The Pastor Writes

The Song of Songs: What's it all about? (Published 3rd February 2025)

It's been on my heart to devote a series of Sunday sermons to the Song of Songs. For those interested, I'll give my reasons for the approach I take.

Part 1

The Song of Songs is unlike any other book of the Bible. So we must approach it with special care, to find what is this unusual book is all about.

There are four answers usually given. I'll list them, in ascending order of value.

1. the book is a sort of Christian 'marriage manual'

2. it's a collection of love poems or a drama celebrating human love

3. it describes the most perfect love, reading it we say: 'That's what love is! That's how God loves me!'

4. the love of the two leading characters echoes the love of Christ and the believer.

Part 2

But before we answer the question we must ask another question: what did the author mean it to be all about?

When we ask that question about the Bible we have to consider two 'authors': the human author and the divine author, the Holy Spirit. This is most important, for the meaning intended by the divine author can't simply be reduced to the meaning intended by the human author; the intention of the first exceeds that of the second.

Those who think the Song is a 'celebration' of human (sexual) love, explain it as the 'literal' meaning. But that's not what 'literal' means. Their idea should be called a 'superficial' meaning. The literal meaning is the meaning the author intended.

Part 3

The Song of Songs is an entirely 'nonreligious' book. There is no mention of God, of any 'religious' word, ceremony, ritual or any sort of 'religious' worship.

This 'nonreligious' character of the Song suggests to some that its purpose must be simply a 'celebration' of intimate love between a woman and a man.

But in fact we've arrived at a crucial point. This 'nonreligious' character clarifies what the book is about. Heaven has no 'religious' rituals, ceremonies or rites; there is no temple there. This is not because Heaven is 'secular' but because it's entirely spiritual – permeated, infused and pervaded by the immediate, glorious and radiant presence of the Lord: 'for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb'. (Revelation 21.22) The Song of Songs echoes heaven: the glory of God in his love for his Son and those who are one with his Son.

But the book isn't an 'allegory', where 'this' detail equals 'that' spiritual truth; a spiritual 'enigma code', best unravelled by those 'in a world of pure imagination'!

Conclusion

There is one more reason why I've come to my conclusion. In searching for the meaning of the Song, it's vital we listen to the Lord's own testimony. He has given a thread to guide us through the labyrinth: that in all the Scriptures are things concerning him.

…beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

The effect was electric: Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?'

The Lord repeated this lesson, in a night class, back in Jerusalem, for the slower learners: 'These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled'; then opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.

'It looks as if the Holy Ghost as he writes his Book can never get away from that face.' (Archibald Brown, The Face of Jesus Christ, 42) So until we find 'that face' we've not found the meaning the Holy Spirit intends in any part of Scripture.

So, whether the human author intended this to be what the book is all about (most probably not) doesn't matter. What matters is what the Holy Spirit intends.

We know his mission and passion is to glorify Christ. For that reason and purpose he gave this extraordinary book as part of Scripture.

The Song of Songs is a unique meditation on Christ and his love for the believer.

Until our 'modern age', this has been the answer preferred by Christian preachers and teachers for 2,000 years: from the earliest Christians, through the Middle Ages, the Reformers, the Puritans and most, if not all, the great Christian preachers of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. I've a hunch they were right.

So, the best commentary on the Song of Songs? Luke 7.36-50

Reading the Puritans    (Published 6th January 2025)

May I suggest some reasons that I hope will start you reading books written by the Puritans. First, I have to ask you to forget everything that you may have heard about these supposedly harsh, dusty, 'kill-joy', old men! What C.H. Spurgeon wrote of the books of the Puritan Thomas Brooks may stand as a description of all the Puritan books still in print today: 'As a writer, Brooks scatters stars with both his hands: he hath dust of gold; in his storehouse are all manner of precious stones.'

I want to encourage you to read these books, to find this treasure for yourself. It may take you about five minutes to get into their style and language, but it's really no great problem, just different. And anyway it's an exciting adventure into the past; as someone said: 'The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there'.

So reasons for reading Puritan books are that they:

• are as fresh as daisies and full of ageless wisdom.
• have stood the test of time, 400 years of time.
• are wholesome food for the mind and soul; as the Puritan Richard Baxter said, 'It is not the reading of many books that make a person wise, but the careful reading of few, could we be sure to choose the best'.
• have had an unequalled influence for good among the people of God.
• have a homely style; they wrote for simple, often uneducated people; although they wrote vast amounts, you can harvest much in a short time.
• offer a skilled diagnosis of the human heart and point to the most effective remedies for troubled souls; they were skilled physicians of the soul, able to tell us things about ourselves we thought only we knew, and then guide us wisely to the grace that heals.
• are packed with truth and Bible wisdom, so you don't have to read from 'beginning to end'. Take one chapter, or even take one or two pages. You'll be amazed how much golden truth you'll find packed into so small a space compared with almost any Christian book written in our own times.
• are grounded and founded on the Word of God; that's why they are full of timeless wisdom, able to speak peace to the heart; not for them 'flavour of the month', 'here-today-gone-tomorrow' trivialities. I began reading the Puritans when I was 14, and still read those same books 60 years later.

