Artwork by Douglas Kallerson.
Song of Songs 3:1-5
I Shall Seek Whom Loved, My Soul
(Typed 23 December 2024) Many years ago, I heard the story of a guy who went to China as a missionary. While there, he led a man to the Lord. This Chinese man found that Jesus is the Lord God and that He alone can save mankind.
An understanding of who Jesus is and what He has done logically leads to the conclusion that He is the only way to be reconciled to God. If there is a disconnect between us and God, and if God Himself united with humanity in Christ to make the reconciliation possible, then any other religious expression must, by default, be false.
Why would God in Christ put in all the effort to join with humanity, live out a tiring and trial-filled earthly existence, allow Himself to be nailed to the cross, just to say, “Don’t worry, all paths lead to heaven.” The thinking is convoluted and extremely short-sighted.
This should be obvious, but only when the process is thought through. Many people are saved and never think deeply about such details. They believe the gospel, they are saved, and the mechanics of theology beyond that are never considered by them.
From a salvation standpoint, there is nothing wrong with this. In fact, it is exactly why God made the gospel simple. Anything more complicated would keep many from being saved. God knows that is just how limited humans are in thinking.
And yet, in its simplicity, it can also keep people from being saved. The thought that something as simple as belief is capable of saving actually hinders many from accepting it. However, their reason for it hindering them is because they want to be a part of the equation.
They think it is either incredible or foolish to suppose that God doesn’t need their help. They cannot believe that salvation excludes any participation on their behalf, with the exception of faith, meaning believing the simple gospel. This is a problem that Paul refers to in our text verse –
Text Verse: “..but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness.” 1 Corinthians 1:24
Paul explains this stumbling block when referring to Israel in Romans 9-11. In those chapters, he discusses the difficulty Israel faced in accepting that the law they had been under for eons was actually not capable of making them righteous before God.
When Jesus came and demonstrated that this was the case, they could not accept it. In Romans 9, Paul says –
“What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; 31 but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. 32 Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. 33 As it is written:
‘Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense,
And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’” Romans 9:30-33
The stumbling stone is the message of God in Christ, meaning faith in the simple gospel. The Chinese man that was saved asked the missionary who led him to the Lord, “Why did you wait so long to come and share this message? My father always knew there was a problem and that he needed God’s help to get it resolved. He died without ever hearing this.”
Being Chinese, all his life he would have been exposed to all kinds of religious teachings, especially from the Buddhist tradition. However, he was able to deduce that what they believed couldn’t be true.
Buddha was as a man and became the Buddha. He supposedly went from the imperfect to the perfect, attaining Nirvana. If thought through, anyone can figure out that this is not possible. Christianity teaches that God came in perfection and became as if imperfect when our sin was imputed to Him on the cross.
This is not only possible, but it also fully explains how we can be made perfect. Great truths such as this are to be found in His superior word. And so, let us turn to that precious word once again, and… May God speak to us through His word today, and may His glorious name ever be praised.
I. I Shall Compass In the City (verses 1-5)
By night on my bed I sought the one I love;
Rather, it is plural: al mishkavi balaeiloth biqashti eth sheahavah naphshiy –
“Upon my bed in the nights
Sought whom loved, my soul.”
The plural, nights, is variously explained by scholars. Some see it as a repeating event, from night to night. Others see it as something like “in the night hours,” or some other poetic use of the word.
It seems likely she is using the word to indicate “night after night.” This is how the same expression is used elsewhere –
“Behold, bless the Lord,
All you servants of the Lord,
Who by night [balaeiloth, lit: in the nights] stand in the house of the Lord!
2 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary,
And bless the Lord.
3 The Lord who made heaven and earth
Bless you from Zion!” Psalm 134
She is lying on her bed, seeking out the one she loves. Literally, “whom loved, my soul.” As such, it is accepted by many that this is referring to a repeated dream that fills her sleeping hours, and which she is now telling others about.
