is Jesus: his birth, life, teachings, miracles, sufferings, death, resurrection, ascension, mediation, and return.

We under-read any book of Scripture if we don’t believe and understand that, in some way, it bears witness to Jesus.

We under-read any book of Scripture if we don’t believe and understand that, in some way, it bears witness to Jesus.

Second, rather than relying on hunches about the Song, read with the rest of the Bible backfilling your minds.

Third, look past our recent history of interpretation that’s informed by the hypersexualized atmosphere of contemporary Western culture. Go centuries back. Listen with discernment to church history.

Fourth, read the Song in its genre—poetry. Lean into the word pictures and symbols. Interpret the Song literally (What’s there?) and literarily (How does what’s there work in this type of literature?). Interpret the Song as a song. Trace the metaphors, similes, and analogies to the Messiah’s love and the love in marriage. This leads us to having a literate reading of the Song—a well-versed reading of its poetic features in light of the rest of the Bible’s verses. Let’s be literate readers who know how to properly read this kind of literature and understand the Bible’s Noun of nouns: Christ. We can read the Song and find genre-aware, grammar-fueled, canonical connections to the person and work of Christ.

Canonical Connections and Melodies

The Song is filled with biblical theology. Consider these examples:

• Solomon, a son of David (1:1)
• Who is a shepherd and a king in Jerusalem (1:5, 7)
• Where he enjoys milk and honey with his bride (5:1)

Whom else do we know who is the Son of David, who is the Good Shepherd and the King of kings, who will bring his Bride into the new Jerusalem and the eternal promised land of milk and honey? J-E-S-U-S! Solomon, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote a song of messianic music.

The theme of God being wed to his people—found in the Psalms, Isaiah, Hosea, Ephesians, Revelation, and more—gives ample evidence for the same application of the Song. Christ told a parable with himself as the Bridegroom (Matt. 9:15; Mark 2:19–20; Luke 5:34–35). John the Baptist rejoiced at hearing the Bridegroom’s voice (John 3:29). And we’re headed to the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19). The Song even concludes on the same key as the book of Revelation, with a longing and petition for the quick return of the Groom (Song 8:14; Rev. 22:17, 20).

Marriage is a melody throughout the Bible. As Ray Ortlund points out, “Marriage is the wraparound concept for the entire Bible, within which the other themes find their places.” The Song shows us an angle on the Messiah nourishing and cherishing his Bride (Eph. 5:29).

Sweet Enjoyments and Harmonies

In Jewish spirituality, the Song was read at Passover. This seems odd unless you see that it has something to say about God’s unfailing love for his failing people. This is why early church father Hippolytus (c. 170–235) preached from the Song at Easter and why Spurgeon preached from it on Good Friday. They understood the Song’s lyrical and harmonic theology of the mutual love between Christ and his Bride. As Spurgeon says, “We see our Saviour’s face in almost every page of the Bible, but here we see his heart and feel his love to us.”

Solomon wrote a song of messianic music.

The Song reminds us of Christ’s real-time love radiating from heaven. The living Christ’s heart beats for you. The poetic theology helps us feel Christ’s love through Scripture’s inspired word pictures, symbols, figures, and types. The Song gives grammar for grasping Christ’s love and for responding in love to him. Solomon’s work provides another dimension to understanding the One who is greater than Solomon. Christ is the greater King, Sage, and Lover of our souls.

• “For your love is better than wine” (Song 1:2). There’s no harm in drinking deep of his love! Christ’s love never spoils. “Love never ends” (1 Cor. 13:8).
• “My beloved is mine, and I am his” (Song 2:16). There’s great comfort in knowing we “belong to . . . him who has been raised from the dead” (Rom. 7:4).
• “There is no flaw in you” (Song 4:7). We’re justified with hearts sprinkled clean (Heb. 10:22) in the washing of regeneration (Titus 3:5–7)—and Christ will present us to himself without any spot, wrinkle, or blemish (Eph. 5:26–27).
• Our beloved is distinguished among 10,000 (Song 5:10). Christ is supreme—he is before all things and holds all things together (Col. 1:17).

We don’t need allegorical gymnastics to sing of Christ in the Song. We only need to connect texts.

You need this book. It’s profitable for your communion with Christ, rebuking your cold heart, correcting your doubts of his love, and training you in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16). Don’t rob your soul of the greatest song in the Bible. Like “King of kings” and “holy of holies” and “Lord of lords,” this is the “Song of Songs” (Song 1:1). Is it the chief song because it’s about romance in marriage? No. It’s the greatest song because it’s about a greater love, One who laid down his life for his friends, a Bridegroom giving his life for his Bride (John 15:13; Eph. 5:25).