The season of singing has come

Song of Solomon verse 2

She

I am a rose of Sharon,

    a lily of the valleys.

He

Like a lily among thorns

    is my darling among the young women.

She

Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest

    is my beloved among the young men.

I delight to sit in his shade,

    and his fruit is sweet to my taste.

Let him lead me to the banquet hall,

    and let his banner over me be love.

Strengthen me with raisins,

    refresh me with apples,

    for I am faint with love.

His left arm is under my head,

    and his right arm embraces me.

Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you

    by the gazelles and by the does of the field:

Do not arouse or awaken love

    until it so desires.

Listen! My beloved!

    Look! Here he comes,

leaping across the mountains,

    bounding over the hills.

My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.

    Look! There he stands behind our wall,

gazing through the windows,

    peering through the lattice.

My beloved spoke and said to me,

    “Arise, my darling,

    my beautiful one, come with me.

See! The winter is past;

    the rains are over and gone.

Flowers appear on the earth;

    the season of singing has come,

the cooing of doves

    is heard in our land.

The fig tree forms its early fruit;

    the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.

Arise, come, my darling;

    my beautiful one, come with me.”

He

My dove in the clefts of the rock,

    in the hiding places on the mountainside,

show me your face,

    let me hear your voice;

for your voice is sweet,

    and your face is lovely.

Catch for us the foxes,

    the little foxes

that ruin the vineyards,

    our vineyards that are in bloom.

She 

My beloved is mine and I am his;

    he browses among the lilies.

Until the day breaks

    and the shadows flee,

turn, my beloved,

    and be like a gazelle

or like a young stag

    on the rugged hills.

The unsettled weather we are having lately does not spoil the beauty of Spring that we glimpse when the clouds part and the sun is let through to do its work: highlighting the beautiful colours of tulips and daffodils, but also the bluebells that can now be seen like a huge carpet of blue and green in many of our woods.

God’s canvas is broad and his colour palette is vast.

The Bible speaks to us a lot about the season’s, it was part of everyday life and survival throughout the time of the Old and New Testament. Growing and harvesting crops provided food and without the science that is involved in today’s farming there was a total reliance on the season’s. Which is why it was often used as an example to make a point or to teach.

In Hosea we read “Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.”

I don’t believe that the Song of Songs is not a parable or a metaphor for something else, I don’t believe it is there to illustrate a point. I believe that the Song of Songs in included in the Bible to document the tender love of a devoted couple.

And in these passages we read of the joy of that couple when they are faced with the prospect of Spring….

My beloved spoke and said to me,

    “Arise, my darling,

    my beautiful one, come with me.

See! The winter is past;

    the rains are over and gone.

Flowers appear on the earth;

    the season of singing has come,

the cooing of doves

    is heard in our land.

The fig tree forms its early fruit;

    the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.

Arise, come, my darling;

    my beautiful one, come with me.”

This is like a poem within a poem as the lady in love calls on her beloved to go out into the world that she describes.

I believe that God created the heavens and the earth and everything that exists. Why, perhaps because he could, but I believe that creation is an expression of the love that God has for us.

But it all went wrong…..we know the story.

Yet God did not abandon creation or deem that he should start again. In a further expression of love, he sent his son to die for us, who rose again defeating death.  And we know that Jesus will return again and in the words of John the Revelator:

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

The seasons are a reminder of what is to come, decay & death will be replaced by new life & restoration that will be eternal.

For the man and woman in Song of Songs the advent of Spring was: “the season of singing.” And perhaps the same should be said for us, that we are in the season of singing not for the spring that has come, but for the eternal summer that is to come.