This may be the case, or it may be a waking dream as we all have, something that fills the hours and keeps us from sleeping. It is still a dream world, but it is one that is based on a reality that exists, not one that the mind merely formulates.
There she is lying on the bed and yearning for her beloved. In this state…
1 (con’t) I sought him, but I did not find him.
biqashtiv v’lo m’tsativ – “Sought him, and no found him.” She is in her dreamish world, searching for him. No matter where she turns, he is not there. With that stated, the meaning of her next words depends on how the words of verse 1 fit into the timeline…
2 “I will rise now,” I said,
“And go about the city;
The verbs are cohortative. It is almost as if she is commanding herself to act: aqumah na vaasov’vah bair – “I shall arise, pray, and I shall compass in the city.” The question concerning these words is whether they follow verse 1 in time, or if they explain the thought of verse 1.
If the former, she had a dream about looking for her love and couldn’t find him. When she woke up from it, she went out to find him for real. If the latter, she stated her unsuccessful search for him and now more fully describes the contents of what she just said.
One can see this second option in the inserted words “I said” of the NKJV. “I was lying on my bed having a dream. I couldn’t find my love. So, I said to myself, “I will get up and find him.” This seems probable. She began to tell of her thoughts on the bed, and then she explained what was lacking in her first words.
It would be something like this –
I went out on the sea to find my fortune.
It was a rough and difficult life.
I decided when I was young that I would be a sailor.
When I was old enough, I walked to the docks and offered my services.
Off I went to lands of diversity and beauty,
But each stop was also fraught with trials and troubles.
I never attained the wealth I dreamt of.
The first two lines are given as an opening thought that is more fully fleshed out by what is then presented. It is similar to the structure of many passages in the Bible. For example, Genesis 1 provides the essential details to set up the rest of the narrative.
Genesis 2 then backs up to the sixth day of creation and fills in the detail. Understanding this, she implored herself to get up and find her beloved. She couldn’t stand not being with him and so she rose to act, even though this has occurred on her bed, meaning in a dream. In rising, she went…
2 (con’t) In the streets
bash’vaqim – “In the streets.” This is the fourth and last use of shuq, a street, in the Bible. All four uses are in the writings of Solomon. It is derived from the verb shuq, to overflow. One can think of a vat overflowing and running along like a stream. Hence, such a street is a place where there is the running to and fro of activity.
One can see this in Ecclesiastes 12 –
“When the doors are shut in the streets [shuq],
And the sound of grinding is low;
When one rises up at the sound of a bird,
And all the daughters of music are brought low.
5 Also they are afraid of height,
And of terrors in the way;
When the almond tree blossoms,
The grasshopper is a burden,
And desire fails.
For man goes to his eternal home,
And the mourners go about the streets [shuq].” Ecclesiastes 12:4, 5
The streets are filled with the sounds of busy life (verse 4), and yet the aged cannot hear the boisterous sounds because of hearing loss. Eventually the person died and was mourned by the paid wailers hired for such occasions in biblical times. They would go up and down the streets wailing for the dead, calling attention to all concerning his passing.
The woman is willing to go out into the busy streets to find him…
2 (con’t) and in the squares
u-barkhovoth – “and in the plazas.” The rechov is a broad open area within a city like our modern plaza. Quite often, they were in front of each city gate, but depending on the size of the city, there might be other places set aside for performances, proclamations, and so forth.
Wherever people are gathered, she will make a diligent search for him. She knows he is there and she is determined to find him.
The words in these clauses are set in parallel to the final words of the previous clause –
I shall compass in the city,
In the streets and in the plazas.
She has determined to go all around the city in order to find the one she loves. Whether he is idling in a café on a busy side street or listening to a musical in an open plaza, she has set her mind on finding him…
2 (con’t) I will seek the one I love.”
Again, the verb is cohortative: avaqashah eth sheahavah napshiy – “I shall seek whom loved, my soul.” It is as if she is commanding herself to arise and go out to find him. His love is driving her to the point of impatience to see him. And so, up she goes at the internal command, heading out. However…
2 (con’t) I sought him, but I did not find him.
biqashtiv v’lo m’tsativ – “Sought him, and no found him.” In her dream world, she has failed in her endeavor. She looked, but he elusively remained out of her reach, something quite common in such dream or dreamlike states.