C. H. Spurgeon was saturated in Puritan wisdom and encouraged his own congregation to read them: 'By all means read the Puritans, they are worth more than all the modern stuff put together.'

PS

You will find details of some of the best Puritan books on the Recommended Reading page of this website.

The Seeds Books Sow and the Harvest they Reap     (Published 5th January 2025)

We agree, the Bible is to have first place in shaping our spiritual life and knowledge of Jesus Christ. We are 'people of the book'. But, like the Ethiopian diplomat, we often need to ask, 'How can I understand God's Word unless someone explains it to me?'

We learn that the Holy Spirit works through those he calls and equips to teach and preach the 'truth once delivered to the saints'.

For the building–up of his people, God made sure that those who've been most used in the Church wrote books. We're able to 'sit at the feet' of these people. This is a great privilege.

Paul must also have his books! (2 Timothy 4.13) Even at the end of his life, having walked so long with the Lord, having been a faithful teacher of God's Word, he must have his books!

…the Apostle had not given over reading, though he was already preparing for death. So where are those who think that they have made so great progress that they do not need to read anymore? And how strongly this refutes the madness of those who – despising books, and condemning all reading – boast of nothing but their own 'inspiration'. This passage gives to all believers a recommendation of constant reading that they may profit by it. (John Calvin)

In 1588 a Cambridge undergraduate travelled to hear a famous preacher. Richard Sibbes was that student; he was soundly converted and gave himself to the preaching of the gospel, by mouth and pen. He wrote a book, still in print, 'The Bruised Reed'. Several years later this book was read by Vavasor Powell, a Welsh preacher, born in Knucklas in 1617, a man powerfully used by God in Radnorshire and beyond. Powell records:

By a choice providence I came to find a book written by Doctor Sibbes, called the Bruised Reed, and by reading that I found there was encouragement for weak ones, and such who had but a smoke of true desire, though the fire of grace did not appear in them, yet still I was like one groping in the dark, till God sent a most holy sober mortified Christian to me, who seeing me like a Charcoal that had been in the fire, yet without light and life, he pitied my condition, and began to tell me, what a hard work the work of conversion was, it being no less than to make a stone flesh, or darkness light; these with many such words began to sink and to enter deep into my heart, from that time I took up the profession of Godliness.

Richard Sibbes' book was also read by Richard Baxter. Baxter, born near Shrewsbury, had remarkable ministries in Bridgnorth and Kidderminster. Sibbes' book helped Baxter understand the love of God and all that God provides for the believer in Christ. Baxter then wrote, 'The Saint's Everlasting Rest' – a book that's been in print ever since.

In 1702 the wife of a tradesman gave birth to her twentieth child. The child was given up for dead, but survived, to sit on his mother's knee and learn of God's grace. The child was Philip Doddridge; he was deeply influenced by the books of Richard Baxter. He also wrote a book, called 'The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul'. In 1767 an eight year old boy was lifted onto a table to demonstrate to young students the excellence of his diction. Years later this boy, travelling through France, read Doddridge's book. The book helped William Willberforce to do great good in the Kingdom of God. Willberforce wrote a book, 'The Practical View of Christianity'.

Willberforce's book, 'The Practical View of Christianity' had a dynamic effect on Thomas Chalmers. The great Thomas Chalmers, better known in Scotland than England, Principle of New College, Edinburgh, walked the streets of Edinburgh and seeing the poverty and ignorance, hopelessness and destitution would slip into alleyways to weep; then to work tirelessly to improve their lives and bring them the hope of the gospel.

PS

Vavasor Powell suffered for his faithful preaching, by long stretches of imprisonment. During one period in prison he complied a Bible concordance, A New and Useful Concordance. John Bunyan owned a copy of this Concordance and used it while he was in prison, writing The Pilgrim's Progress. The Concordance Bunyan owned has been preserved and its title page brings together the names of three of the greatest of the Puritans: there name of the books complier, Vavasor Powell; the name of John Owen, who wrote a lengthy recommendation; and the signature of John Bunyan, who owned the book.

John Owen, the most learned and profound theologian this country has produced, was asked by King Charles II why such a great scholar would waste time listening to the preaching of the tinker, John Bunyan, Owen replied, 'Could I possess the tinker's abilities for preaching, please your majesty, I would gladly relinquish all my learning.'