Song of Solomon 2: Catch the Little Foxes

She calls herself a common wildflower; her beloved calls her a lily among the thorns. Scripture is not embarrassed to celebrate what God gave in marriage: a banner of love over the banqueting house, apples and raisins for a woman sick with love, a young stag leaping over the hills to call his bride out into the spring. The chapter also guards what it celebrates, warning about the little foxes that spoil vineyards in bloom and charging the daughters of Jerusalem twice not to stir up love before it pleases. Every husband and wife who has heard "arise, my love, and come away" knows the ache in it. So does the Church, whose Bridegroom washed her, called her beautiful, and made her so, and who will one day come over the mountains to bring her home for good. The Rev. David Boisclair, senior pastor of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Overland, Missouri, joins the Rev. Dr. Phil Booe to study Song of Solomon 2:1–17.  To learn more about Our Redeemer in Overland, visit ourredeemerstl.org. The Song of Solomon is a book of love poetry, a bride and her bridegroom singing to each other across eight chapters. God's people have sung it since Solomon's day, and Jewish congregations still read it at Passover. The Church has heard in it the voice of Christ and His bride, and Luther quoted the Song in The Freedom of a Christian to describe what happens when Christ takes a sinner as His own. Paul was working the same ground in Ephesians five, where he set marriage beside Christ and the Church and called it a great mystery.  This series works through the whole book verse by verse, from the kiss in chapter one to the seal on the heart in chapter eight. We hear what it says about the body, about desire, and about the marriage God instituted in the garden. We also ask where Christ is in it, since the Church has long heard in these songs the voice of the Bridegroom who gave His life for His bride. Thy Strong Word, hosted by Rev. Dr. Phil Booe, pastor of St. John Lutheran Church of Luverne, MN, reveals the light of our salvation in Christ through study of God’s Word, breaking our darkness with His redeeming light. Each weekday, two pastors fix our eyes on Jesus by considering Holy Scripture, verse by verse, in order to be strengthened in the Word and be equipped to faithfully serve in our daily vocations. Submit comments or questions to: [email protected].