My Thoughts on Song of Solomon

In Song of Solomon chapter 5, the bride loses the groom. He knocks and she doesn't answer in time, so he leaves and she searches for him. In 6:3, she says, "I am my beloved's and he is mine." Only after searching for him does she begin to lose her selfishness. When we first enter into a relationship with God, we often focus on ourselves - what He can do for us, how He makes us feel, and what He shows us each day. This is reflected in 2:16 when the bride puts herself first (My beloved is mine and I am his). God enjoys our love at this stage, but at some point, He calls us to act on this love. If we don't answer that knock, we break relationship with Him and it becomes painfully obvious that we had taken His love and relationship for granted.

So we search for Him. We know exactly where He is, but we must take the initiative to restore the relationship, because we broke His heart. In this process of reconciliation, we begin to learn that it's not entirely about us. We acknowledge that we must give ourselves to Him if we want to continue in the relationship, thus the role reversal in 6:3. When we give ourselves to Him again and again, we come to the realization that it is even less about us than we thought. In fact, it is entirely about Him, and we're just reaping the benefits. This is when we say, as in 7:10, "I am my beloved's and his desire is for me."