The words here tend to confirm the thought that verse 2 is an explanatory description of verse 1 –
Upon my bed in the nights sought whom loved, my soul,
Sought him, and no found him.
I shall seek whom loved, my soul.
Sought him, and no found him.
She started with the basic thought, backed up, and then presented the fuller thought. Understanding that, she is not finished with the expanded explanation of events…
3 The watchmen who go about the city found me;
She uses verbs to explain those she encountered: m’tsauni ha’shom’rim hasv’vim bair – “Found me, the guardings, the ‘compassings in the city.’” As she is going throughout the city, those who guard it, regularly compassing it while looking for miscreants, found her. She has searched and come up with nothing. However, maybe they came across him…
3 (con’t) I said,
“Have you seen the one I love?”
The NKJV continues with its explanatory inserts. The words are briefer and give the sense that the events are happening as she speaks them: eth sheahavah naphshiy r’item – “Whom loved, my soul, seen?”
In her dream, she is wandering about the city, not finding her love. So desperate is she to find him, that her mind remembers that guards walk around the city as well. And so she whips them up in her thoughts. Upon meeting them, she eagerly asks if they have come across him.
Some scholars have noted that this must be in the past, in her hometown, because she doesn’t explain who her beloved is. Therefore, they must know her and know who he is. As such, they deduce that it is a small city where everyone knows everyone else.
Such an analysis fails to consider the type of literature. It is poetic and only briefly explanatory. The few words could involve them stopping, having an extended conversation where she describes him to them, their answer in the negative, her thanking them, followed by all of them saying goodbye.
And more, if this is a dream, the brevity is perfectly in line with dreams. Everything in such an encounter is implied in a meeting, but the dream itself presses on toward the goal without giving all the minute details. There is no need to assume the account is in her hometown and not in Jerusalem.
The narrative isn’t focusing on the where of it. Therefore, such details are left unstated. Everything that happens is short, to the point, and dramatic as she explains the unfolding dream.
Whether they stopped and talked and told her they had not seen him or they ignored her question and continued on, the point is that her beloved remained unfound by her. However, good news lies ahead…
4 Scarcely had I passed by them,
kim’at sheavarti mehem – “According to little, which passed from them.” Though the NKJV is a paraphrase, it expresses the intent well. She saw the guards walking around on their watch and she asked if they had seen her beloved. Whatever the response from them involved, it didn’t help her out. But then, just moments after passing them by it was…
4 (con’t) When I found the one I love.
ad shematsathi eth sheahavah naphshiy – “Until which found whom loved, my soul.” The tension in her dream, which has built up since the first words of verse 1, is now relieved. Moments after the disappointment of not being told where her beloved was, he is there. She has found him! And…
4 (con’t) I held him and would not let him go,
The aspect of the first verb is perfect while the second is imperfect:
akhaztiv v’lo arpenu – “Seized him, and no release him.” The word akhaz, seize, is generally used in a strong and even forceful manner. Along with the act is normally the idea of holding what is seized in possession.
Adding to that, she uses the word raphah, to slacken. Thus, the words give the sense of, “I seized him, holding fast, and there is no way I am letting my tight grip go.”
She searched, finally found him, and now there she was ensuring that he would not get out of her hands…
4 (con’t) Until I had brought him to the house of my mother,
ad shehavitiv el beith imi – “Until which brought him unto house my mother.” At this point, the intent could be anything. “Mom, I finally found the man of my dreams.” Or she may be using the thought of her mother’s house to speak of the whole family, “Hey everyone, I have found the man of my dreams.”
We are left to speculate what is on her mind. However, the unspecified nature of the act is immediately brought to clarity…
4 (con’t) And into the chamber of her who conceived me.
v’el kheder horathi – “And unto chamber my conceiving.” The meaning is obvious, “This is where I was conceived. Let us repeat the event that took place on that day so new birth will take place.”
