June 27 ▪ Day 178

Scripture Readings

Psalms 55:22
Song of Solomon 1–2
Revelation 15–16
Proverbs 28

Verse Focus (Psalms 55:22)

Cast your cares on the LORD
      and he will sustain you;
he will never let
      the righteous be shaken.

Meditation

Our verse focus today is both a wonderful invitation and promise. Psalms 55:22 says, “Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.” The ESV says, “Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.”
There is a lot of comfort in this verse.

Sometimes, under the weight of too much worry, we’ll try to ignore the worry, or ignore the responsibilities that cause us this concern. We might try to pass the concern on to another person — and that sometimes works. Or we’ll just hang on to the care — after all, the worry over a loved one isn’t something we want to dismiss — but then we may get so weighed down we’re no good to anyone, much less the person we are so concerned about.

When we can cast our burdens, our cares, and our worries on to God, we know that He is able to handle them. God will carry whatever is troubling us. Not only is He able to carry these concerns, but He can actually change circumstances so that our burdens are removed. So giving it to God is the best solution for our concerns.

And what about that promise? He will never let the righteous be shaken. He will not permit the righteous to be moved. He gives us the strength. He handles the circumstances. He works all things out to the good for those that love Him. Hallelujah!

Father God, thank you that we can always bring our cares to you. You control the future. You are able to change circumstances and situations. You can bring things to pass or prevent them from happening. You can give us the strength and the peace to face our responsibilities. You can transform us so that we are not paralyzed with fear. Whatever the worry, whatever the concern, whatever the burden we’re carrying — you will help us. Thank you that we can rely on you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Today we begin reading the Song of Songs. This book of love poetry is also known as the Song of Solomon, Canticles, or as Canticle of Canticles. Chapter 1, verse 1 says, “The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s.” Because of this title, the book is traditionally attributed to Solomon. However, whether this means that Solomon wrote this poetry, or that this poetry is about Solomon is a matter of debate. Certain linguistic features lead scholars to believe that it was written sometime after the end of the Babylonian exile (538 BC), instead of in about 940 BC. Many scholars see the book as an anthology of love songs that Solomon wrote and that someone else put together; others believe that the book is just one song with a number of different scenes, including the courtship, the wedding procession, and the marriage bed.

Most Bible translations will give speaker identifications to the verses. The characters in the song(s) are the bride and the groom as well as friends of the couple — sometimes identified as “Others” or as the “Daughters of Jerusalem.” These speaker identifications are not part of the canonical text of the Song of Songs; however, such interpretive gloss marks are part of an early Christian scribal practice. Speaker identifications can be found in some of the Septuagint manuscripts from before 500 AD. Even though it is a long-standing tradition to have speaker indications, not all translations agree. If you look at different versions of the Bible, you will see that sometimes a verse that is attributed to the groom in one version will be attributed to the bride in another.

The Song of Songs is an unusual addition to the Bible because it does not speak of God or the Law, nor does it focus on wisdom. It is, to all intents and purposes, love poetry celebrating marriage and the sexual intimacy of the couple. The human body is praised using imagery from the natural world. The use of such metaphors emphasizes that our physical bodies and the marriage bed are part of God’s creation — the creation that He declared was “very good” in Genesis 1:31. Thus the song affirms the goodness of human sexuality as well as the sacredness of the marriage union.

Because this poetry is deemed erotic, Jewish men were not allowed to read this book until they were 30 years old (according to the early Church fathers Origen and Jerome). However, even though the surface meaning of the poetry refers to marital love, there have long been allegorical and even mystical interpretations of this book. I have no idea what the Kabbalah says about this text, but there are two main allegorical interpretations. The first, coming from Judaism and the covenant tradition, sees this as a love song between the LORD and his people. The woman is seen as the ideal Israel. In Christian traditions, the Song of Songs is seen as portraying the union between Christ and the Church. Some theologians have also seen this as also describing the union between Christ and the individual soul.

Chapter 1 begins with the woman expressing her desire for her lover. She describes herself as “dark (v. 5),” but the man praises her beauty — indeed, they find each other physically very attractive. Their bed is “green” or “verdant” (fruitful!), and their house is constructed of fragrant wood.

Chapter 2 begins with a conversation between the lovers. The woman says that she is a lily; the man replies that she is a lily, but all other women are like brambles. The woman praises the man, and declares that she is “sick with love (v. 5).” In verse 7, she warns the Daughters of Jerusalem not to stir up love before time. The plea not to awaken love before the appropriate time occurs three more times in the book of Song of Solomon; many interpreters see it as an important comment on chastity.

The rest of the chapter 2 recalls a prior meeting, perhaps a scene from the couple’s courtship. It is springtime, and there is a sense of new beginnings. Twice the man invites the woman to come with him. She declares that they belong together.

