Song of Solomon 4 Devotional

Delight Put Into Words

“You are altogether beautiful, my darling; in you there is no flaw.”Song of Solomon 4:7 (BSB)

In Song 4 the bridegroom praises his bride in a long series of images. Her eyes are like doves, her hair like a flock of goats on a hillside, her lips like a scarlet ribbon, her neck like the tower of David (4:1-4). Then he says she is beautiful in every way, without any flaw (4:7). He calls her a locked garden and a sealed spring (4:12), a picture of love kept for one person alone. At the end she invites him into his garden (4:16), and he comes (5:1).

This is love that speaks. The bridegroom does not assume his bride knows his delight in her. He tells her, at length, in specific and generous words. God designed marriage to be a place of exclusive, wholehearted delight, where one person is fully seen and gladly received by another. Married or not, every reader can learn here about the power of honest, specific words of appreciation, and about how much is lost when delight in another person is left unspoken.

To think about: Whom could you encourage today with specific, honest words of appreciation that you have been leaving unsaid?