Let Him Kiss Me

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1. Observe

   How does the woman describe herself in verses 5-6?

   • Fair-skinned and sheltered
   • Ashamed and unworthy
   • Wealthy and well-adorned
   • Dark but lovely — sunburned because her mother's sons made her keeper of the vineyards, so that she neglected her own vineyard; she addresses the daughters of Jerusalem with both self-consciousness about her appearance and confidence in her beauty, comparing herself to the tents of Kedar and the curtains of Solomon

2. Observe

   To what does the beloved compare his love in verse 9?

   • A dove
   • A steed in Pharaoh's chariots — a startling image of strength, beauty, and royal magnificence that opens his praise of her jeweled cheeks and bejeweled neck, with the promise that "we will make you jeweled ornaments of gold with studs of silver"
   • A lily of the valleys
   • A garden enclosed

3. Interpret

   What is the theological significance of including a love poem like Song of Solomon in the canon of Scripture?

   • It was included accidentally
   • It is purely allegorical and has no literal meaning
   • By canonizing a poem that openly celebrates kisses, fragrance, embodied desire, and mutual delight between a man and a woman, Scripture refuses any spiritualism that denigrates the body; the book affirms that human eros — within its proper covenantal frame — is itself a holy thing, given by the same God who is praised in the Psalms and revealed in the Law; the same canon that contains Leviticus contains this, and the inclusion teaches that embodied love is not a concession but a gift
   • It teaches techniques for marital intimacy

4. Interpret

   What does the woman's posture of speaking first and speaking most freely (v. 2, "let him kiss me") establish about the character of the relationship?

   • That she is dominant and he is passive
   • That she lacks proper restraint
   • That this is a culturally Western book inserted into Scripture
   • That biblical love is essentially mutual and reciprocal — the woman is not a passive object of male pursuit but an initiating, desiring, articulate subject; her voice is the primary voice in the entire book, which corrects any reading of biblical womanhood as silent or merely receptive; the poem presents a relationship in which both partners desire, both pursue, both delight, and both speak, making this a paradigm for the mutuality that healthy covenant love requires

5. Apply

   How can one practice the kind of attentive verbal delight the lovers offer each other (vv. 15-16)?

   • Such expressions are unnecessary
   • By naming, out loud and specifically, what one finds beautiful or admirable in the people one loves — the spouse, the child, the friend — rather than letting appreciation remain unspoken; the lovers in this chapter do not hint or assume but declare ("behold, you are beautiful"); the discipline is to translate inner admiration into spoken word, refusing the cultural habit of silent appreciation that leaves the loved one uncertain of how they are seen
   • By writing it in a journal only
   • By keeping such things private

6. Apply

   What does the woman's confession "I have not kept my own vineyard" (v. 6) suggest about the spiritual discipline of self-care?

   • Self-care is selfish
   • Care for others always comes first
   • The image of neglecting one's own vineyard while keeping others' vineyards names a real spiritual danger — being so occupied with others' demands (whether from family, work, or community) that one fails to tend the inner life, the body, the soul; the discipline is to recognize that one cannot give from a depleted source, and that the keeping of one's own vineyard is not selfishness but stewardship; the woman names her situation without bitterness but also without denial
   • Vineyards are not important

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