and pleasant land Green
The Song of Solomon (also known as the Song of Songs) is an Old Testament book which contains a series of love poems spoken by both a man and a woman. The poems speak of powerful physical attraction and human desire, but the poems have also been understood as a way of speaking about the love between God and God’s people.
What is interesting is that when the lovers describe what they love about one another, they use the language of nature, of cultivation, of fertility and of natural beauty. In each other, they discover a green and pleasant land. The woman describes herself as a flower ‘I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys’ (2.1) and her beloved as ‘a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of En-gedi’ (1.14). The beauty of flowers becomes a way of describing and delighting in the beauty of the loved one. Similarly, the vigour and energy of the beloved leads to a comparison with animals: ‘turn my beloved, be like a gazelle or a young stag on the cleft mountains’ (2.17; 8.14). The wonder of being in love is described as a springtime when everything is rich and full of promise:
‘Now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; and the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance’ (2.11-13).
The poems are full of vineyards and gardens, bursting with possibility and full of beauty. Human beings tend them, and so make the land rich and
fruitful – and this is what the lovers envisage for their relationship, a summer of richness and reward. They imagine their love being like sweet tasting fruit, as they reap the bounty of the natural world. The woman is imagined as an enclosed garden, full of fruit trees and wonderful scents ‘henna with nard, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all the trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes’ (4.13-14). So the poems offer up a deep appreciation of nature and its use in human living, as well as a glimpse of Eden where human beings lived with God in perfect harmony. The lovers appreciate the trees, cedar and pine, which have made their house; the man is imagined as a shepherd, tending his flock, at one with the landscape, looking after those in his care.
It is not surprising then, that the poem offers up a larger perspective. Christ, the shepherd of his people, loves us and wants us to enter into an experience of richness, fruitfulness and a life lived in all this abundance. But in understanding the poems in this way, we must not forget the importance of the natural world and how human beings lived with it. The love relationship between God and people depends on a right understanding of cultivation, nurture of plants and animals and a deep, deep appreciation for the richness and beauty of God’s creation. When that happens and it is mirrored in human living, then everything is right with the world.
Anne Richards Mission Theology Adviser, Church of England
www.countyway.org.uk
15
green and pleasant land
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