God’s LOVE is BETTER than all EARTHLY PLEASURES

 

July 13 Bible Reading: Song of Solomon Chapters 1-3

God’s LOVE is BETTER than all EARTHLY PLEASURES

"Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth - For Your love is better than wine."  (Song 1:2)

King Solomon is the author of this eight-chapter love song that he wrote in approximately 900 BC. It was probably written before his spiritual decline (1 Kings 11:3-4). Solomon was a prolific songwriter, who wrote about 1005 songs in his lifetime (1 Kings 4:32).

The Song of Solomon is the greatest song in redemptive history and the longest song in the Bible. This song reveals God’s pattern in how we grow in passion for Jesus. It touches the significant principles and practical realities needed to develop mature love for God.

The symbolic interpretation of this song is to see the spiritual truths in our relationship with Jesus behind the natural love story. Solomon shows forth the joy of life that can be attained without regard to how our circumstances are going. Here, the Holy Spirit is calling us to make intimacy with God the goal of our life. The song highlights how full our life is when our consuming passion is to love and know Jesus. Even with hard circumstances, our spirit can be alive in God.

The theme of the song is the Bride’s cry for the kiss of God’s Word to touch the deepest place in her heart. This refers to encountering the Word in the deepest and most intimate way. In other words, the Word as it reveals the King’s emotions for His Bride and awakens our heart in the three-fold love of God (love from God - then for God - which overflows to others). 

The greatest “pleasures” that we can experience are spiritual ones. These are best experienced by encountering Jesus as the Bridegroom God. This intoxicates our heart and makes us lovesick. It is when we encounter Jesus that we realize that God’s love is better than ALL the earthly pleasures that we can ever hope to experience. God has called us to holiness so that we can experience complete joy and undiluted pleasure that is perfect and eternal.

"In Your presence is fullness of joy…Your right hand are pleasures forevermore." (Psalms 16:11)