Song of Solomon 7:1-9
1 How beautiful are your feet in sandals, O noble daughter! Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of a master hand. 2 Your navel is a rounded bowl that never lacks mixed wine. Your belly is a heap of wheat, encircled with lilies. 3 Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle. 4 Your neck is like an ivory tower. Your eyes are pools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-rabbim. Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon, which looks toward Damascus. 5 Your head crowns you like Carmel, and your flowing locks are like purple; a king is held captive in the tresses. 6 How beautiful and pleasant you are, O loved one, with all your delights! 7 Your stature is like a palm tree, and your breasts are like its clusters. 8 I say I will climb the palm tree and lay hold of its fruit. Oh may your breasts be like clusters of the vine, and the scent of your breath like apples, 9 and your mouth like the best wine. It goes down smoothly for my beloved, gliding over lips and teeth.
This is a very intimate and sexual passage. Solomon praises his bride for her pubic area ("a heap of wheat encircled with lilies" - verse 2), for her breasts which are like fruit on a tree that he wants to climb and take hold of (verses 7-8), and for her mouth which is "like the best wine" (verse 9).
There is no shame of sexual attraction here. But it is not an illicit relationship, but rather a marriage relationship that provides the proper context for these sexual feelings.
Lord, thank You for the beauty of sex and desire.
1 How beautiful are your feet in sandals, O noble daughter! Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of a master hand. 2 Your navel is a rounded bowl that never lacks mixed wine. Your belly is a heap of wheat, encircled with lilies. 3 Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle. 4 Your neck is like an ivory tower. Your eyes are pools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-rabbim. Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon, which looks toward Damascus. 5 Your head crowns you like Carmel, and your flowing locks are like purple; a king is held captive in the tresses. 6 How beautiful and pleasant you are, O loved one, with all your delights! 7 Your stature is like a palm tree, and your breasts are like its clusters. 8 I say I will climb the palm tree and lay hold of its fruit. Oh may your breasts be like clusters of the vine, and the scent of your breath like apples, 9 and your mouth like the best wine. It goes down smoothly for my beloved, gliding over lips and teeth.
This is a very intimate and sexual passage. Solomon praises his bride for her pubic area ("a heap of wheat encircled with lilies" - verse 2), for her breasts which are like fruit on a tree that he wants to climb and take hold of (verses 7-8), and for her mouth which is "like the best wine" (verse 9).
There is no shame of sexual attraction here. But it is not an illicit relationship, but rather a marriage relationship that provides the proper context for these sexual feelings.
Lord, thank You for the beauty of sex and desire.