God designed the mysterious beauty of sexual love to seal and renew the covenant of marriage. This message was given on August 2, 2015 at New City Church in Calgary by PAstor

1. Redeemed
Sexuality
image: mafleen
~ Selected Texts from the Song of Solomon~

2. “Have you not read that he who created them
from the beginning made them male and
female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave
his father and his mother and hold fast to his
wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?
What therefore God has joined together, let
not man separate”
~ Jesus of Nazareth in the Gospel of Matthew 19:4-5

3. Did you just say,
“God glorifying sex?”
Isn’t God against sex?

4. We view sex wrongly when we
deify it, demean it, or despise it.

5. The Song of Solomon

6. Redeemed
Sexuality
image: mafleen
~ Selected Texts from the Song of Solomon~

7. We view sex rightly when
we honour sexual love as
an act of covenant renewal.

8. The God-ordained context
for covenantal sexual love
3:6-11
1

9. 6 What is that coming up from the wilder-
Song of Solomon 3:6-11
ness like columns of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,
with all the fragrant powders of a
merchant?

10. 7 Behold it is the litter of Solomon!
Song of Solomon 3:6-11
Around it are sixty mighty men,
some of the mighty men of Israel,
8 all of them wearing swords and
experts in war,
each with his sword at his thigh,
against terror by night.

11. 9 King Solomon made himself a carriage,
Song of Solomon 3:6-11
from the wood of Lebanon.
10 He made its posts of silver,
its back of gold, its seat of purple;
Its interior was inlaid with love by the
daughters of Jerusalem.

12. 11 Go out, O daughters of Zion,
Song of Solomon 3:6-11
and look upon King Solomon,
with the crown with which his mother
crowned him on the day of his
wedding, on the day of the gladness
of his heart.

13. “…the Lord was
witness between you
and the wife of your
youth…she is your
companion and your
wife by covenant.
Did not he make
them one…?
~ Malachi 2:14-15

14. The erotic beauty of
covenantal sexual love
4:1-15
2

16. 1 Behold, you are beautiful, my love,
Song of Solomon 4:1-15
behold, you are beautiful!
Your eyes are doves behind your veil.
Your hair is like a flock of goats
leaping down the slopes of Gilead.

17. 2 Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes
Song of Solomon 4:1-15
that have come up from their washing,
all of which bear twins, and not one of
them has lost its young.

18. 3 Your lips are like a scarlet thread,
Song of Solomon 4:1-15
and your mouth is lovely.
Your cheeks are like halves of a
pomegranate behind your veil.

19. 4 Your neck is like the tower of David,
Song of Solomon 4:1-15
built in rows of stone;
on it hang a thousand shields,
all of them shields of warriors.

20. 5 Your two breasts are like two fawns,
Song of Solomon 4:1-15
twins of a gazelle,
that graze among the lilies.

21. “…rejoice in the wife of
your youth, a lovely deer, a
graceful doe. Let her
breasts fill you at all times
with delight: be intoxicated
always in her love.” ~ King Solomon
in Proverbs 5:19

22. 6 Until the day breathes and
Song of Solomon 4:1-15
the shadows flee,
I will go away to the mountain of myrrh
and to the hill of frankincense.

23. 7 You are altogether beautiful, my love;
there is no flaw in you.
Song of Solomon 4:1-15

24. 8 Come with me from Lebanon, my bride;
come with me from Lebanon.
Depart from the peak of Amana,
from the peak of Senir and Hermon,
from the dens of lions,
from the mountains of leopards.
Song of Solomon 4:1-15

25. 9 You have captivated my heart, my sister,
you have captivated my heart with
one glance of your eyes,
with one jewel of your necklace.
Song of Solomon 4:1-15

26. 10 How beautiful is your love, my sister,
my bride!
How much better is your love than
wine, and the fragrance of your oils
than any spice!
Song of Solomon 4:1-15

27. 11 Your lips drip nectar, my bride;
honey and milk are under your tongue;
the fragrance of your garments is like
the fragrance of Lebanon.
Song of Solomon 4:1-15

28. 12 A garden locked is my sister, my bride;
a spring locked, a fountain sealed.
Song of Solomon 4:1-15

29. 13 Your shoots are an orchard of pome
granates with all choicest fruit,
henna with nard, 14 nard and saffron,
calamus and cinnamon,
with all frankincense, myrrh and aloes,
with all choicest spices —
Song of Solomon 4:1-15
15 a garden fountain, a well of living water,
and flowing streams from Lebanon.

30. The one flesh union of
covenantal sexual love
4:16 - 5:1
3

31. 16 Awake, O north wind,
Song of Solomon 4:16
and come, O south wind!
Blow upon my garden,
let its spices flow.
Let my beloved come to his garden,
and eat its choicest fruits.

32. 1 I came to my garden, my sister, my bride,
Song of Solomon 5:1
I gathered my myrrh with my spice,
I ate my honeycomb with my honey,
I drank my wine with my milk.

33. “I am my beloved’s,
and his desire is for me.”
~ Song of Solomon 7:10

34. The intoxicating blessing
of covenantal sexual love
5:1
4

35. 1 Eat, friends, drink,
Song of Solomon 5:1
and be drunk with love!

36. “Catch the foxes for us,
the little foxes that spoil
the vineyards, for our
vineyards are in blossom.”
~ Song of Solomon 72:15

37. God designed the mysterious
beauty of sexual love
to seal and renew
the covenant of marriage.

38. Praise God for the
designed beauty
of sexual love.

39. “Pleasures are shafts
of glory as it strikes our
sensibility….I have
tried…to make every
pleasure into a channel
of adoration.”
~ CS Lewis
Oxford Professor

40. Frame the gift of sexual love
within the covenant of marriage.

41. “I adjure you, O
daughters of
Jerusalem, that
you not stir up or
awaken love until
it pleases.” ~ Song of Solomon 8:4

42. Realize that sexual love points
beyond itself to a greater union.

43. “‘Therefore a man shall
leave his father and
mother and hold fast to
his wife, and the two shall
become one flesh.’
This mystery is profound,
and I am saying that it
refers to Christ and the
church.”
~ The Apostle Paul in
Ephesians 5:31-32

44. “Sex is for fully committed
relationships because it is
a foretaste of the joy that
comes from being in
complete union with God
through Christ. The most
rapturous love between a
man and a woman on
earth is only a hint of what
that is like.”

45. image credit: mafleen
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mafleen/8472558582/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/
flickr images courtesy of:
image credit: MorrowLess
https://www.flickr.com/photos/morrowless/3003380784/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
other images used for educational purposes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharaoh%27s_daughter_(wife_of_Solomon)
image credit:Varin
https://www.flickr.com/photos/varintsai/5013895763/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
Originally published in the Wittenburg Door, referenced in http://silouanthompson.net/2012/03/song-of-solomon/
Image Credit: Justin Lee. Used by permission from Kevin Schwittai & McKenzie Hahn.