Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners. Turn away your eyes from me, for they overwhelm me!”
NL Daily Devotion for Thursday, August 17, 2023
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
How interesting to describe the bride’s beauty as “terrible as an army with banners.” When I think about it, I have experienced moments of such beauty it has made me tremble. I can’t say I have ever faced down an army, but I imagine it would be terrifying. But I have experienced wild storms, awesome and beautiful and scary, and perhaps this is the kind of intense emotion the writer is talking about when he sees his beloved’s beauty. It’s romantic and moving to imagine finding someone so beautiful in your eyes that it moves you to such a profound emotional response. The writer of Song of Solomon seems to proclaim that God desires this for us, this total overwhelm in our relationships. Of course this kind of intensity isn’t something that you can feel and experience all the time. For humans, these things happen more at the beginning of a relationship, when it is new and we are surprised over and over again by this other person to whom we are so drawn. Eventually, a comfortable familiarity develops, and a deep, ongoing, committed love grows, which can sustain us through even those moments when our partner may drive us a little crazy. Yet even so, we can be surprised all over again and find ourselves in awe when we least expect it.
It is also worth noting that, as Song of Solomon can also be read as an allegory for God’s relationship with us, God will always maintain this level of overwhelm at our beauty, and love us madly no matter how long our relationship continues. Likewise, I am regularly blown away by God’s beauty—something which will always be as “terrible” as the wildest storm.
What experiences have moved me to this intensity of awe?
