In Pastor Leithart’s introduction to Song of Songs yesterday, he cited a Jewish commentator who noticed that in the love poetry of Solomon, the lover is not cut off and isolated from the world. Much modern love poetry tends to be isolationist, driving lovers away from the world, away from friends. Their passionate, obsessive love centers on each other in a way that closes them off from anything or anyone around them. But in the Song of Songs, the man sees the world in and through his bride. And this is sometimes rather humorous for modern ears: the woman’s nose reminds him of a particular tower, and her neck is like a battlement hung with shields. Her teeth and hair remind him of particular valleys, flocks of sheep and deer. Continue Reading…
