18th April 2026

18th April 2026


Pray (ACts) 


Read (Song of Solomon 8v5-7) 


Message (Scott Woodburn)


The Shulammite had turned her back on Solomon and his hareem. The daughters of Jerusalem urged her to return but just like Margaret Thatcher, the lady wasn't for turning. It might surprise you then that the Shulammite didn't ride off into the sunset with her beloved never to look back, instead in the final section of the Song, she returned arm in arm with her beloved (8v5).


She had found him under the apple tree at the very place he had been born (8v5b) and now she and the man of her dreams returned to speak wisdom to end the song. The Shulammite was no longer faced with a future in the King's hareem. She had refused his calls and turned away from a life of ease and in the final verses she urged the Shepherd to set her as a seal upon his heart and arm (8v6). What did she mean? Do you remember when you were a child you wrote your name on your belongings? You were declaring to the world and mostly your younger siblings that this item belonged to you. In the same way the Shulammite and the Shepherd were sealed to each other - they belonged to each other.


Solomon could boast of one thousand women but did he know any of them? Did his multitude of women actually belong to him heart and soul? What bound the Shulammite and Shepherd together wasn’t a financial agreement between a King and a young woman from a village. Instead their love was described as strong as death, fierce as the grave and white hot (8v6). If Solomon’s love was transactional and temporary, the love between the Shulammite and the Shepherd was permanent between two people committed to one another and absolutely unchanging. Left to our own devices we cannot defeat death and the grave’s hold on us is so fierce that it beats back everyone except Christ. This was the manner of the couple's love.


Furthermore their white hot love was “the very flame of the Lord.” (8v6b). This is the only reference to the Lord in the Song and it fittingly speaks of Him as a God of white hot love. When lightning strikes it heats the air around it to five times hotter than the sun’s surface and it is this same language which describes the love between the Shulammite and the Shepherd and higher still, the love of God Himself.


Water cannot quench such love, floods cannot sweep it away and it cannot be bought (8v7). This is true love and it is this that the Shulammite has been longing for throughout the Song of Solomon.


Brothers and sisters, our love will never match that of the Lord but nevertheless, we are to love each other passionately, fiercely with commitment and constancy. The hard heartedness must go, the commitment until something better must end and the lukewarm must be swapped for the white hot. Do you remember what Jesus once said? “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13v34-35). May it be so.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC


Q45 Which is the first commandment? The first commandment is, Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
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