If you have your Bibles, turn in it to the Song of Solomon. We are in Chapter 4. Our text this morning will be verses 1 through 7. Song of Solomon 4, verses 1 through 7. And this next poem is the groom praising the beauty and the wonderful character of his bride. And he is doing so in culturally relevant metaphors and images that aren't so relevant to us. But as he does so, he's comparing her beauty and character to those things poetically which heap praise upon her. Song of Songs four, beginning in verse one. Let's read the text together. How beautiful you are, my darling. How beautiful you are. Your eyes are like doves behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats that have descended from Mount Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn ewes which have come up from their washing. All of them bear twins. and not one among them has lost her young. Your lips are like a scarlet thread, and your mouth is lovely. Your temples are like a slice of pomegranate behind your veil. Your neck is like the Tower of David, built with rows of stones, on which are hung a thousand shields, all the round shields of the mighty men. Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle which feed among the lilies. Until the cool of the day, when the shadows flee away, I will go my way to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense. You are altogether beautiful, my darling, and there is no blemish in you. Let's ask that the Lord would bless the preaching of his word here this morning. Father in heaven, may your loving kindness come to us, oh Lord. your salvation according to your word we pray father that as we look at this text this morning you would open our hearts and minds that we would see the wonderful beauty that is pictured here in the marriage relationship a beauty that is transcended in the relationship between Jesus Christ and his church. I pray that as we begin to grasp and understand marriage in the human sense, we would better understand our relationship to Jesus Christ, that even here in this text, that Christ would reign supreme in our thoughts and in our minds. But also, Father, I pray that you would help us in our own marriages. The text definitely instructs us It gives us insight into how we ought to think and behave and order our own marriages here on earth. And so we pray that you would open this text to our hearts and minds, that we would see Christ, that we would see the church, but we would also see how we are to live in light of those great truths. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. The reality is you look at this entire section here, really chapter four verse one all the way through chapter five verse one i'd i'd definitely disagree with how the chapters are laid out in the paragraphs are separated four one two five one or through five one are really a poetic units uh... there's three separate poems but you can see how they're linked together You could you could read the text all the way through just like that and the only reason I didn't preach on that entire section is it's a fairly big section and I think as a preaching unit I would have to skim over a lot of the parts that I want to spend some time on but If we take it maybe two units, I think that's manageable. The first poem you see there in verses 1 through 7 are the man's or the groom's statement of his arousal in response to the beauty of his bride. The metaphors describing her body in verses 1 through 7 are then followed in verses 8 through 15 with an invitation to this garden setting. And so you begin to see the picture that we have here. It's a picture again of returning to the garden Adam and Eve stand before one another naked and unashamed and then they enter into this intimacy in paradise together and then in the following verses there chapter 4 verse 16 and then Chapter 5 verse 1 would constitute a unit of poetry as well Which is the celebration of their union the celebration of their coming together? It's the acceptance of the invitation and the joyous union of the couple so verses 1 through 7 where we're at today is a celebration of beauty and The poetic unit that we have here stands alone because it has a specific distinction in Near Eastern poetry. It's called a WASF, W-A-S-F. It kind of sounds like wasp when I say it, but it's WASF. And this is a poem of praise that was familiar in Arabic poetry. You find it in the Egyptian poetry. You find it in a lot of Jewish poetry, where two lovers stand in front of one another. and the one begins to describe the body of the other lover, starting at the top of the head and working their way down. It was a specific type of poetry, and in doing so, they would make these descriptions using metaphorical terminology. And this would describe their bodies and the beauty of their bodies. And in the Song of Songs, this is the first of four of these wasps that we find here interjected into the psalm. Three of them are the man's description of the woman, and then only one is the woman's description of the man. And believe it or not, the woman's description of the man is by far the most erotic of all of the wasps. And we got some time to get there. So what follows here, what we see is a poem, a specific type of poem that is praising the beauty of the bride. But keep in mind, as we read this, that it is dressed in these metaphors which were culturally relevant at the time it was written, even though it doesn't make a lot of sense to us today. I think it's important to note that, because there's a lot of commentators who read these metaphors, and believe it or not, they say, what's happening here is the groom is actually remarking on the ugliness of the bride. And it's a picture of love that looks past ugliness and loves in spite of