Tuesday • 10/25/2022 • Proper 25
This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 45; Psalm 98; Song of Songs 4:1-8; Revelation 11:14-19; Luke 11:27-36
This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 13 (“A Song of Praise,” BCP, p. 90); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 18 (“A Song to the Lamb,” Revelation 4:11; 5:9-10, 13, BCP, p. 93)
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For our Old Testament reading last week, this week, and the next, I am treating the Song of Songs instead of the lectionary’s choice, Ecclesiasticus (Wisdom of Ben Sirach). Together, I hope we are discovering or rediscovering some of the wonder of this “Best of Songs.” Today’s portion is Song of Songs 4:1–8.
Psalm 45 and Song of Songs — Beauty’s measure. “You are the most handsome of men; grace is poured upon your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever” — Psalm 45:2.
“How beautiful you are, my love, how very beautiful. … You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you” — Song of Songs 4:1,7.
I hope you’ll take the time to read and linger over these verses in Psalm 45 and in Chapter 4 of the Song of Songs. Today’s readings bring together two elegant love poems for our consideration, not only of Christ’s love for his church, but for consideration of the exquisite character of an ideal love between a man and a woman.
Psalm 45 contains the love poem of a bride to her husband describing his physical attractiveness. She continues by describing his many admirable other qualities and exhorts him to fulfill his role as king. The psalm concludes with instruction for the bride to let go of her former life and embrace a life richer and more wonderful than the one she is leaving.
In the verses in the Song of Songs, the husband lauds the physical beauty of his wife. The features that he finds enchanting are clear enough to us: flowing tresses, perfect teeth, crimson lips, rosy cheeks, a noble neck, and enticing breasts. In a culture where images couldn’t easily be captured (say, by a painting or a photograph), descriptions had to support memory. What do I remember about the way she looks? What was her hair like? Her teeth? Her lips? Her cheeks? The husband reviews in his mind the physical attributes which make his bride desirable to him.
Thus, the specifics of the imagery come from another world where no camera exists to capture a memory. There’s more than a hint here, of a deep, genuine devotion. This is no make-believe, no infatuation, no romance novel kind of love. The lover sees what the lover sees, and what the lover sees is its own standard of beauty: the specific features of love’s beloved. This is one of the beautiful things about language and imagination. It takes elasticity of spirit to be able to appreciate any work of art—poetry, painting, music—but especially those coming from a different time and a different place. But the effort is fundamentally humanizing and, in the end, God-honoring.
As we think about God contemplating us, it is worth keeping in mind that the Bible’s supreme message to us is what today’s opening verse shouts: “How beautiful you are, my love, how very beautiful.” Christ has come for his Bride. And he has done so because he finds her ravishingly beautiful.
The Groom and the Bride. The psalm makes clear the speaker of these verses is more than a human bride, and her groom much more than a perfect vision of a human husband. The groom is the eternal Messiah, the champion of truth and justice: Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever. Your royal scepter is a scepter of equity; you love righteousness and hate wickedness. That the reference is to Jesus Christ himself is made indisputably clear by its inclusion in the letter to the Hebrews (I rather like the Jerusalem Bible’s rendering):
But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
and the righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom.
9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”
10 And,
“In the beginning, Lord, you founded the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands;
11 they will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like clothing;
12 like a cloak you will roll them up,
and like clothing they will be changed.
But you are the same,
and your years will never end” (Hebrews 1:8-12).
Read from this perspective, then, Psalm 45 takes on a soaring perspective. Here, a thousand years in advance, Christ’s church, “the princess decked in her chamber,” extols the virtues of the God-man who will come “from ivory palaces” to wed her to himself.
Revelation & the coming of the wrath. The Book of Revelation brings us to the third of three woes and to the seventh of seven trumpets. This is one of several times that this amazing book takes us to the very end of time, when all accounts get settled: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15). The time of “judging the dead” and “for rewarding your servants” is simultaneously the time when “your wrath has come … and for destroying those who destroy the earth” (Revelation 11:18). This thought can be a troubling one, except when we realize that it is borne out of passion for the protection and the purity of the Bride whose wedding is in view throughout. Regard for her well-being, and disdain for all that defiles her and all of creation, flow from the same heart of divine love.
Luke & the offer of wisdom & mercy. In an altogether similar vein, Jesus rebukes his fellow Galileans for failing to “see” (“Your eye is the lamp of the body”) what is really going on before their very eyes. Israel’s poignant story of love lost and then regained is being played out in their very presence. Indeed, it is standing right in front of them. In Jesus is a wisdom greater than that which the queen of the South had found in Solomon. In Jesus is a mercy greater than that which Jonah had offered the Ninevites. To paraphrase a parallel thought in John’s gospel: “The Groom is with the Bride. Don’t miss it!” (see John 3:29).
Collect of the Day: Almighty and everlasting God, increase in us the gifts of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain what you promise, make us love what you command; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Be blessed this day,
Reggie Kidd+
Image: Pixabay