5 Images Of Love’s Devotion and Strength

Love songs are the best songs to sing.

This is because love is one our basic human desires.  And this is why the biblical book the Song of Songs is so entitled, because it is about the best of songs; it is about love. It is a love poem about the proprieties and experiences of human love. The central message of the poem is that marital love is to be enjoyed to its fullest.

Marital Love

In 8:6-7, the bride in the poem speaks to her groom, expressing the incomparable strength and devotion of marital love.

Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm.
For as strong as death is love,
as severe as the grave is jealousy.
Its flashes are flashes of fire, a most vehement flame.
Many waters are not able to quench love,
nor are rivers able to wash it away.
If a man were to give all the wealth of his house for love,
it would be utterly despised.

Many images of love’s devotion and strength have just been placed in our minds. Love is compared to the absolute security of a seal, the unyielding grip of death, and the heat of the hottest fire. It is also pictured as containing enough fortitude to withstand all the forces of nature, typified by water. And it is priceless; it cannot be bought with all the money in the world.

During a wedding ceremony we celebrate the union of a man and a woman in their marital love for one another. They are pledging their lives together in undying love. How can they do this? How can any of us do so for that matter? It seems today that love is an emotion that comes and goes and we float along with it. What is the unique kind of love that forms a marital structure strong enough to last for a lifetime in devotion?

It is the love portrayed in the Song of Songs. It is human love that has properly progressed to the point of being given over to one another in the covenant of marriage. This is according to God’s design from Creation; and it remains His plan until the end of the world. Let’s look at the five images of love’s devotion and strength from Song of Songs 8:6-7.

A Seal

The first image is that of a seal. Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm. A seal marks ownership, or possession. This is a love that is given over to absolute devotion. The seal upon the heart and arm is symbolized today in the wedding ring. It is a pledge of lifelong devotion. It symbolizes a mutual ownership of one another.  This love commits up front to an unending devotion, sustained and constrained by covenant for life before God Almighty.

This image is the most important one, for it parallels that of Jesus Christ’s love for His Church. He enters into covenant and communion with those who place their faith in His cross for forgiveness of their sin and for gaining the righteousness of Christ so as to be justified before God. And further, He grants the Holy Spirit as a seal to Christians, pledging His eternal covenant faithfulness and marking them out as His own possession.

The human marriage relationship is to mirror the relationship between Christ and His Church. May we strive in all the grace of God to attain this ideal of love, and enjoy it and model it for all!

Death

Second is the image of death. For as strong as death is love, as severe as the grave is jealousy. This sure seems strange and unromantic, wouldn’t you say? How odd that we would talk about death at a wedding! But, the comparison is not between love and death per se, but between their irresistible power. In this they are similar.

How many people have been able to hold off death from overtaking them? None. Death and love are personified here. Death never gives up in its pursuit of whomever it desires. Finally, it succeeds and once it obtains its object, never lets it go. The grave is fiercely inflexible in never allowing the release of anyone from its possession.

This is what marital love is like. It is a love that pursued its beloved until the marriage day and then keeps on holding its lover close through the unyielding power of love. This is quite the image!

Lightning

Third, its flashes are flashes of fire, a most vehement flame. Do we love each other with burning passion? This is part of the true love of marriage! In fact, all of us who are married must burn like the searing and evaporating heat of lightning. Marital love is a jealousy for one another such that your pre-occupying desire is for total enjoyment of one another.

Marriage is not to be endured as an estate of tolerance, growing apart from one another. This is the sad state of affairs for many. But, we should not be discouraged by this. We can choose otherwise. Marriage is to be blissful and full of joy. Marital love is to be enjoyed with great fervor and this is why the focal message of the book of the Song of Songs in 5:1 is expressed as, “Eat, O friends; drink your fill O lovers!” This injunction describes marital love as satisfaction. It is feasting on your love for one another.

Floods

Fourth, love is shown in its overwhelming effect upon the heart. It is a love so powerfully overwhelming that it is described as withstanding all the forces of nature. Many waters are not able to quench love, nor are rivers able to wash it away.

True love withstands all the onslaughts with which it is confronted. We will encounter them as we all do. Conflict has been built into the structure of our world and woven into the fabric of our being since the Fall of Adam and Eve. Marital pleasure is as pure and delightful as already stated. But, that was only part of the story.

Surely we all know about the pressures, challenges, and conflicts involved in the marital relationship. And so, we need humility, patience, conflict resolution skills, forgiveness, honest communication, joy in the truth and in righteousness, desiring the benefit of the other, hoping the best about one another, a willingness to bear one another’s burdens, and remembering your marriage covenant. In the end, we all must rely upon God’s grace to make our marriages work because we are all so naturally selfish. It involves love, in other words—the love portrayed in Song of Songs.

Wealth

Finally, love is priceless. Were a man to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly despised. What is marital love worth?

This image in the Song is that of buying love even if it cost all the possessions of one’s household. Historically, this is the bride-price being mentioned. If love is not present, the purchase price and the would-be purchaser together are despised. Marital love is worth more than all that could be given in a dowry.

We don’t have dowries today, but we do have marriage licenses. And marital love and commitment doesn’t automatically come with them. Generally speaking, marriage isn’t worth much in our contemporary culture.

Don’t let your love be bought by anyone, or anything else. Temptations of all sorts will vie for our affections, and it won’t just be other lovers. It could be career, money, possessions, friends, entertainments, hobbies, or whatever. Despise them all! Yes, despise whatever it might be that would weaken your marital bond. Keep you love and commitment solely upon one another.

This of course is not all there is to marriage. It is not even close. Yet, from this biblical passage it is clear that the purpose of marital love is the full enjoyment of one another under the blessing of God. There is still so much more that we discover together throughout your lives. May we keep growing together and make our marriages an experience of the blessings recounted in the Song of Songs. This is the kind of love that will make for a marriage that will last a lifetime.