God, being good and upright, does all things that are consistent with what is just, loving and rooted in what is eternally established as true. All persons hold equal status before him. Fairness and justice are therefore core qualities considered indispensable for a person, family or people who would bring honour to their Lord.

The titles in the CEV (and ESV), e.g. “the Groom and the Wedding Party” before 3:6, “What a Beautiful Bride” (4:1) and “The Wedding Dance” (7:1) have been added by the translators. There is no particular reason to read this section as a wedding, though many people do understand it this way. Incidentally the headings “He speaks,” “She speaks,” “Their friends speak” have also been added and these headings are helpful.

One of the main themes of the Song is longing. Even in real life, even when our love is reciprocated, we can have a sense that there is still something missing. We can never fully know another person. There is still a sense of unfulfillment.

Similarly, longing is an essential aspect of our faith.

“Finally, my friends, keep your minds on whatever is true, pure, right, holy, friendly, and proper. Don’t ever stop thinking about what is truly worthwhile and worthy of praise” (Philippians 4:8). It is difficult to think of the apostle Paul reading the Song of Songs, and perhaps that is an indication of how little we understand Paul. Surely Paul has something more than theology in mind here.

Futility. It’s almost a law of human endeavor. The falling snow erases the shoveled path behind us. The miles erode away the car we’re still struggling to pay for. The bodies we sweat and bleed and weep to maintain grow old and fail nonetheless. No matter how well we did our job, no matter what how much we had saved for retirement, in the end all our treasures are buried with the body they could not keep alive.

The world was an unknowable wilderness when our ancestors began to make their way in it. The nights were as dark as the bottom of the sea, and the stars had no names. We did not know what it was that broke twigs in the forest outside the ring of firelight, if it would be our friend or our devourer. We did not know what was bread and what was poison.

“Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord!”

What a wonderful declaration. David believes it. Do we? Do we believe we are blessed because we belong to God – or are we blessed because of our own hard work?