Beautiful, Beautiful (Songs 4:1a)

 


Thursday, January 9, 2025


Psalm 22

Songs 4:1-18

John 5:19-29


Beautiful, Beautiful (Songs 4:1a)


There is a certain Jewish tradition that prohibits young men reading the Song of Songs until they turn thirty. The justification is, presumably, because young men are so inclined to immature giggling, they cannot be trusted to handle the text with the reverence it requires. Some of today’s proclamations of beauty can, to be honest, seem a little, shall we say, rural.


But note the specific use of simile by the man. Every aspect of the woman’s natural beauty is compared with something from the natural world. The one time he speaks of something man-made – the “tower of David” of verse four – he is referring to her jewellery.


This is consistent with a wider biblical theme of the nature of beauty. When Jesus taught us not to worry about clothes, he drew attention to the fact that wild flowers are more beautiful than anything we could wear. (Matthew 6:28-29) When God gave Moses instructions for the tabernacle, he required the work of a skilled craftsman. (Exodus 26:1, 31) The “prayerbook of the Bible”, the book of Psalms, is designed to be set to music. Beauty is throughout the Bible, and God’s beauty is soaked through all of his creation. The pinnacle of beauty is encapsulated in this love poem from a groom to his bride, beauty reaching its climax in love. Greater love has no man than this, than he who laid down his life for his friends (John 15:13); and there is none more beautiful than our Messiah, the Lord Jesus.


Where do you find beauty in your life? Where is there love in your life? What is the interplay between the two, and how is this reflected in your relationship with Jesus?


Christ, our Lord of love and beauty: awake my physical sense to beauty, so that my spirit may be inflamed with your love.

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