The Song can be interpreted in many ways. Many of these views hold value. No single way captures all that the Song has to offer. Since the books writing approximately 3,000 years ago, there have been more commentaries written about the Song that any other book of the bible save Romans. So there are a great number of ways to approach this book and they vary greatly. Here are a few possibilities.

Natural interpretation – an actual account based on a historical relationship.

A Shulamite maiden and King Solomon (perhaps his first love)

A Shulamite maiden, her shepherd lover and King Solomon (in this case Solomon is a villainous character.)

Allegorical interpretation – Where the characters in the story are fictional representatives of real persons and places. This is by far the more common way to interpret the song historically.

In Hebrew thought historically the Song has been approached in many ways:

God and the Messiah
God and Israel
Messiah and Israel
Torah and Messiah
Torah and Israel

In the Church, there have been various ways of looking at this as well.

God and the Church
Jesus and the Corporate Church
Jesus and Mary
Jesus and the individual believer
Jesus and a select group of believes – this can be dangerous, and even cultic.

There are some hybrid approaches as well suggesting that the Song contains actual accounts that are written (as Paul says of all Old Testament stories) for our example that we may learn from them.

I’m going to present an allegorical view with Jesus as the Shepherd King, and the Shulamite representing you and me, the individual believer.

We will find Jesus throughout this poem.

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; – John 5:39

Thanks for coming by,

See you next week,

Ben