Meditations on Song of Songs, i.1

Let him…

If we believe that God is sovereign, if we believe he is good, if we believe he is wise, then we can trust in the language he employs. Therefore, God is male, though gender is not a part of God, at least in the limited sense we consider it. God is not a man, he has no maleness about him except as he represents the fullness of all things. Yet we, in our humility, must respect the words that God himself applies to himself, knowing that the language he uses is for us, a gift to us. Since we struggle to see through our sin-dimmed eyes, he made himself clear. So God is HE, HIM, HIS, though he is not a man.

Though he is not a man, yet he shows himself to us through the eyes of gender, that we by knowing him may understand ourselves. Some may filter him back to himself through ourselves, at least, our 21st century self, the self that sees this masculinity of God as his cultural captivity, as if we alone among all the long centuries of man are free enough to determine another time’s bondage. No, in this we reveal a double fault, error and pride. For his masculinity shaped and transcended culture, interposing into cultures that had strong feminine gods, no impossibility then. Let us instead have God choose his words, and form ourselves around them.

No, women, that God is masculine exalts the male no higher than the great gift he received when he was formed, that he should be created in the image of God. This gift he shares with the female, his equal, giving her all the dignity she should have, all the dignity she will ever need claim. For the Apostle said that in Christ, these ancient partners are one and the same, for through him they must all come.

So why, we ask, should God unveil himself to our eyes as masculine? I am tempted to say, with Job, that we should cover our mouths, being unworthy, but it is a gracious God we serve, whose light may be followed wherever it leads. The questions we ask are often anticipated, in the manner of the Apostle, and so God knew that this inquiring age would search his Word to see what made it HIS not HERs.

We inquire, for God can bear the asking, fearing not nor trembling at us. Though come with patience, care, and, like the child, a pleasing openness. O Lord, whose wisdom chose the words we use, why do you represent yourself to us as a man?

Christ, he says, the one who came, his love a pattern to all the church. Let him…

kiss me kisses of his mouth—

If ever man claimed this divine masculinity in the abusing of his own strength, here an irony awaits. For we, the church, both men and women, are kissed by him whom our soul loves! This rude and broken world may dirty these words, and we who share its influence (and at least those living in my captive American culture are guilty) may be ashamed to hear of love so boldly stated. We shudder (at least the men do, though women may feel an improper thrill) for we have made of sex a constant companion, in our thoughts, our words, our entertainments. To expand on this great debasing is not the scope of my intentions, so I will let it pass. But doesn’t it make you mourn that you cannot join with God in his own Word? O for the purity of an undefiled mind!

No, speak with me to your heart until these words are clean, for Christ will kiss his bride with all the tender kisses of his loving heart, and we the beloved must know how to cry out for it! For as God is not man, so these kisses are not that shadow we see in our own pattern. No, what is this stated desire, what does the bride seek, for we are his people and those who cannot speak with me kiss me with the kisses of your mouth know not the pathways of his love. Speak the words in their true meaning, not a secret Gnostic meaning, but that which they were written for!

Desire, now, with a pure desire, that which the heart enjoins.