She is dreaming of the moment that will take place. In the previous chapter, he had come to her and asked her to come out so he could hear her voice.
She would not come out, but she did sing him a song of the vineyard. However, at evening time, she had told him to scamper home –
My dove in rifts the rock,
In cover the step,
Cause me to see your appearances,
Cause me to hear your voice.
For your voice – pleasant,
And your appearance – beautiful.
15 Grasp to us foxes,
Foxes little, binding vines,
And our vines cluster.
16 My beloved to me, and I to him –
The ‘pasturing in the lilies.’
17 Until that puffs the day,
And flit the shadows.
Revolve!
Resemble to you, my beloved, to gazelle or to fawn, the stag,
Upon the mountains division.
When he was gone, she went to bed and dreamt the same dream she always had. Someday she would go out to find him, and bring him into the very place she was conceived. With that, she again charges the daughters of Jerusalem with the same words as verse 2:7…
5 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
By the gazelles or by the does of the field,
Do not stir up nor awaken love
Until it pleases.
hishbati etkhem b’noth y’rushalim bitsvaoth o b’ayloth hasadeh im tairu v’im t’or’ru eth haahavah ad shetekh’pats –
“Adjured you, daughters Jerusalem,
In gazelles or in does the field –
If wakens and if awakens the love,
Until she inclines.”
Because the words are letter-for-letter identical to verse 2:7, refer back to that sermon if you need to refresh your mind concerning what is being said. The main point of them, though, is that she adjures the daughters of Jerusalem to be like the gazelles or does of the field. They are to be timid and wary as they go about in search of love.
With these words complete, the second major break in the song is realized. Two more are yet ahead at 5:1 and 8:4.
I will seek the Lord until I find Him
I know He is there, but I’m not sure what to do
Everything I have checked out is forbidding and grim
But the truth is there. And God, through it, I will find You!
You have instilled in us the knowledge of good and evil
I certainly know that this is true
And so, I can run from every lie of the devil
Until the day I find the truth, and come running to You
If I never find it and my life passes away
There is one thing I still will never do
I will not accept what is false. I will never go that way
Because I know there is truth that would have led me to You
II. Seeking the Lord
The main point of these five verses is diligence in seeking. They also focus on not awakening love until the appropriate time. As they are words in “Song the songs,” meaning the greatest of all songs ever penned, there must be an underlying lesson in what is stated.
The woman is going back in time to the repeated thoughts on her bed about the one whom her soul loves. She is explaining the thoughts to those who would hear and, hopefully, emulate. That is seen in the charge that she has given them.
She didn’t just say, “I want a man, and I’m going out to find one.” Rather, she has one man in mind that she will search for until she finds him. When she finds him, she will grasp him and not let him go. That was seen in the aspect of the verbs in verse 4. The first was perfect while the second was imperfect.
She knew he was out there, she searched thoroughly, and when her goal was attained, she held him continuously. He was not getting out of her hands until her goal was realized. Then she spoke the exact same adjuration she had made before, to the letter, in fact –
Adjured you, daughters Jerusalem,
In gazelles or in does the field –
If wakens and if awakens the love,
Until she inclines.
As explained in the previous sermon, the idea of these words is to have one’s priorities right. We are not to fall in love with any god. The people of the world are to be on alert, wary of anything that could awaken inappropriate love in us.
Rather, we are to allow the love (agapē, noun, fem.) of God, embodied in the Person of Jesus Christ, to awaken ‘the love’ that is truly love, as John says, “for God is love [agapē, noun, fem.]” (1 John 4:8).
As we saw, it is the same words as found in the Greek translation of this verse, “if you should arise and awaken the love [ten agapen: the love].” God is love. God in Christ is the embodiment of God’s love. The adjuration of the woman is to not be led astray by other loves but allow the love of God in Christ to awaken God’s love.
But she has said this in these verses after noting her search –
Upon my bed in the nights sought whom loved, my soul,
Sought him, and no found him.
