Quiet Faith of Man

This is something I’ve wanted to write about for over a month now (as there have been many things), so I figure I got home at a reasonable hour (18:40), believe it or not I’ve actually seen the few CSI episodes that are showing on TV over here, and I’m having some of my duty free Jameson aged 12 year whisky, so why not write?

What is it I’ve wanted to write about you ask? Song of Solomon (the book in the Bible). (Is “book” supposed to be capitalized? Is Bible supposed to be in italics or quotes since it’s the name of a book? – yes, these are the questions that go through my mind. And, yes, all this on only one sip of whisky.) I digress. One reason I probably didn’t write sooner was that getting my Bible out meant moving the picture frames and other things in front of the religion section of books on my book shelf; ever previous time I was going to get it out I realized I needed to dust and then got sidetracked; and I kept losing one of the pieces of paper I had notes on. Anyway.

Why Song of Solomon? Well, within less than 2 weeks, I read 3 references to this book, 2 of which were the same passage. A bit weird. First, I was reading the book Oil! By Upton Sinclair (*see my thoughts on that below) and one of the characters, Vee Tracy, the movie star siren, quoted a few lines of scripture, more as a pick-up line (p338). Then, when I was going through the weekly offering plate envelopes from Old South, the one for July 6th had a quote from the same passage. Lastly, on July 9th, the UCC’s daily devotional was from the same passage!

Song of Solomon 2:8-12
The voice of my beloved! Look, he comes, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills. My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag…My beloved speaks and says to me: ‘Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land…” from The New Oxford Annotated Bible

As Rev Anthony B. Robinson wrote in his UCC reflection, “Aren't these lines of Scripture lovely? Read them aloud to yourself once more. Scholars debate whether the Song of Solomon is human love poetry that is all about the love of two people, or a metaphor of God's love for Israel and the Church. But does it have to be one or the other? Can't it be both?”

I have never read Song of Solomon, but am very curious to now do so as this passage is quite lyrical and unlike most anything else I’ve read in the Bible, especially the Old Testament! It is a very short book in the Old Testament. Plus, to have those three references to the Bible, to the same book in it, and to the same passage, all within about 10 days is a bit much.

* Oil! By Upton Sinclair: If you’ve seen the movie There Will Be Blood, it is my understanding it is NOTHING like the book. In fact, the cover of the book says it was just the inspiration for the movie. Characters, story line, everything are different. The book is ok, but the main character is a whining, self indulgent, can’t wake up to the real world type of socialist young man. The Jungle is a much more convincing book both for socialism as well as industry reform. Oil! misses the mark.