Sermon notes on Song of Solomon

Well, I figured after four posts of theorizing on how to preach on the Song of Solomon (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4), I should bite the bullet and actually do it. So, here in pdf format are my sermon notes from Sunday evening’s sermon. I don’t usually write out my sermons in full – usually working off a one page outline – but as I was planning to post them here I thought it might be helpful to attempt this.

In the notes, you’ll notice that I follow a four-step process under each point:

• Message of the Song
• Message for Marriage
• Message for Israel
• Message for New Testament church/believer

Here’s how I followed that pattern with the first point, and if you want to take it further you can read the rest of the sermon here.

1. Love wins by returning to its roots (v. 5)

Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I awakened you under the apple tree. There your mother brought you forth; there she who bore you brought you forth (v. 5)

a. Message of the Song
The woman of the Song (let’s just call her the bride although she has been long married), is “coming up from the wilderness” leaning on her beloved (let’s call him the bridegroom). They’ve been in the wilderness, but they are coming out of the wilderness. Their relationship has gone through some dry and unfruitful days, but they are gradually putting these days behind them.

As she leans on him, we can hear him whispering in her ear: “I awakened you under the apple tree.”

“Under the apple tree.” There’s no particular significance to this tree apart from it being the location where he first began to woo and win her. He could have equally said “On that hill” or “in that house.” We can simply say that it’s the location where he initiated the relationship. “There’s where I stirred up and started your love.”

He continues to take her on a tour of old spots, old haunts; he approaches her parent’s house and says: “There your mother brought you forth.” He took her to the place of her second birth and now takes her back to the place of her first birth.

b. Message for Marriage: Love wins by regularly returning to its roots.
Sometimes love has to be taken back to its roots, to retrace it’s earliest steps, its beginnings. It helps to remember these happy and exciting days when love began to be wooed and won. Every husband and wife should do this from time to time, and not just on anniversaries. Go back to where you first met; go back to your first dinner, your first date, and your first kiss. Even go back to where you were born, your childhood before you met, and consider how the Lord was working even then to prepare you for each other.

c. Message for Israel
Through the historical books, the psalms, and the prophets, God frequently encouraged Israel to come out of the wilderness by going back to its roots, retracing God’s steps in the nation’s birth and beginnings.

d. Message for the New Testament church/believer
And, of course, this is something that the New Testament believer should also do. Maybe your relationship with the Lord is going through wilderness days. Perhaps it’s characterized by dry, dusty, unfruitfulness. Here’s how to come out of the wilderness. Return to your roots. Retrace the steps of God’s dealings with you before you were a believer, but especially when you started believing, when God awakened you “under the apple tree” (i.e. in that church, under that sermon, through that book or providence). He woke you, wooed, you and won you. Remember it, reflect on it, and come out of the wilderness.

Read the rest here.