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Take a breath, find your place, and read deeply. Discover the joy of reading God’s word with the Immerse New Living Translation (NLT) Bible.
This daily Bible podcast will take you through the Bible in a year following the Immerse Bible Reading Experience. So grab your family and small group and go through the Bible in a year together with Immerse. Each of the 6 volumes is available online or at your favorite Christian bookstore.
Henry: Welcome To Immerse: The
Daily Bible Reading Experience.
Day two hundred and ninety 5.
Immersed in Song of Songs.
When we fall in love, we desperately
want to express what we feel.
In such times.
We often look to songs and poems
written by others to help us
say what we would like to say.
Almost all cultures have a treasury
of love songs that people draw upon.
To declare their love to one another.
The cultures of the Middle East, including
that of Ancient Israel, were no exception.
A collection of these love
songs has been preserved for us.
In the Song of Songs, it contains
song lyrics that like the Psalms have
been preserved from earlier times to
help people celebrate their devotion
and delight in another person.
A traditional heading to the
book identifies Solomon as
the writer of these songs.
And at one point they described
the splendor of his wedding.
For this reason, the book is
sometimes called The Song of Solomon.
The author is not otherwise identified in
the poems themselves, but read as a whole.
The collection follows the courtship
and marriage of a young man and woman.
It presents a series of romantic
conversations between them, punctuated
by observations from the young women of
Jerusalem, probably the bride's friends.
It's important to appreciate that in
traditional Hebrew culture, as in many
other world cultures, brides and grooms
are often portrayed and sometimes
even dressed as queens and kings.
So it may actually be this practice that
is reflected in such lyrics as come out to
see King Solomon young women of Jerusalem.
He wears the crown his mother gave him
on his wedding day, his most joyous day.
This allusion to the wedding
couple as a king and queen in a
garden reminds us of the first
couple of the Bible, Adam and Eve.
We recall that humans are God's
appointed rulers of creation,
and God himself delights in the
goodness of physical, sensual love.
Our joy is a reflection of God's own joy
in his creatures, using richly evocative
symbolism drawn from the natural world.
These songs portray the beauties of the
human body and the splendors of human love
as glorious aspects of God's creation.
No book in the Bible uses the
imagery of poetry more densely and
elaborately than the Song of Songs.
And this celebration of love gives us
a sense that even as we await God's
renewal of all things in his new garden,
Some aspects of our present life already
anticipate the joys that are to come,
the Song of Songs.
This is Solomon's Song of Songs,
more wonderful than any other.
Kiss me and Kiss me again for
your love is sweeter than wine.
How pleasing is your fragrance?
Your name is like the spreading
fragrance of scented oils.
No wonder all the young women love you.
Take me with you.
Come let's run.
The king has brought me into his bedroom.
How happy we are for you.
Oh, king, we praise your
love even more than wine, how
right they are to adore you.
I am dark, but beautiful.
Oh women of Jerusalem, dark
as the tense of Keter Dark.
As the curtains of Solomon's tents
don't stare at me because I am dark.
The sun has darkened my skin.
My brothers were angry with me.
They forced me to care for their
vineyards, so I couldn't care
for myself, my own vineyard.
Tell me my love.
Where are you leading your flock today?
Where will you rest
your sheep at noon For?
Why should I wander like a prostitute
among your friends and their flocks?
If you don't know, oh, most
beautiful woman, follow the trail
of my flock and graze your young
goats by the shepherd's tents.
You are as exciting, my darling as
a mayor among pharaoh's stallions.
How lovely are your cheeks?
Your earrings set them a fire.
How lovely is your neck?
Enhanced by a string of
jewels we will make for you.
Earrings of gold and beads of silver.
The king is lying on his couch.
Enchanted by the fragrance of my perfume.
My lover is like a sachet of
merr lying between my breasts.
He is like a bouquet of sweet hena
blossoms from the vineyards of Indi.
How beautiful you are, my darling.
How beautiful Your eyes are like doves.
You are so handsome.
My love pleasing beyond words.
The soft grass is our bed fragrant cedar
branches are the beams of our house and
pleasant smelling furs are the rafters.
I am the spring crocus
blooming on the Sharon Plain.
The Lilly of the valley like a
Lilly among thistles is my darling.
Among young women, like the finest apple
tree in the orchard is my lover Among
other young men, I sit in his delightful
shade and taste his delicious fruit.
Hes escorts me to the banquet hall.
It's obvious how much he loves me.
Strengthen me with raisin cakes.
Refresh me with apples
for I am weak with love.
His left arm is under my head
and his right arm embraces me.
Promise me, oh, women of Jerusalem
by the Gazelle's and wild dear.
Not to awaken love
until the time is right.
Ah, I hear my lover coming.
He is leaping over the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
My lover is like a swift
gazelle or a young stag look.
There he is behind the wall, looking
through the window, peering into the room.
My lover said to me, rise up my darling.
Come away with me.
My fair one.
Look, the winter is passed and
the rains are over and gone.
The flowers are springing up.
The season of singing birds has come and
the cooing of turtle doves fills the air.
The fig trees are forming young fruit and
the fragrant grape vines are blossoming.
Rise up my darling.
Come away with me.
My fair one.
My dove is hiding behind the rocks.
Behind an outcrop on the cliff.
Let me see your face.
Let me hear your voice.
For your voice is pleasant
and your face is lovely.
Catch all the foxes, those little
foxes before they ruin the vineyard of
love for the grapevines or blossoming.
My lover is mine and I am his.
He browses among the lilies.
Before the dawn breezes blow and
the night shadows flee returned
to me, my love like a gazelle or a
young stag on the rugged mountains.
One night as I lay in bed,
I yearned for my lover.
I yearned for him, but he did not come.
So I said to myself, I will get
up and roam the city, searching
in all its streets and squares.
I will search for the one I love.
So I searched everywhere,
but did not find him.
The watchmen stopped me as they
made their rounds, and I asked,
have you seen the one I love?
Then scarcely had I left them.
When I found my love, I
called and held him tightly.
Then I brought him to my mother's
house, into my mother's bed
where I had been conceived.
Promise me, oh, women of Jerusalem by
the Gazelle's and Wild dear, not to
awaken love until the time is right.
Who is this sweeping in from the
wilderness, like a cloud of smoke?
Who is it fragrant with?
Merr and frankincense
in every kind of spice.
Look, it is Solomon's carriage
surrounded by 60 heroic men,
the best of Israel's soldiers.
They are all skilled swordsmen
experienced warriors.
Each wears a sword on his
thigh, ready to defend the king
against an attack in the night.
King Solomon's carriage is built
of wood imported from Lebanon.
Its post are silver.
It's canopy gold.
Its cushions are purple.
It was decorated with love by
the young women of Jerusalem.
Come out to see King Solomon
young women of Jerusalem.
He wears the crown his mother gave him
on his wedding day, his most joyous day.
This concludes today's reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.