Year 2, Day 347: Song of Songs 5

It’s A Dream

Just when chapter 4 makes such a beautiful statement on marital love, we get a dose of reality.  Song of Songs 5 begins an honest perspective on true marriage.  There are always moments in marriage where one spouse or the other has their love and passion fade.  The final chapters of this book speak to the importance of recognizing this natural pattern and then seeking reconciliation with one another.  Let’s take a look at how this unfolds in this chapter.

We start with a very important understanding.  Song of Songs 5:2-7 is to be read as a dream.  It is difficult to get this understanding at a first pass.  However, verse 2 begins by saying, “I slept, but my heart was awake.”  This is a poetic way of saying that the bride slept, but her conscience was at work within her.  She knew that the passion within her had begun to lessen.  Her conscience works within her sleeping mind to expose this truth in her life.

How do we know this?  In the dream, her husband comes to her.  First, notice that the door is locked.  In fact, notice even more closely that the door is locked and the husband doesn’t have access to the key.  The husband tries to enter.  The husband desires intimacy with his wife.  But he has been denied access.

Second, notice that when the husband comes to her in her dream that she is reluctant to be open to her husband’s desire for intimacy.  She makes excuses for not rising to meet him.  She’d already taken off her “publically acceptable” outer garment, how could she go to her door, right?  {Even though it was her husband…}  She’d already washed her feet, she wouldn’t want them to get dirty, right?  {Even though her husband was trying to be intimate.}  Only when her beloved puts his hand to the latch and cannot get in does the bride realize the intimate distance that she’s put between them.

In the dream, the bride goes to the door, knowing that she’s made a mistake.  When she reaches the door, she discovers that her hands are covered with myrrh.  This is likely myrrh that her beloved had put upon his hands.  Myrrh was often used in lovemaking to arouse the senses.  She knows for sure that her husband had wanted to be intimate but she had emotionally locked him out.

Continuing in the dream, the bride goes into the streets.  She searches for her husband, but she cannot find him.  She goes to the city guard.  This is where it gets really interesting.  Remember that in reality (Song of Songs 3:3) when the bride went to the watchmen the watchmen were helpful and protective of her.  But in the dream, the guards beat her.  This likely symbolizes the bride’s guilt.  She knows that she is separated from her husband because of her own emotional barrier that she’s constructed.  It could also suggest a symbolism of the bride’s recognition of the pain that comes from being emotionally separated from one’s spouse.

Through the dream of the bride, we can see the danger that emotional barriers pose to marriages.  They come upon us slowly, before we realize what is happening.  When we realize that they are there, we easily believe that we are too far gone and we can’t resolve them.  We must absolutely be careful with the emotional state of our marriages.

Repentance

When the bride realizes her mistake, she calls to the “others.”  This verse of the others represents the process of confession and the beginning of repentance.  The bride knows she needs to find her husband, and she enlists the help of others to help make amends.

How do we know that the bride is attempting to make amends?  Listen to the words of the bride.  Her husband is distinguished.  He is like gold.  His eyes are like doves.  His cheeks are like spices.  His lips are like lilies dripping with myrrh.  Remember that myrrh is an oleoresin taken from trees and as I said earlier it is often used in lovemaking.  This illustrates the brides desire to be intimate again.  His body is ivory bedecked with sapphires.  His mouth is sweet.  He is altogether desirable.

These are the words of a repentant spouse.  These are the words of a spouse who recognizes the relational problem and is in the process of making amends.  These are the words of a spouse who doesn’t give up when the emotional barrier appears.  These are the words of a spouse who longs to know the forgiveness of the other and a restoration of the intimacy of their marriage.

<><