all of these things. And I think it's an absurd position, one that you can't draw metaphors that were made over 2,000 years ago and try to bring them into our culture and think they're always going to make sense. But even some of these metaphors do make sense if we understand them in the right context. Primarily what the poem is doing is expressing the love It's expressing the unrivaled commitment that the groom has for the bride The idea that's being portrayed here is he has eyes only for her Remember the author of the song is Solomon and keep in mind Solomon had lots of wives and concubines and it's my belief that he writes the song of songs and the end of his life looking back with utter and terrible regret at how he lived his life and how he was Unfaithful to the wife of his youth and you see this in the Proverbs his constant commendation my son Stay with the wife of wife of your youth. Don't go after other women. Don't add wives It's the wisdom of Solomon through experience. And so the poetry is exemplifying this idea Solomon is saying have wife eyes only for your wife. She must be altogether beautiful she must be altogether perfect in your sight a million other girls Could walk by and here the author or the rather the man in the poem here the the man that should be every man has eyes only for her now it exemplifies when we read this, this kind of singular devotion that a husband is to have for his wife, but not just the husband for the wife, but the wife for the husband. She is standing in front of him. And as you read the poem, you should have come away with something here. She's not wearing much. She stands before him naked and unashamed. And so we see the devotion of the wife in the giving of her body to her husband, the devotion of the husband in the praise of her body as she offers it to him. One author put it this way, and this is kind of a long quote, but bear with it. He is captivated by her beauty. He finds her overwhelmingly, entrancingly attractive. Nor is it just her physical beauty that attracts him. The speech of her mouth and the strength of her character evident in the way she holds herself are also attractive to him. He shines the spotlight entirely on her and delights in who she is. Meanwhile, as we will see in a later chapter, she signs it right back at him. The back and forth of mutual praise that we saw in chapter one, which is echoed in his opening words, is the common thread running through the story of their love. She thereby becomes a true partner with him in building a lasting and loving house together, a house that may lack Solomon's material wealth, and vast progeny, but that has a splendor of its own that Solomon in all his glory could never match. He says on this model, marriage is two peoples becoming one flesh. a single unit that rises and falls together, and that sticks together for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness or in health, till death parts them. She submits to him as the church submits to Christ. He gives himself for her as Christ gives himself for the church. Now as we move into a poem here that's getting quite erotic, We need to have our minds focus in that realm of such a picture of marriage. We can't think of the poetry here, as it gets more and more erotic as you move through it, as being any indication of what the world thinks about sex, and what the world thinks about the human body. We really have to look at that picture, see that this is beautiful, what's happening here. And in light of that picture, the opportunity for intimacy and love and marriage is always fresh. It's always full of joy. There's always the opportunity for lovemaking and the appreciation of one another under the rules that God has set forth in marriage. And under those rules, the human body and physical intimacy are something that we as a church ought to celebrate. We have to hold it in high honor. Frankly, what the poem is, is a prelude to lovemaking. And before they come together, he is praising her beauty. And so the poem is meant to evoke in us the acknowledgement of beauty. It's meant to evoke in you the anticipation and the joyous privileges that are found in marriage. And that all of these privileges, in some mysterious way, are pointing you to Jesus Christ and the church. In some way, they're unveiling the mystery of our relationship with Jesus. James Hamilton said, cultural norms and expectations have penetrated our thinking in more ways than we have recognized. At so many points, we are more conformed than transformed, particularly when it comes to how we think about marital relations. How do we resist our proclivity to sin and the pervasive celebration of defilement that surrounds us? Where do we go for a different way of thinking about what God intended for intimacy between husband and wife and marriage? How do we think about marriage relations, he says? And does the Bible have anything to say about these matters? And this is where the Song of Songs speaks to us. And it doesn't just speak to the married people, it speaks to everyone, so that our minds would be transformed by the word of God. That we wouldn't be conformed to the culture, but rather we would have a different opinion on the human body, on sexual relations, on the blessed and holy part that is marriage. that it all comes under that banner of God's ordaining a marriage relationship. I don't have any points in this outline. It's just very, like, what do you, you know, first point, her head, first point, her second point, her, you know. And so what I'm gonna do is, as you look at the poem, I want you to grasp that verse one there is the first of the bookend. Verse seven is the end. Because they're basically saying the exact same things. That's how you know, it's one poetic