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THE LONGINGS OF LOVE!

That spring day, when nature was bursting with new life and her own needs flowed like a river through her, she hiked one evening back to the district and meandered the saloons. It didn’t take long before some galoot bought her a mug of draft beer. Oh, that tasted good. She laughed and told jokes and got a few more mugs, feeling better and better. Some rotten little voice warned her to go back to the chapter house, but she resisted. To hell with all those prunes. This was better. She was alive again. She like the galoot, a red-haired brute from the smelters name Roman somebody or other. He eyed her with lust in his hooded eyes, and that tickled her. She would have a whale of a time tonight.
Three mugs later he took her to his rooming house, and she was out of her clothes before he even had his shirt unbuttoned. Oh, that was good. She had a grand time with the big oaf.
“Hey, Rosie, you want to move in with me?” he asked.
In Richard Wheeler’s novel SECOND LIVES Rosie was a lost soul. On three different occasions she was given the opportunity to repent but she always chose to go back to the district. She longed to be held and in that longing she looked for love in all the wrong places. What she found in the end, despite all the men in all the saloons, was nothing but heartache and loneliness.
Now contrast Rosie with the longings of the Shulammite girl. She too was looking for love, she too was longing to be held, and like Rosie she went looking for her heart’s desire. But unlike Rosie’s sad song, which was played out in the saloons of Denver in the 1880s, the context of the Song of Songs makes all the difference in the world.
Toward the end of chapter two and the first five verses of chapter 3 we read:
My beloved is mine and I am his;
he browses (grazes) among the lilies.
When the day breaks
and the shadows flee,
turn, my lover,
and be like a gazelle
or like a young stag
on the rugged (divided) hills.
All night long (night after night) on my bed
I looked for the one my heart loves;
I looked for him but did not find him.
I will get up now and go about the city,
through its streets and squares;
I will search for the one my heart loves.
So I looked for him but did not find him.
The watchmen found me
as they made their rounds in the city.
“Have you seen the one my heart loves?”
Scarcely had I passed them
when I found the one my heart loves.
I held him and would not let him go
till I brought him to my mother’s house,
to the room of the one who conceived me.
Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you
by the gazelles and by the does of the field:
Do not arouse or awaken love
until it so desires.
Here in the Song of Songs we see all the passion and eroticism that is seen flowing through Rosie’s song and more. For example, when she says “he browses among the lilies” or “he grazes among the lilies” it can easily be argued that she is referring to the fact that he grazes on her lips as sheep browse on lush grass. It is not that Solomon literally browses among the lilies. It is that the Shulammite girl is the lily of the valley and that is where Solomon browses as he smothers her with his kisses.
Then two, you’ll note at the end of chapter two that the girl refers to the “rugged hills.” The NIV translates the Hebrew in this manner but in the margin notes that it is literally the “mountains of Bether” which means “the mountains of separation.” This is clarified in 4:6 where the marriage is being consummated. In 4: 5 - 6 we read:
Your two breast are like two fawns
like twin fawns of a gazelle
that browse among the lilies.
Until the day breaks
and the shadows flee,
I will go to the mountain of myrrh
and to the hill of incense.
So when Solomon says that until dawn “I will go the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of incense what is he telling us?” He’s telling us that on his wedding night, on his honeymoon, he spent much of his time oscillating between two mountains that were separated by a ravine!
Now if the men can catch their breath, go back to v. 17 of chapter two where we see the same verbiage. In the NIV, we read:
Until (when) the day breaks
and the shadows flee,
turn, my lover,
and be like a gazelle
or like a young stag
on the rugged (divided) hills.
Dr. Craig Glickman in his book on the Song of Songs argues persuasively, contrasting the primary verbs of completed action, in 2:17, with that of ongoing action, in 4:6, that 2:17a it is best translated as “When the day breaks” while 4:6 is best translated as “Until the day breaks” since it is talking about ongoing action.
What this means for us is that in 2:17 the Shulammite girl is longing for her wedding day. And as she longs for it, she is looking forward to her lover being like a gazelle or young stag on the divided hills. Then, in 4:6 we see that her longings for that night are fulfilled as he divides his time between the two hills.
It is also to be noted that the word “day” is used five times in the Song with the first instance being in 2:17. In its initial use, we have no reason to believe that it refers to their wedding day. But, in the other four occurrences it is clearly linked with this day. So it is reasonable to believe that the girl in 2:17 is looking ahead to that day and is fantasying about it.
So what is the point? The Shulammite girl had everything on her mind that was on the mind of Rosie as she meandered through the district looking for love. But, the context of the Song is a far cry from the saloons of Denver in the 1880s. For one thing the Shulammite girl is willing to be patient. She is willing to wait for that “day.” She is willing to practice abstinence until that “day.”
Earlier in Richard Wheeler’s book, Rosie was wanting Bat Masterson to tell her to stop fooling around with hop and men. Here is his reply to her:
“ You’re not a child, and I’m not your father.” He pressed her small hands between his. “Rose, you need to govern yourself. Children surrender to impulse, but adult men and women know how to say no. Until you govern yourself, you’ll never have much of a life. If I started to say no (for you), you’d just resent it. And I don’t want to be involved with a woman I have to look after every minute. You keep calling yourself a rebel, but that’s not it, Rose. You’re not yet an adult.”
Unlike Rosie, the Shulammite girl didn’t surrender to impulse, and in that sense she was an adult. Though she longed to be in Solomon’s arms, though she longed for him to make love to her, she chose to wait for the proper time. We see her patience toward the end of chapter two and we see it in v. 5 of chapter 3.
She was not looking for an illicit consummation of their love. Consummation is what she wanted, but even during the lonely nights she wanted the consummation to be at the right time. So what we see in the Song of Songs is eroticism coupled with morality.
In regards to the first five verses of chapter 3 commentators differ as to whether this actually happened or not. Some maintain it was simply a dream for it is unlikely that the girl would have ventured out into the night. Others believe it is the pre- wedding night jitters where you can’t sleep and you start thinking the worst - that for whatever reasons your lover is going to call it off.
Whatever the case, it is clear that the girl is restless and yearns for her lover to be beside her. Unable to sleep, she decides to get up and go search the streets and squares in order to find him. It is an irrational, impractical, and somewhat dangerous thing for the girl to do on her own. The watchmen find her, they question her, and perhaps they even encourage her to go home. In the end, however, they release her and not too long after that she bumps into the one she loves.
It is to being noted, at this point, that she is not simply looking for just any man, such as Rosie, but for the one she loves. Nor is she looking for an early consummation of their love. No, she is looking to simply be held, to be reassured of his love for her.
You see men, in every marriage there will come a time, undoubtedly more than once, when your wife will come to you not wanting to hear words, nor wanting to re-comsummate the marriage, but simply wanting to be held. That is all, just held. And in the holding there is more said than words could ever say - even by Hallmark.
I also want us to note the kindness of the two toward each other. The Shulammite girl didn’t bark at Solomon and say “Where have you been all night? I’ve been looking all over creation for you!” Nor does Solomon scold her by yelling, “What on earth are you doing out in the middle of night? You must be crazy!” No, they simply hug each other as if they fear losing one another. It’s a Hallmark moment!

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