or Song of Solomon
雅歌 {ya3-ge1}
Old Testament – Wisdom Books
The name of this Book comes from its very first verse:
Solomon’s Song of Songs.
所羅門的歌，是歌中的雅歌。
This Book is remarkable. It not only has two names, (3 if you count Canticles), but is also highly distinguished in its style, message, and purpose compared to all other Books, so distinguished in fact, that you might wonder why it’s included in the Bible. I mean, there’s not even one mention of God in the entire Book!
When we reach for the Bible, we usually reach for knowledge, sanctification, comfort, worship, and guidance, yet this Book has nothing to teach us, guide us, or comfort us. It’s a collection of poems about infatuation, wedding, and sensuality. Naturally, one might ask “What am I to get out of this Book?” Indeed, Song of Songs is not a theologically driven Book, but its “counterintuitive” inclusion again reflects God’s higher wisdom and profound will, especially over how He envisions a human experience to be.
The Book unsparingly explores the passionate love between man and woman, or the Eros love, without associating it with any shame or inferiority. Its richness and specificity resonate with our own need for Eros love, painting a beautiful and tasteful representation of this important part of the human experience, created and sanctioned by God. It signifies that Eros love is not to be extricated but to be offered as part of the living sacrifice to God, sanctified by God, and used to glorify God.
God has in mind for us a complete and fulfilling set of experiences as human beings. Granted, any of them may be defiled when we subject them to sin, but none of them is vile in nature. Song of Songs is God’s victorious claim on Eros love, an assurance for us to taste its fruit without guilt, and a reminder to honor Him in all our experiences, even this one.