Monday 27 March 2023

Psalm 23

Background

Today we begin to read from a book which will seem unusual to many readers of the Bible. The Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon as it is sometimes titled) does not fit with the categories of biblical writing that are familiar to us. It is not law,  history or prophecy and although placed with the wisdom writings in most arrangements of the Canon (the agreed list of the books of the Bible), its content makes it very unlike those works also. The Song of Songs is, quite simply, a collection of love poems. As we shall see, it has been interpreted as a way of better understanding our loving relationship with God (and more importantly God’s love for us) by both Jewish and Christian commentators, but it is far from certain that that is the meaning the poet originally had in mind. What we have in this biblical book might have begun life as songs sung at a wedding.

Many years ago, when I was studying A-level English, I had to write an essay about why people read poetry. The teacher marking it said that I had missed the point which for him (if I remember correctly) was that the "combination of metre and meaning enabled one to feel an experience of the divine". In recent years, writers such as Malcolm Guite have popularised poetry for Christians, helping readers to make poetry part of their conversation with God.  In his introduction to his Lenten anthology, Words in the Wilderness, Guite notes that poetry is a necessary complement to "more rationalistic and analytical ways of knowing".

Today’s passage is, like a lot of poetry, allusive. Flowers, fruits, birds and animals are all invoked to describe the nature of the love that exists between two people. The backdrop to these images is the end of winter and the gentle rain of spring (a time of year commonly associated in poetry with love and marriage). We do not need to unpack all the images to understand the sense of what is said in these verses about the mystery of human passion and the joy of love which cannot be expressed in more ‘ordinary’ (rationalistic or analytical) language.

This passage (in common with the whole collection of poems which make up the book) is presented as a dialogue between two lovers who express their delight not only in their mutual attraction but also in the waiting (v. 8 and v. 17) for the consummation of that attraction. It is not difficult to see how both these thoughts can be applied to our relationship with God.

To Ponder:

• Does poetry, whether or not it is intended to be religious verse, help you to express your love for God, or to understand better God’s love for you?
• Rabbi Lionel Blue wrote "You can learn a lot about religion if you meditate on texts from a jukebox, because it’s the same love, whether it’s directed to God or one of his creatures." Do you agree?