The Lighthearted Calvinist

I am the man who has seen affliction
under the rod of his wrath;
2  he has driven and brought me
into darkness without any light;
3  surely against me he turns his hand
again and again the whole day long.

4  He has made my flesh and my skin waste away;
he has broken my bones;
5  he has besieged and enveloped me
with bitterness and tribulation;
6  he has made me dwell in darkness
like the dead of long ago.

7  He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;
he has made my chains heavy;
8  though I call and cry for help,
he shuts out my prayer;
9  he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones;
he has made my paths crooked.

10  He is a bear lying in wait for me,
a lion in hiding;
11  he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces;
he has made me desolate;
12  he bent his bow and set me
as a target for his arrow.

13  He drove into my kidneys
the arrows of his quiver;
14  I have become the laughingstock of all peoples,
the object of their taunts all day long.
15  He has filled me with bitterness;
he has sated me with wormwood.

16  He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
and made me cower in ashes;
17  my soul is bereft of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness is;
18  so I say, “My endurance has perished;
so has my hope from the LORD.”

19  Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
the wormwood and the gall!
20  My soul continually remembers it
and is bowed down within me.
21  But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:

22  The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
23  they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24  “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”

25  The LORD is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him.
26  It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.
27  It is good for a man that he bear
the yoke in his youth.

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9  Her gates have sunk into the ground;
he has ruined and broken her bars;
her king and princes are among the nations;
the law is no more,
and her prophets find
no vision from the LORD.

10  The elders of the daughter of Zion
sit on the ground in silence;
they have thrown dust on their heads
and put on sackcloth;
the young women of Jerusalem
have bowed their heads to the ground.

11  My eyes are spent with weeping;
my stomach churns;
my bile is poured out to the ground
because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
because infants and babies faint
in the streets of the city.

12  They cry to their mothers,
“Where is bread and wine?”
as they faint like a wounded man
in the streets of the city,
as their life is poured out
on their mothers’ bosom.

13  What can I say for you, to what compare you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you,
O virgin daughter of Zion?
For your ruin is vast as the sea;
who can heal you?

14  Your prophets have seen for you
false and deceptive visions;
they have not exposed your iniquity
to restore your fortunes,
but have seen for you oracles
that are false and misleading.

15  All who pass along the way
clap their hands at you;
they hiss and wag their heads
at the daughter of Jerusalem:
“Is this the city that was called
the perfection of beauty,
the joy of all the earth?”

16  All your enemies
rail against you;
they hiss, they gnash their teeth,
they cry: “We have swallowed her!
Ah, this is the day we longed for;
now we have it; we see it!”

17  The LORD has done what he purposed;
he has carried out his word,
which he commanded long ago;
he has thrown down without pity;
he has made the enemy rejoice over you
and exalted the might of your foes.

18  Their heart cried to the Lord.
O wall of the daughter of Zion,
let tears stream down like a torrent
day and night!
Give yourself no rest,
your eyes no respite!

19  “Arise, cry out in the night,
at the beginning of the night watches!
Pour out your heart like water
before the presence of the Lord!
Lift your hands to him
for the lives of your children,
who faint for hunger
at the head of every street.”

20  Look, O LORD, and see!
With whom have you dealt thus?
Should women eat the fruit of their womb,
the children of their tender care?
Should priest and prophet be killed
in the sanctuary of the Lord?

21  In the dust of the streets
lie the young and the old;
my young women and my young men
have fallen by the sword;
you have killed them in the day of your anger,
slaughtering without pity.

22  You summoned as if to a festival day
my terrors on every side,
and on the day of the anger of the LORD
no one escaped or survived;
those whom I held and raised
my enemy destroyed.

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The Song of Solomon presents a very real challenge to 2 Timothy 3:16-17.  Not only is this little book not only not taught in our churches/classes (it is, after all, about sex, which God created as the means to populate the earth and for husband and wife to glorify God through a special kind of intimacy, becoming one.  In addition, He made it pleasurable for man and woman.  Thus, it can’t be taught, right?(!)) it most certainly does not fall into the list of those passages read to a congregation as the weekly Scripture reading.  Well, here at our little corner of cyberspace, we take 2 Timothy 3:16-17 rather seriously, since as it describes all Scripture as being breathed-out by God, those two verses themselves were also breathed-out by God.

Therefore, our series this week – plus one, since there are eight chapters in our current Bibles (none in the original, of course) – will post one chapter a day, without comment.  This is the word of God just as much as John 3:16 and Ephesians 2:8-9 and it is therefore, good, lovely, true, breathed-out by God and beneficial for the people of God.  Perhaps you’ve never read it and most likely you’ve never heard a sermon or been taught this section of Scripture.  Here it is, without comment, editorializing or verse numbers (thanks to ESVBible.org‘s swell Settings feature, which allows you to read the Bible without chapter heading and verse numbers).

Oh that you were like a brother to me

who nursed at my mother’s breasts!

