April 28: Song of Songs 3
Numbers 5; Psalm 39; Song of Songs 3; Hebrews 3
Verses 1-5 of Songs 3 is a dream sequence - the bride “does” all this on her “bed by night” (1). She searches for her beloved all through the city’s streets and squares (2), asking the night watchmen (3). She finds her Solomon, and in her dream, he takes her to his mother’s bed chamber (4) - a euphemism for sexual intercourse. She’s fantasizing about sex with her beloved.
But she is only engaged; she can’t fulfill her desire yet. So she burns on her bed, and “adjures” all other women:
. . . that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.
“Pleases” means until you have the opportunity to lawfully consummate that love. In other words, guard your heart. This call and warning should ring down to us today. Modern women, guard your heart. How? By watching what you fantasize about. If you are single, you know you’ve allowed fantasy to take root when it takes a month to get over that guy asking her out and not you.
But married women, guard your heart, too. Love can be awakened by means of romance novels, even if they are not “trashy”, and even Christian ones. For just like actual pornography, this porn of the mind can create expectations that no man can match, thus setting up your marriage for failure. God provides boundaries, that we might run free within them. Guard your heart.