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The Song of Songs | A Theology of the Body

January 11, 2026
Song of Songs 1:1-6

¹The Song of Songs, which pertains to Solomon.

Beloved

²Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!
For your love is better than wine;

³your anointing oils are fragrant;
your name is oil poured out;
    therefore the maidens love you.

⁴Draw me after you; let us run.
    The king has brought me into his chambers.

Friends

We will exult and rejoice in you;
    we will extol your love more than wine;
    rightly do they love you.

Beloved

⁵I am very dark, but lovely,
    O daughters of Jerusalem,
like the tents of Kedar,
    like the curtains of Solomon.

⁶Do not gaze at me because I am dark,
    because the sun has looked upon me.
My mother's sons were angry with me;
    they made me keeper of the vineyards,
  but my own vineyard I have not kept!

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Purpose

To discover and experience Jesus Christ in our midst

To cultivate mutually encouraging relationships

To participate in God’s mission to the world

Opening Prayer

Responsive Prayer — Psalm 139

For you formed my inward parts;

    You knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

    Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret,

    Intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,

    The days that were formed for me,
    when as yet there was none of them.

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!

    How vast is the sum of them!

If I would count them, they are more than the sand.

    I awake, and I am still with you.

Summary

We’ve just begun a new sermon series focused on the Song of Songs, and this week we are specifically honing in on how this book informs our understanding of the goodness, meaning, and destiny of the human body. Before engaging the poetry itself, it is necessary to orient ourselves theologically. The Song of Songs — a name that is itself a superlative in the same ways as “holy of holies” or “King of kings” — presents itself as the greatest of love songs, situated within Israel’s wisdom tradition and associated with Solomon (though likely not written by him). Its deliberate anonymity and lack of historical specificity render it universally accessible, portraying an idealized man and woman whose love is exclusive, mutual, and joyful. As such, the Song resists two common interpretive errors: secularizing it as mere erotic poetry detached from God, or over-spiritualizing it into a strict allegory of divine love. Rather, it must be read first as a celebration of embodied marital love as God created it, and secondarily, (as all Scripture ultimately does) as pointing beyond itself to God’s covenantal love, understood not erotically but analogically and covenantally (cf. Ephesians 5:31-32).

The emphasis on embodied love is rooted in the doctrine of creation. Scripture teaches that the body is not incidental to human identity but essential to it. God created humanity male and female in his image, declaring their embodied existence “very good” (Genesis 1:27, 31; Genesis 2:18-25). Humanity was created with souls united to bodies, both originally upright and ordered toward God (Westminster Confession of Faith [WCF] 4.2). In other words, in our properly ordered, created state, our physicality is a good thing. Our passage assumes this creational goodness by referencing all five senses. The woman speaks of taste and touch when she desires the kisses of her beloved, declaring his love better than wine (verse 2). Smell is invoked as she delights in the fragrance of his anointing oils, and even the sound of his name is described as perfume poured out, engaging hearing as well as scent (verse 3). Sight dominates the passage as she speaks of her own appearance, “I am dark, but lovely,” and reflects on how she has been seen and gazed upon, both by others and by her beloved (verses 5-6). Far from presenting the body as incidental or problematic, the Song assumes that physical experience of seeing, touching, and feeling is central to human love as God created it. This passage, therefore, confronts modern confusion that oscillates between obsession with the body and contempt for it, insisting instead that embodied love belongs to God’s wise and benevolent purposes.

Yet the Song must also be read with full awareness of the Fall. Though the body remains good as part of God’s original creation, it is now profoundly affected by sin, marred by disease, decay, and death. Scripture teaches that corruption extends to the whole person, body and soul alike (Romans 3:10-18; Titus 1:15). Through Adam’s fall, all of us have become “wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body.” (WCF 6.2). We see evidence of this not only in the fact that people get sick, but also in the fact that human embodied love is frequently twisted by our culture into lust, domination, commodification, or shame. With this in mind, we should see the Song as offering a vision of love that is restrained, faithful, and mutual in the face of the realities of the Fall — a quiet protest against both pagan excess and ascetic rejection. As the theologian Herman Bavinck notes, Scripture never treats sexuality as neutral or autonomous; it is always moral, covenantal, and accountable to God’s design.

Finally, we should remember that the hope offered by the gospel is not found in an escape from the body but in its restoration. Redemption culminates in the resurrection of the body (Romans 8:18-23; 1 Corinthians 15), where embodied life is perfected and glorified rather than discarded. This hope is witnessed in the incarnation itself. Christ, the greater Solomon (Matthew 12:42), redeemed humanity not from a distance but by assuming a true human body, thereby affirming the enduring goodness of creation even as he bore its corruption (John 1:14; Hebrews 2:14-17). In this light, the Song’s celebration of love anticipates the deeper truth that all human love finds its source and measure in God’s covenant faithfulness. The gospel restores humanity to wholeness; grace restores nature; Christ reunites what sin has fractured.

Discussion Questions

1. Looking at the Bible

• Share with the group some key phrases or ideas that stood out to you from the passage.

2. Looking at Jesus

• Old Testament scholar Iain Campbell writes that Solomon “is a type of David’s greater Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, whose marriage to the Church is a fundamental New Testament metaphor.” God promised David an enduring king from his line, a promise that Solomon fulfilled imperfectly and that Jesus fulfills completely. How does that promise shape the way we read the Song as both a celebration of human love and as a witness to Christ, the greater Son of David?
• What might this teach us about how all created goods, including marriage and the body, find their fullest meaning in Christ?

3. Looking at Our Hearts

• In verse 6, the woman acknowledges weariness, exposure, and neglect. How does this help us speak honestly about the effects of the Fall on our bodies without slipping into shame?
• Where have sin, suffering, and/or cultural pressure distorted your relationship with your body, perhaps especially in this season of New Years’ resolutions?
• How does the hope of bodily resurrection (1 Corinthians 15) help you hold your present body with gratitude rather than fear or disdain?

4. Looking at Our World

• Many today see the fulfilled life as being one of complete bodily autonomy or mastery. How does our passage offer a vision of embodied joy rooted in covenantal love rather than self-construction?
• How does the Christian claim that bodies will be redeemed (Romans 8:23) differ from cultural hopes of self-optimization, technological escape, or bodily reinvention?
• Why is the resurrection of the body such a foreign and, at times, offensive idea in modern Western culture? What might that reveal about what people ultimately hope for?

Prayer

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