If I found you outside, I would kiss you,

and none would despise me.

I would lead you and bring you

into the house of my mother—

she who used to teach me.

I would give you spiced wine to drink,

the juice of my pomegranate.

His left hand is under my head,

and his right hand embraces me!

I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

that you not stir up or awaken love

until it pleases.

Who is that coming up from the wilderness,

leaning on her beloved?

Under the apple tree I awakened you.

There your mother was in labor with you;

there she who bore you was in labor.

Set me as a seal upon your heart,

as a seal upon your arm,

for love is strong as death,

jealousy is fierce as the grave.

Its flashes are flashes of fire,

the very flame of the Lord.

Many waters cannot quench love,

neither can floods drown it.

If a man offered for love

all the wealth of his house,

he would be utterly despised.

Others

We have a little sister,

and she has no breasts.

What shall we do for our sister

on the day when she is spoken for?

If she is a wall,

we will build on her a battlement of silver,

but if she is a door,

we will enclose her with boards of cedar.

She

I was a wall,

and my breasts were like towers;

then I was in his eyes

as one who finds peace.

Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;

he let out the vineyard to keepers;

each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.

My vineyard, my very own, is before me;

you, O Solomon, may have the thousand,

and the keepers of the fruit two hundred.

He

O you who dwell in the gardens,

with companions listening for your voice;

let me hear it.

She

Make haste, my beloved,

and be like a gazelle

or a young stag

on the mountains of spices.

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The Song of Solomon presents a very real challenge to 2 Timothy 3:16-17.  Not only is this little book not only not taught in our churches/classes (it is, after all, about sex, which God created as the means to populate the earth and for husband and wife to glorify God through a special kind of intimacy, becoming one.  In addition, He made it pleasurable for man and woman.  Thus, it can’t be taught, right?(!)) it most certainly does not fall into the list of those passages read to a congregation as the weekly Scripture reading.  Well, here at our little corner of cyberspace, we take 2 Timothy 3:16-17 rather seriously, since as it describes all Scripture as being breathed-out by God, those two verses themselves were also breathed-out by God.

Therefore, our series this week – plus one, since there are eight chapters in our current Bibles (none in the original, of course) – will post one chapter a day, without comment.  This is the word of God just as much as John 3:16 and Ephesians 2:8-9 and it is therefore, good, lovely, true, breathed-out by God and beneficial for the people of God.  Perhaps you’ve never read it and most likely you’ve never heard a sermon or been taught this section of Scripture.  Here it is, without comment, editorializing or verse numbers (thanks to ESVBible.org‘s swell Settings feature, which allows you to read the Bible without chapter heading and verse numbers).

How beautiful are your feet in sandals,

O noble daughter!

Your rounded thighs are like jewels,

the work of a master hand.

Your navel is a rounded bowl

that never lacks mixed wine.

Your belly is a heap of wheat,

encircled with lilies.

Your two breasts are like two fawns,

twins of a gazelle.

Your neck is like an ivory tower.

Your eyes are pools in Heshbon,

by the gate of Bath-rabbim.

Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon,

which looks toward Damascus.

Your head crowns you like Carmel,

and your flowing locks are like purple;

a king is held captive in the tresses.

How beautiful and pleasant you are,

O loved one, with all your delights!

Your stature is like a palm tree,

and your breasts are like its clusters.

I say I will climb the palm tree

and lay hold of its fruit.

Oh may your breasts be like clusters of the vine,

and the scent of your breath like apples,

and your mouth like the best wine.

She

It goes down smoothly for my beloved,

gliding over lips and teeth.

I am my beloved’s,

and his desire is for me.

Come, my beloved,

let us go out into the fields

and lodge in the villages;

let us go out early to the vineyards

and see whether the vines have budded,

whether the grape blossoms have opened

and the pomegranates are in bloom.

There I will give you my love.

The mandrakes give forth fragrance,

and beside our doors are all choice fruits,

new as well as old,

which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.

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The Song of Solomon presents a very real challenge to 2 Timothy 3:16-17.  Not only is this little book not only not taught in our churches/classes (it is, after all, about sex, which God created as the means to populate the earth and for husband and wife to glorify God through a special kind of intimacy, becoming one.  In addition, He made it pleasurable for man and woman.  Thus, it can’t be taught, right?(!)) it most certainly does not fall into the list of those passages read to a congregation as the weekly Scripture reading.  Well, here at our little corner of cyberspace, we take 2 Timothy 3:16-17 rather seriously, since as it describes all Scripture as being breathed-out by God, those two verses themselves were also breathed-out by God.

Therefore, our series this week – plus one, since there are eight chapters in our current Bibles (none in the original, of course) – will post one chapter a day, without comment.  This is the word of God just as much as John 3:16 and Ephesians 2:8-9 and it is therefore, good, lovely, true, breathed-out by God and beneficial for the people of God.  Perhaps you’ve never read it and most likely you’ve never heard a sermon or been taught this section of Scripture.  Here it is, without comment, editorializing or verse numbers (thanks to ESVBible.org‘s swell Settings feature, which allows you to read the Bible without chapter heading and verse numbers).

