Songs and the Most Excellent of Songs : Shadows of Heaven

When we were telling you about King David, we told you all about how David chose to be someone who would sing to God in every circumstance of life, and how David made sure that there were many skilled singers and musicians trained to serve in God’s Family.

Did you know that in the Bible there is a collection of David’s songs? It’s called “Psalms,” which is just another way of saying “Songs.” It has many of the songs David wrote, as well as songs by someone named Asaph, and some of the other musicians too.

There is also another collection of songs in the Bible called “The Most Excellent of Songs” or “The Song of Solomon.” These songs are all about the love between a man and a woman — marriage.

I know, I know! You‘re thinking, “What does that have to do with me?!”

Well, I’m about to tell you. While you may be many years away from getting married, you might not be that many years away from marrying Jesus. (I hope that’s true anyway.)

So having some understanding of marriage is a good thing. Because as we’ve told you before, the Bible is God’s Love Story. It was His Big Plan to make a beautiful Bride for His Son.

So the thing to learn from “The Most Excellent of Songs” is that this wonderful thing that God created between a man and a woman called “Love” is a shadow of something even more wonderful. Way more wonderful.

God created man in His image. And man was lonely, so God gave him a partner, a wife! Then God told man to become one person with his wife, and through that oneness they would fill the earth (with babies, more people).

Now God Designed EXACTLY how Love and Oneness and Filling the earth would work. And as you know, everything God Designed is really a SHADOW of things to come in the Unseen world. So even lovey-dovey stuff between a man and his wife is something God desires in His relationship with His own Wife in the Unseen World.

Now this most excellent of songs goes back and forth with the man and woman taking turns singing. The man is often called “the Loving One” or “the One Who Loves,” and the woman is called “the Loved One” or “the One Who is Loved.”

Let me read you a few of the words. Listen carefully and see if you can hear the voice of Jesus, “the Loving One,” and His Bride, “the Loved One.”

He says, “How beautiful you are, My darling loved one! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes are doves.”

Then she says, “Oh, how handsome You are, my loving one! Oh, how charming!”

Now this stuff might sound silly to you right now, but when you’re older and you fall in love, you’ll see that Love makes you do and say crazy stuff.

The woman continues, “My Lover spoke and said to me, ‘Arise, My darling, My beautiful one, come with Me.

‘Look! The winter is past, the rains are over and gone.

‘Flowers are everywhere, the season of singing has come. Hear the cooing of the doves. Arise, come, My darling, My beautiful one, come with Me.’”

You see? This kind of Love wants to dance and sing in the flowery meadows as it simply enjoys being with someone. Does THAT sound like the kind of relationship that God deeply wants with us, with you? Yes. Now of course, our relationship with Jesus isn’t all emotional singing and dancing. It involves some serious, abandoned obedience to Him in EVERY area of our lives too.

The Loving One says, “Let Me see your face. Let Me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.”

And the Loved One says, “My Lover is mine, and I am His.”

The man says, “Oh turn, turn, O Perfect One! Turn, turn, that I may stare at you!”

And the woman says, “Place me like a seal over Your heart, like a stamp on Your arm.”

(Back then a seal or a stamp was for showing ownership, and those stamps were placed around people’s necks or on their arms for safe-keeping. The stamp was a way of showing, “I belong to this other person.”)

“For love is as strong as death, its passion doesn’t let go. Its flames burst forth, and it is a blazing flame.

“Surging waters can’t put out love, rivers can’t sweep it away. If you were to offer everything you own to buy Love away from someone else… the offer would be rejected outright with a no way, no how, not happening!”

Then there’s a part in the song where the woman can’t find her man. But she looks and looks and looks for Him until she finally finds Him.

Do you know what she does when she finds Him? It says, she “holds on tightly and won’t let Him go.” And He sings to her, “You have stolen My heart, My sister, My bride!”

Does all that sound like the relationship God wants with people, with you? Oh yes. That is why you were born! To be in a love relationship with Jesus.

In fact, do you know that part of the Grand Finale of God’s Big Plan is the biggest marriage of all time?! God’s Son will finally marry His Bride, the Church. Part of Heaven includes this Marriage of the Lamb, a huge party, aaannnnnd some lovey-dovey stuff too. And it’s all part of His wonderful Idea and Design.

It’s important to remind you though that as with any of the shadows on earth that God created, satan likes to try to lie and twist into knots God’s beautiful ideas. Satan does that in relationships between men and women too.

You see… everyone has an empty place in their heart that belongs to God alone. But satan tries to trick people into thinking they can fill that empty place in their heart with human love and feelings. But that doesn’t work because human love is just the shadow. And the shadow will never fill your empty places.

Just like the way you enjoy eating your favorite foods because God made them yummy, it was God’s idea for relationships to feel good and to be enjoyable too.

But what happens if you stuff your face with food trying to grab and gobble up every good-tasting thing you can get for yourself? Or what happens if you sneak food that mom or dad didn’t say you could have? Yeah… right! Bad trouble. That darkens your heart and destroys God’s gifts. That turns something God intended to be beautiful and enjoyable into something ugly, and in the end, it just makes you sick.

So “The Most Excellent of Songs” warns us of this too. In strong, commanding words it says, “Do not wake up this marriage type of love until the right time!”

So back to your original question… what does all this have to do with you? It’s about understanding that marriage is a beautiful thing that God created… but it’s best not to “wake up this human type of marriage love” until you have a Real marriage covenant love with Jesus FIRST. Then you can see if God gives you the gift of enjoying the earthly shadow marriage, when the right time comes.