2 “I shall arise, I pray, and I shall compass in the city,
In the streets and in the plazas,
I shall seek whom loved, my soul.
Sought him, and no found him.
If the symbolism as presented is correct, there is a point being made here that escapes many in the church based on a faulty evaluation of what the Bible is saying.
We have seen in the previous sermons that this woman is being used as a type of the redeemed of the Lord. She is conveying to her audience how she came to find the love that she possesses. Her desire is the beloved she now has and whom she has been interacting with throughout the book.
The book began with the attraction the two felt for one another, explaining why it was so. The first chapter ended with the two in the garden together. After that, the first verses of Chapter 2 presented how that union in the garden came about, finishing with the adjuration to not waken love until she inclines. That was the end of the first main section.
The next section, which formed the content of last week’s sermon, went back to explain why she so adjured them. It gave hints of the time of the coming of Christ and of the establishment of the church age. What God in Christ is doing during this age is the love that all should seek after.
Think of the Chinese man who heard the gospel and received it. Like his father, he knew what was false, but until he heard the truth, he didn’t have any idea how things between God and him could be reconciled.
These five verses take the woman back further to her (meaning the redeemed of the Lord) attitude even before she met Him. She sought Him night after night but didn’t find Him.
At this point, we can think of the father of the Chinese man. He knew there was a problem between himself and God, but he didn’t know how it could be resolved. He just knew that the religious ideas he had been exposed to were not correct.
He sought diligently but could not find what he was looking for. However, in this process, he didn’t try to awaken love, meaning go after false gods. Instead, he waited for what never came. This is what the woman in “Song the songs” has done.
She has looked for her beloved night after night, knowing He is there, and yet not finding Him. Eventually, however, she found Him and seized Him, refusing to slacken her grip until she had brought Him to her place of conception.
Though the story refers to a human union, the details anticipate the union between the Lord and believers in the new birth. They were conceived in the flesh. There is now a desire to be birthed in the Spirit. Peter explains this in his first epistle –
“Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, 23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.” 1 Peter 1:22, 23
This is the reason why the second adjuration is placed here concerning awakening love until it inclines. The woman, seen as a type of the redeemed, finds her true love, holds fast to Him, and refuses to let Him go. The meaning is that the redeemed maintain their doctrine to the end.
To let go of proper doctrine is to not hold onto the true love. This doesn’t mean a loss of salvation for the saved, but a lack of salvation for those who could otherwise be redeemed.
As noted already, the main point of these verses is that of diligence in seeking. One cannot seek unless he is able to do so. The “Song the songs” has been structured so far in a manner that goes backwards to explain how this greatest song is realized.
One cannot be intimate with the Lord prior to meeting Him. One cannot meet Him unless there is a mutual attempt at it coming about. But that couldn’t occur unless He came and made the union possible.
But even if He came, without people wanting to participate in His coming, there wouldn’t be any reason for Him to come. This is the point of today’s verses –
“The woman said to Him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When He comes, He will tell us all things.’” John 4:35
This woman at the well would not have said that if she didn’t believe He was coming. And more, she expected to learn from Him when He came. She may not have been actively seeking Him at the time, but she was aware that His time would come.
As I just said, one cannot seek unless he is able to do so. The passage today tells us that people can, in fact, seek the Lord. Pretty much everyone on the planet is seeking “God” in some form or fashion. Most are just doing it wrong.
To say that Muslims are not seeking God would be a laughable statement. To say that people who convert to Islam are not seeking God would be even more laughable. They are, in fact, seeking Him. But they have not properly thought through the details or they have ignorantly rejected what has been presented (as Paul says Israel has done in Romans 9-11).