unit It makes a wasp there perfectly within the definition of what a wasp is And so we'll look at those first point the last point and then see the description in between So notice there in verse one How beautiful you are my darling How beautiful you are, and I'll get to it, but that's a really crummy English translation. The poem begins, though, with a stunned affirmation of her beauty. As he gazes upon her, and he takes in his bride, the whole picture of the bride causes him to declare her beauty, and then he's going to go on and describe that beauty in particulars, starting from the head down. Now, the description, as well as the implications of verse six, are all making something very clear here. She is not wearing much. In fact, all she is wearing is a veil over her face and a necklace. This is why I say the poem is a prelude to lovemaking. Richard Hess says the wasp provides an opportunity for the groom to affirm his lover in her beauty. His words of praise and adoration set aside feelings of insecurity and uncertainty and provide a direct means of access between the inner feelings of the couple. She is special and significant among women. And he will know her and no other in every possible way. He says, thus the wasp is a prelude to sexual intimacy, not primarily because it arouses the passions, but because of its honesty of expression and detail of observation that place the desire within the loving respect for the woman. And so as you think about poetry and we consider what the poet's trying to teach us or tell us or just simply trying to explain through the metaphors, we begin to have a picture somewhat of two lovers coming together. Perhaps it's their wedding night. Perhaps it's 40 years into their marriage. It really makes no difference. The idea is still the same. There is this giving of themselves and the husband is there to set aside the feelings of insecurity. He's there to praise the bride and bring her into a comfort zone so that intimacy can take place and shame can be displaced in their coming together. Now, it's interesting because the Hebrew literally translates here as, behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. And I think pulling out that behold, we missed something. If you really wanted to get this into just simple English, you can get the idea of look, wow, you are beautiful. And then he repeats it again for emphasis. So here is where the Bible begins to transform our thinking because The culture has prevailed upon us so much, and the immodesty that we see in the culture is shoved in our face so often. And we're often given this thought of, well, the body must be bad, because I'm constantly fighting the temptation to lust after someone who isn't my spouse, because modesty has been lost in the culture. And the Bible is coming here and telling us, no, the body's not evil, In fact, it's so good that it's worthy of praise. The body is such a wonderful thing that we shouldn't think it bad, but rather, we should extol the beauty of the body. It has value in God's creation, not just now, but also in the resurrection. For all of eternity, you and I will have physical bodies. And so, as we read the poetry, Don't think that this is trying to invoke in you any idea that you should not give yourself fully to your spouse, but rather it's showing us the goodness of these things. Keep it in mind in the framework of the garden. God brings the bride to the groom and they stand before each other naked and not ashamed and then look forward to Ephesians chapter five. You can flip there if you want. In Ephesians five where we have this whole idea that Paul just kind of almost blurts out. By the way, marriage is a picture and it's always been a picture of the relationship between Jesus Christ and his church. He says in 525, husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her. so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. Now, as you read verse seven there in Song of Song, and you see this idea of the bride, there is no blemish in you. As Paul writes this, you know this is what the Spirit's putting on his mind, a spotless bride, a perfect bride, a bride that the husband comes and presents to himself in all her glory without spot or wrinkle. Do you see how the wasp here in Song of Song is exemplifying Christ's relationship with his church? The cultivation of, the praise of beauty is a direct image of what Christ is doing to us. we will be presented one day in all of our glory, and our groom will say, behold, you are beautiful, my love. There is no spot, and there is no blemish in you. And thus, in Ephesians 5, it goes on in 28, you have this cultivation of praise and beauty that instructs us so husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ also does the church. As you go through the song with me here, I hope that the mystery is becoming less mysterious. That the mystery of christ in the church is becoming unveiled to you more and more the way christ loves the way that christ Cherishes the way that he cultivates and comforts his church is the way Husbands are to treat their wives And we do this Not because it's a law given to us that we have to do it, but no, we do it because Christ has and is doing this work in his church continually. So notice there back in Song of Songs, verse one, the second part. Let's go to the description. And this is what he's doing. Don't imagine as he looks at his wife that there is actually no blemish in her. She's she's a human and the poetry is meant to give us an idea of him looking at her through his eyes Through his eyes. She is perfect and spotless and beautiful And this is the way that God sees us through his son Jesus Christ He begins though with her eyes Your eyes are like doves behind your veil. I Now, we