In chapter 1, verse 5, the woman declares, “Dark am I, yet lovely, daughters of Jerusalem, dark like the tents of Kedar, like the tent curtains of Solomon.” She says in the next verse that she is sun-darkened because of working in the fields. In traditional Christian allegory, this is a reminder that we — individual believers and the Church — are stained by sin and do not possess the purity that one would expect of the king’s bride. However, when I was in college, I came up with my own possible allegorical interpretation of Song of Songs — and I will share it with you for what it’s worth. I was thinking about Solomon’s famed relationship with the Queen of Sheba. Although the part about working in the fields doesn’t fit, being dark or black-skinned does fit. And so I have thought of the Song of Songs as an allegory of the union between Jews (Solomon) and Gentiles (the Queen of Sheba).

In chapter 2, I have always particularly loved the KJV poetry in verses 11 and 12 as it describes winter’s end:

¹¹For, lo, the winter is past,
      The rain is over and gone;
¹²The flowers appear on the earth;
      The time of the singing of birds is come,
      And the voice of the turtle
      Is heard in our land.

Revelation 15 begins with “another sign in heaven … seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished (v. 1).” Those who were victorious against the beast, its image, and the number of its name are now in heaven — they sing “the song of Moses… and the song of the Lamb (v. 3).” The sanctuary opens and the seven angels with the seven plagues come out. One of the living creatures gives them each a golden bowl filled with God’s wrath. The temple fills with smoke, and the Scripture tells us in verse 8, “no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.”

Revelation 16 records the plagues delivered by the seven angels. The plagues are reminiscent of the plagues in Exodus. The first angel pours his bowl on the earth, and those who had taken the beast’s mark or who had worshiped its image are afflicted by extremely painful sores. The second angel pours his bowl out on the seas — the water turns to blood, and every living thing in the seas dies. The third angel’s bowl is poured out on the rivers and springs. Again, the water turns to blood. The angel who has charge over the earth’s waters declares that God’s judgments are completely just — they are also a fitting match for the crime of spilling the blood of the saints.

The fourth angel pours his bowl on the sun, and now the people of earth are scorched. The people curse God’s name but refuse to repent. The fifth angel’s bowl is poured upon the beast’s throne and its kingdom is thrown into darkness. Again, the people curse but refuse to repent.

The sixth angel pours his bowl on the Euphrates River. It dries up to become a highway for the kings of the east. Three demonic frogs come out of the dragon (Satan), the beast (or Antichrist), and the false prophet (also known as the second beast). They go to assemble the kings of the world at Armageddon for the great day of battle to come.

The seventh angel pours his bowl into the atmosphere. There is lightning, thunder, and a huge earthquake. The “great city” is split into three different sections, and the cities of the nations fall (v. 19). Just like what happens in Revelation 6:14, every island flees away and there are no more mountains to be found. One-hundred pound hailstones fall on the people and they curse God.

The fact that the islands are removed and the mountains are leveled as a result of the seventh bowl of God’s wrath is, to me, one of the indicators that this set of judgments is a repeat of what John saw previously. Revelation 16 does not describe a third series of judgments; rather, we are learning about one final series of judgments through different symbols. Like Joseph told Pharaoh in Genesis 41:32, Pharaoh’s dream of fat cows and his second dream of skinny cows were speaking of one event — but the doubling of the dream indicated that God had firmly decided upon the matter and it would happen soon.

I don’t know what it means that John’s vision is tripled and not just doubled — that God is firmly decided upon it, that it will happen soon, and what? That believers need to be ready? That the outcome is a foregone conclusion? Or is it simply told three times to show harmony with the Trinity? Although seven is usually the number of completeness, sometimes the number three also symbolizes completeness.

Just as we saw in earlier chapters, these plagues do not cause people to repent. Indeed, they become even more hardened in their hearts.

Proverbs 28 contains many proverbs about the difference between the wicked and the righteous. Today my eye was caught be two similar proverbs — verse 12 and verse 28. Verse 12 says, in the CSB, “When the righteous triumph, there is great rejoicing, but when the wicked come to power, people hide.” Verse 28 says, “When the wicked come to power, people hide, but when they are destroyed, the righteous flourish.”

It was the common phrase between these two proverbs that caught my attention. “When the wicked come to power, people hide.” The NIV translates that phrase as, “When the wicked rise to power, people go into hiding.” The ESV says, “When the wicked rise, people hide themselves.”

Obviously, we’ve seen this demonstrated in history such as when Jews went into hiding during World War II. But I was thinking about what happens today. In today’s society, believers may not literally go hide. But metaphorically we do. As Christians today we often hide in our workplaces. We don’t stand out; we don’t voice our beliefs. Obviously, it’s a complex situation and there are many reasons for how we act at work. But I think hiding is part of what’s going on. Our culture celebrates things that we don’t believe should be celebrated. But to object is to be misunderstood and labeled as a hatemonger. So instead, we hide. Hmmmm. Something to think about….

Father God, you call us to be light and grace. If we are hiding when we shouldn’t be, please help us to change that. Let us speak the truth — but with gentleness and respect. We pray for your mercy on those who have not come to acknowledge you as Lord and Savior. Do not let their hearts become hardened; may they not turn into the people who would rather curse you and die rather than repent. Help us to be ready for Christ’s return. We pray in his name, Amen.