By taking verses out of context, including Paul’s words of Romans 3, various doctrines have arisen, like Calvinism, that claim that man has no capacity or will to seek after God. That is proven false in humanity every day of the year. They are seeking. Most are just wrong in their approach –
“By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, ‘and was not found, because God had taken him’; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. 6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:5,6
In fact, when Paul spoke to those in Athens, it was one of his main points of doctrine –
“And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.” Acts 17:26, 27
The word Paul uses there is zéteó. It signifies “to seek by inquiring; to investigate to reach a binding (terminal) resolution; to search, ‘getting to the bottom of a matter’” (HELPS Word Studies).
It is the same word that the Greek translation of the Old Testament uses three times in the first two verses of our sermon today. She sought out, looking for her beloved. In type, she is humanity who not only searches out God, but does so to get to the bottom of the matter and, thus, becoming the redeemed of the Lord.
This is why this book is labeled “Song the songs” or the greatest song ever written. It is a song about the mutual, not forced, love of God for His people and His people for the true God as He has revealed Himself in the Person of Jesus Christ.
Although the book is very difficult and even confusing, it is laid out in a way that shows us how the message can be easily understood. The love between God and His people will bring us back to a place that resembles the original garden of Eden in its beauty and perfection.
To understand how that will come about, the successive verses have so far been structured to keep taking us back in order to understand how to go forward. In other words, “Here is how we got to this stage, but to get to that stage, we had to go through this one. And to understand how we got there, we need to go back again and see what happened.”
At this point, the book is not presenting the same type of exacting typology of the earlier historical writings. Understanding the allegorical nature of the book requires understanding the overall presentation of redemption as found throughout the Bible.
In doing so, we can then understand the process of God’s redemption as portrayed in the loving relationship of these two people. Their desires, hopes, and aspirations for being with one another reveal the same characteristics in the mutual relationship that arises between the Lord and His redeemed.
Without understanding the cross of Jesus Christ, and how what it signifies is properly procured by His people, the book remains a mystery. But in grasping the back-and-forth nature of the relationship between these two, we can then grasp the same in our relationship with God and He with us.
Therefore, be sure to seek the Lord, search for Him diligently, and then hold fast to Him, even as He is holding fast to you. Be sound in your doctrine and be firm in what it presents, not waffling or being blown about by others who would seek to ruin your precious relationship with the glorious Lord who came to bring us back to Himself.
Closing Verse: “Let all those who seek [Greek LXX: zéteó] You rejoice and be glad in You;
Let such as love Your salvation say continually,
‘The Lord be magnified!’” Psalm 40:16
Next Week: Song of Songs 3:6-11 Who is this that my soul will bless… (Ascending From the Wilderness) (8th Song of Songs sermon)
The Lord has you exactly where He wants you. He has a good plan and purpose for you. He alone is the perfect example of love – untarnished, unblemished, and completely pure and holy. He offers this love to you. So, follow Him, live for Him, and trust Him, and He will do marvelous things for you and through you.
Song of Songs 3:1-5 (CG)
Upon my bed in the nights
Sought whom loved, my soul,
Sought him, and no found him.
2 “I shall arise, I pray, and I shall compass in the city,
In the streets and in the plazas,
I shall seek whom loved, my soul.
Sought him, and no found him.
3 Found me, the guardings, the ‘compassings in the city’ –
Whom loved, my soul, seen?
4 According to little, which passed from them,
Until which found whom loved, my soul.
Seized him, and no release him,
Until which brought him unto house my mother,
And unto chamber my conceiving.
5 Adjured you, daughters Jerusalem,
In gazelles or in does the field –
If wakens and if awakens the love,
Until she inclines.
Song of Songs 3:1-5 (NKJV)
By night on my bed I sought the one I love;
I sought him, but I did not find him.
2 “I will rise now,” I said,
“And go about the city;
In the streets and in the squares
I will seek the one I love.”
I sought him, but I did not find him.
3 The watchmen who go about the city found me;
I said,
“Have you seen the one I love?”
4 Scarcely had I passed by them,
When I found the one I love.
I held him and would not let him go,
Until I had brought him to the house of my mother,
And into the chamber of her who conceived me.
5 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
By the gazelles or by the does of the field,
Do not stir up nor awaken love
Until it pleases.