saw this metaphor back in Chapter 1, and with all of these metaphors, we run into a few problems, some cultural issues that we have a lot of difficulty transcending. There's about a hundred different ideas about what this means, that her eyes are like doves. As I said, some commentators even wonder, is he insulting her? Because doves are kind of a weak bird. Maybe he's saying she has weak eyes. But I want you to rest assured, in some way, these are metaphors of praise. She is praising her. Now, if you look at some of the Egyptian erotic paintings, which, trust me, no danger of lust will be involved in looking at those. The women's eyes are emphasized a lot in those paintings, and they would paint them as such. They'd have an oval shape, and then in their artistry, they would put a little beak right here on this side, and then they'd put the feathers of a bird coming out the back, and it was a dove depicted in the eyes. So there was an idea of the shape of the dove as it sat a particular way, and the long eyelashes of the woman presented this picture of what they considered to be a beautiful eye. I can kind of see that in some way as a metaphor. I lean more towards the metaphors, though, being indicative of both beauty, beauty one, but also of character, not just beauty alone. And so I think the metaphor is probably pointing to this idea, her eyes show her innocence, her spotless and godly character. They demonstrate something about her as he looks into and gazes into her eyes that shows integrity and honesty and godliness. Now, we notice also here she's wearing a veil. And the text, as I said, it suggests quite clearly that that's basically all she's wearing other than a necklace. And get this, ladies, she knew, they knew, you know, over 2,500 years ago what Victoria's Secret has capitalized on and made millions selling to us that avail both hides beauty while at the same time heightening desire. A glimpse is far more compelling than the whole. As one writer says, the view of the part arouses the desire to see the whole. Longman says, the veil heightens the woman's mystery. One wants to look behind the veil, he says. But we can't help but notice something important here. His gaze is into her eyes. He looks into her eyes before he looks at anything else. Proven says she is not merely one woman among many coveted for sexual charm. She is The one and only woman for him a person to be looked in the eyes She looked he rather he looks into her eyes And doesn't just start with her body. He appreciates all of her body as we'll see but he begins with her eyes Because it is as poets often express the gaze of the two lovers into each other's eyes that demonstrates That it's not just lust But it's actually a love. A love that is self-sacrificing and giving to the other person. So picture this in your mind as you consider the poem here. The loving gaze of a husband and wife into each other's eyes. There is an honesty there. There is a love. There is a respect. There is a sense of purity. And in that sense of purity, she has captured his heart. There's a devotion there that goes beyond just glimpsing at any piece of flesh that walks by. Then he moves on from her eyes and he begins to describe her hair. And ladies will all appreciate this one. Your hair is like a flock of goats. that has descended from Mount Gilead. So gentlemen, as we read the metaphors, let's be very careful how you apply the metaphors in talking to your wife, because if you say to your wife, she comes back from a fresh hairdo, it's like a flock of goats on your head, honey. That's not going to have the desired effect. Ideally, In this time period, sheep are white, and goats are black. Israeli girls have olive-colored skin, and usually, they have jet-black hair. What he's doing is using the image of goats. Because sheep are white goats are black goats moving down the slopes of Mount Gilead, which is a lush beautiful mountain that was its beauty was extolled all over in Jewish writings that Begin to describe it these like a flock of goats running down a hillside if you've been around Cattle or sheep or goats you understand when they run down a hill through the ridges they make kind of a waving Pattern and it does it is kind of neat to watch Another way you could say like a school of fish that move in that uniformity and they have a flowing waviness to them That's how he's comparing her hair and Guys you get this Or you don't but comments about your bride's hair is go a long ways and if you don't believe me say nothing the next time they get their hair done and you'll find out really quickly how important the glory of the woman's head that is her hair is to the woman this this is a again a wonderful picture of the man appreciating the care and the beauty of his bride Now, put the whole thing together, though, because the Mount Gilead part isn't something you want to dismiss. By picturing her hair as the goats flowing from it off of Mount Gilead, he's saying you're lush, you're beautiful, and it's punctuated, your beauty is punctuated and affirmed by this almost river-like appearance. of your hair as it cascades down the slopes of your lush and beautiful body. You can grab the beauty of the metaphor if you try. He's not insulting her. He's not saying anything negative. This is all in the context of their culture here. He's praising her, though. And it's not just that she has hair on her head. The idea is he's praising her for her well-kept features and acknowledging that she cares and cultivates her beauty, not in excessive ways, but rather just that she cares about her own personal appearance. Now his description moves though. So he kind of goes from the eyes, he moves out, and then he comes back into the face. Look at verse two. Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn ewes, which have come up from their washing, all of which bear twins, and not one of them has lost their young. And this is where you have to have some kind of an appreciation for the beauty of poetry. If you don't, you say, well, what's he talking about there? Because if I just gave it to you straightforward, all he's saying is, wow, your teeth are all white, and by golly, you're not missing any. That's really all it's saying in the poetry. Teeth are nice and white and you don't have any that have been punched out. This is important and attractive and a beautiful smile today in our culture. But I want you to think about it in their culture. Because back then dentistry was limited to you have a bad tooth, we'll yank it out of your head and you won't have a tooth anymore. That was the extent of dentistry. And so for him to praise her like this is really high praise because a beautiful smile was coveted in those days. One accident and your smile is ruined. One cavity and that tooth is gone and never to return. Tremper Longman says he evokes a picture of sheep coming up from a washing probably in a creek or a river They are glistening white and the sheep are seen as coming up with their partner. Literally. They are twinned That is they are all identical perhaps signifying not only that they are all there But also that they are even So he's saying, you have a beautiful smile, a gorgeous smile. And to him, it doesn't matter if she was missing half of her teeth. It's the only smile in the world. He would commend it even if she was missing lots of teeth and the rest of them were black and crooked. Her smile brings unspeakable joy to his heart and he sees her in a different light. He puts on her perfection because she is his one and only. And so the smile is demonstrating not just his love for her, but also, I think there's a sense in here, her character is being extolled. She takes care of herself. She takes care of her body. It's demonstrating something about the beauty of her smile, the radiance of her face as the lips turn up and the teeth shine out, and he knows that she's a happy, caring, gracious woman. But he doesn't just stop with her teeth. Look at verse 3. Your lips are like a scarlet thread. Your mouth is lovely. Now, a scarlet thread is emphasizing the color of her lips. Most commentators would speculate here that she was probably wearing lipstick, and that could be true, because it was pretty common in those days for them to wear makeup, but she simply could have just had rosy-colored lips. More than that, it's probably just the poetic imagery coming out. He sees her lips as something beautiful. Now, scarlet thread, as we read that in English, that sounds like she has a pair of thin, almost mad, mean lips on her, right? Like they're just a thread going across. But the word there in the Hebrew isn't translated thread. It's coil, or a coil of rope would be a better way to put it. You remember when the woman hangs it out the window as they're getting ready to destroy Jericho, and it's a scarlet thread she puts out the window. Well, if it was like we think of sewing thread, nobody could have seen it. The idea is a rope or a cord. So, more than anything, What he's doing here is he is expressing the loveliness, the desirability of her mouth. The idea that you should take home from this is he now wants to kiss her on her mouth. Her mouth is something that is attractive to her. In the context of a love poem, and that's how you have to read this, The intention of the compliment has to be seen behind the compliment. She has lovely lips, and the intention is he wants to move forward and plant his lips on her desirable lips. He would like to possess her mouth, as it were. Now, Is that all? Is it just the physical appearance of her mouth? Well, it's interesting here because there's a Hebrew word that's only used in this one time in the entire Bible. It's the only place we find this word. And it's Midbar, which if any Hebrew students know, that's the typical word that you use for desert or wilderness. So is he saying your mouth is like a wilderness? Well, the word has a contextual meaning that goes outside just that one definition. And so when it's used in this context in other places, the words derived from another Hebrew word, dabar, which is the voice or speech. And I think that what the poet means to express here is that she has a beautiful smile, beautiful lips, and her voice, her speech, is beautiful and pleasant as well. One writer says, there are many beauties who betray themselves with coarse speech. And so, out of the heart, the mouth speaks. Out of the heart, we utter what's in our hearts. We're judged by our words. We're condemned by our words. We're understood by our words. Not what we think the motivations of the heart are, but what the words of our mouth reveal to be the motivations of our heart. And so, I think what's happening here is the emphasis is not just on the sound of her voice, I think that could be included, but also her character. her character that is revealed in her godly speech. He finds her whole person to be altogether lovely. It's not just that, yeah, you've got a pretty mouth and nice hair and beautiful eyes. But the words that come out of her mouth are refreshingly beautiful to him. He appreciates them. I want you to notice this. Solomon puts a lot of emphasis on speech and words, especially in the Proverbs. And in the description, we call this the description of the worthy woman in Proverbs 31. So all you ladies pay attention if you want to be worthy. That's sarcasm. It is a description of a good woman here, and it's something we should all pursue. But notice what he says about this woman in Proverbs 31, beginning in verse 25. Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she smiles at the future. She opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. You see the emphasis there is not just on her beauty as a physical being, but rather on the beauty of her character. And when she smiles upon the future, instead of being one of these women who looks at the world as it's all dreary and black and miserable and terrible and there's no way that we can have any hope, whether you're a woman or a man, that's a miserable partner to have. When she opens her mouth, it's in wisdom and not in folly. When she opens her mouth, it's beauty that pours out of it, grace that comes out of it, grace that is given for the moment to meet the need of the moment so that everyone who hears is blessed. This is what his lover is to him. She speaks good words and kind words. She speaks from wisdom and not folly. Now he moves to her cheeks. Now, I'll admit, this is the second half of verse three, I don't really know how this speaks to her character. It says, your temples, and you could translate that as cheeks, that's not far off, your cheeks are like a slice of pomegranate behind your veil. And for us, this is tough because Pomegranates aren't really all that popular in our culture, and you have to think up the image of a pomegranate. I think what he's noting here is the reddish color of her cheeks. Her cheeks are rounded and tinted with red. I think the idea is that she's glowing, somewhat. When we say that a woman's in love, we say that she's glowing, don't we? And you can see it in her face. I mean, there's a hundred country songs written about this. You look so good in love. When women are happy and joyous and there's this moment of intimacy, there is a glow about women that is so tangible, but it's expressing her joy. It's expressing this idea in her character that she's in a place of happiness and satisfaction. And so that's what I think he's trying to pull out of this idea of your cheeks are like a slice of pomegranate behind your veil. Duguid says this, now put this all in summary, given the fact that the man's description of the woman is often described as erotic, it is worth noting how much of the description focuses on the woman's face and a veiled face at that. He says, in contrast to our pornography-obsessed society in which everything is revealed and nothing is left to the imagination, the song understands the allure of the hidden. It turns out that modesty, he says, can actually be the ultimate attractiveness after all. And so I think, and I hope, that for women here today, you can grab hold of some of that. The world is telling you, you know, strut about with nothing, and that's how you attract men. And the Bible is telling you, you can wear nothing in modesty in front of your husband, and he will extol your beauty. He will be obsessed with your beauty, as we'll see from the Proverbs later. So moving on here. We're moving downward, physically going down. Verse four, your neck is like the Tower of David, built with rows of stones, on which are hung a thousand shields, all round shields of the mighty men. Now, if you had trouble with the previous metaphors, trying this one on is gonna be tough. Your neck is like a guarded Tower of David. Now, here's the reality. We don't know what the Tower of David is. It's been lost to memory. And so we were left to our imagination here. But what I think the poet is trying to get across is the idea of her posture. There is a posture and a way that she carries herself. She is upright. She is carrying herself with dignity. She is secure. She's secure in herself. She's secure in her relationship. And she presents this sort of royal characteristic that displays virtue and displays strength. I don't think he's just looking at her neck and saying it has these physical attributes, because there's a lot of other things that he could use as a metaphor to describe her neck. The shields there in the metaphor, I think that's just saying that she's wearing necklaces. This was very popular for women in that time to gird their necks with fairly tight necklaces. But also, I think it's pointing past just maybe wearing a necklace to, again, her inward character once again, that there's something dignified about her. Richard Hess puts it this way. The male lover may praise the female for the beauty and gracefulness of her neck, but the metaphor's focus on adornment suggests her own security and perhaps her own wealth. Now, this is interesting. I think Hess is onto something. He says the point would be, then, that the female does not require the male to provide her with financial security or to guarantee her safety. Instead, she remains secure in who she is and what she has. His admiration recognizes that and seeks to approach her from a position of equality rather than subordinating her in class and status. Further, he writes, her security guarantees that her choice of his love will be voluntary and not pressed upon her by economic or other needs. The freedom of choice in the love that the couple shares remains an essential and important part of any couple's relationship. They must recognize their mutual need for one another in love, but not such a dependency of one upon the other that provides opportunity for the smothering of one lover by the insecurity of the other or the abuse by one, assuming a superior posture in the relationship. I think that that's really a lot of the point that he's trying to bring out for us. In all of these descriptions, there has to be a view towards something that goes past just the beauty of her body and into the beauty of the character of her heart, the dignity of who she is as a person. And then we get to verse five, right? Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle, which feed among the lilies. The objects of male interest have caught his eye, and she is sexually appealing to him. In the West, when you read any sort of love poetry, you're not normally going to find in it any reference to a woman's breasts. It'd just be considered something you don't do. But, the Bible doesn't find anything questionable here. And it's interesting because Eastern culture finds itself closer to the Word of God with their tight views on modesty. And yet in poetic imagery, they have a very liberal license that we would say is taboo. The fawns of the gazelle, the breasts of the bride, are to him as beautiful and young and tender, and they are a striking feature on this already beautiful scene. It's so interesting to me that we live in a culture where modesty is lost, where it virtually does not exist, it is culturally appropriate to show everyone everything. As one writer said, the fig leaf has fallen off and no one gasps. And what's the cure for that kind of culture? Is it to isolate ourselves as much as we can? Is it to just turn everything off and not go anywhere any longer? I don't think that's ever going to work for us. We can't hide ourselves from these images that are plastered everywhere in our society. That's not to say you should just go and indulge in them. But what is the actual antidote to that temptation that is thrust before us both for men and for women every day, seemingly every second and every moment we spend outside of our homes and even inside of our homes? And the cure for that is the enjoyment of your spouse. For the married couple, this is what it's all about. It's not a show all and tell all as our culture has it, but like the poetry here, show him, and men, you tell her how beautiful she is. That's the cure for the culture. I think we often think, well, the cure to get away from all this temptation is just to shut ourselves off, put these programs on our computer that'll stop us from looking at particular things. The problem with that is it doesn't deal with any of the heart issues. The heart issue is you need to cultivate eyes for your spouse and your spouse alone. And this is what the poetry is trying to get us to do. And so we see here a picture. We see a wonderful picture of Adam and Eve in the garden. The only man and the only woman on the planet. They have eyes only for each other. They can't look at anyone else, and that's how we have to begin cultivating our view of our spouse. Not that there are many options out there. There is one, and one option only. And so I can't give my heart to another. Adam is brought his bride by God himself. He bursts out, behold, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. And we see here the picture of the woman before the man, naked and unashamed, praising each other for the beauty of their bodies, seeing only one another, a picture of honesty, a picture of trust, a picture of giving, a picture of commitment. The cure for the perverted society and their abuse of sex is to return to this idea and to cultivate it in our hearts to be transformed by the Word of God to think in these ways. Man, the best command in all the Bible the one you should love is Proverbs 5 and verse 15 through 20. Drink water from your own cistern and fresh water from your own well. Should your springs be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets, let them be yours alone and not for strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth. As a loving hind and a graceful doe, let her breaths satisfy you at all times. Be exhilarated always with her love. For why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an adulteress and embrace the bosom of a foreigner? In heart, in action, And all of our attitudes, we all, men and women, need to cultivate desire that sees our spouse and our spouse alone. Boy, as you think about it, no one gets to accuse me of not preaching the whole counsel of God, right? The erotic significance here is in the foreground, isn't it? In his description of his wife's breasts. And in verse six, His desire for her drives him to intimacy. Until the cool of the day when the shadows flee away. Now, we've seen this same picture once already. And it just means simply this, all night long. All night long, I will go my way to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense. A wasp begins at the top and works its way down, and so you can figure out for yourselves where it has just ended, the mountain of myrrh, the hill of frankincense. Dugood puts it like this, the clouds of frankincense and myrrh come up from the wilderness to envelop him in their sweet perfume as he takes possession of the promised land of her body. I think that's the best way we can put that. The poem ends at the bottom, and then you have the bookend in verse seven. You are altogether beautiful, my darling. Before he leaves in the morning, you are altogether beautiful, my darling, and there is no blemish in you. There's no defects. Through his eyes, no wrinkles. In his eyes, the gray hairs are a crown of beauty. In his eyes, there are no mistakes, there's only uniqueness. In his eyes, there are no problems, there's only precious gems. The Hebrew is, you are all beautiful, my love, and a flaw there is not in you. Not a single flaw, he says. Gledhill says, of course, though, love is blind. In the enthusiasm, it can exaggerate cheerfully the plain and the ordinary. It draws a veil over the shortcomings and the faults of the beloved. The tide of passion takes everything in its flood, and the lovers look down in pity on all of those who cannot share this same experience. No blemish in you. Remember what we read in Ephesians, that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. Let's close with prayer.