Others

Where has your beloved gone,

O most beautiful among women?

Where has your beloved turned,

that we may seek him with you?

She

My beloved has gone down to his garden

to the beds of spices,

to graze in the gardens

and to gather lilies.

I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine;

he grazes among the lilies.

He

You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love,

lovely as Jerusalem,

awesome as an army with banners.

Turn away your eyes from me,

for they overwhelm me—

Your hair is like a flock of goats

leaping down the slopes of Gilead.

Your teeth are like a flock of ewes

that have come up from the washing;

all of them bear twins;

not one among them has lost its young.

Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate

behind your veil.

There are sixty queens and eightyconcubines,

and virgins without number.

My dove, my perfect one, is the only one,

the only one of her mother,

pure to her who bore her.

The young women saw her and called her blessed;

the queens and concubines also, and they praised her.

“Who is this who looks down like the dawn,

beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun,

awesome as an army with banners?”

She

I went down to the nut orchard

to look at the blossoms of the valley,

to see whether the vines had budded,

whether the pomegranates were in bloom.

Before I was aware, my desire set me

among the chariots of my kinsman, a prince.

Others

Return, return, O Shulammite,

return, return, that we may look upon you.

He

Why should you look upon the Shulammite,

as upon a dance before two armies?

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The Song of Solomon presents a very real challenge to 2 Timothy 3:16-17.  Not only is this little book not only not taught in our churches/classes (it is, after all, about sex, which God created as the means to populate the earth and for husband and wife to glorify God through a special kind of intimacy, becoming one.  In addition, He made it pleasurable for man and woman.  Thus, it can’t be taught, right?(!)) it most certainly does not fall into the list of those passages read to a congregation as the weekly Scripture reading.  Well, here at our little corner of cyberspace, we take 2 Timothy 3:16-17 rather seriously, since as it describes all Scripture as being breathed-out by God, those two verses themselves were also breathed-out by God.

Therefore, our series this week – plus one, since there are eight chapters in our current Bibles (none in the original, of course) – will post one chapter a day, without comment.  This is the word of God just as much as John 3:16 and Ephesians 2:8-9 and it is therefore, good, lovely, true, breathed-out by God and beneficial for the people of God.  Perhaps you’ve never read it and most likely you’ve never heard a sermon or been taught this section of Scripture.  Here it is, without comment, editorializing or verse numbers (thanks to ESVBible.org‘s swell Settings feature, which allows you to read the Bible without chapter heading and verse numbers).

He

I came to my garden, my sister, my bride,

I gathered my myrrh with my spice,

I ate my honeycomb with my honey,

I drank my wine with my milk.

Others

Eat, friends, drink,

and be drunk with love!

She

I slept, but my heart was awake.

A sound! My beloved is knocking.

“Open to me, my sister, my love,

my dove, my perfect one,

for my head is wet with dew,

my locks with the drops of the night.”

I had put off my garment;

how could I put it on?

I had bathed my feet;

how could I soil them?

My beloved put his hand to the latch,

and my heart was thrilled within me.

I arose to open to my beloved,

and my hands dripped with myrrh,

my fingers with liquid myrrh,

on the handles of the bolt.

I opened to my beloved,

but my beloved had turned and gone.

My soul failed me when he spoke.

I sought him, but found him not;

I called him, but he gave no answer.

The watchmen found me

as they went about in the city;

they beat me, they bruised me,

they took away my veil,

those watchmen of the walls.

I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

if you find my beloved,

that you tell him

I am sick with love.

Others

What is your beloved more than another beloved,

O most beautiful among women?

What is your beloved more than another beloved,

that you thus adjure us?

She

My beloved is radiant and ruddy,

distinguished among ten thousand.

His head is the finest gold;

his locks are wavy,

black as a raven.

His eyes are like doves

beside streams of water,

bathed in milk,

sitting beside a full pool.

His cheeks are like beds of spices,

mounds of sweet-smelling herbs.

His lips are lilies,

dripping liquid myrrh.

His arms are rods of gold,

set with jewels.

His body is polished ivory,

bedecked with sapphires.

His legs are alabaster columns,

set on bases of gold.

His appearance is like Lebanon,

choice as the cedars.

His mouth is most sweet,

and he is altogether desirable.

This is my beloved and this is my friend,

O daughters of Jerusalem.

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The Song of Solomon presents a very real challenge to 2 Timothy 3:16-17.  Not only is this little book not only not taught in our churches/classes (it is, after all, about sex, which God created as the means to populate the earth and for husband and wife to glorify God through a special kind of intimacy, becoming one.  In addition, He made it pleasurable for man and woman.  Thus, it can’t be taught, right?(!)) it most certainly does not fall into the list of those passages read to a congregation as the weekly Scripture reading.  Well, here at our little corner of cyberspace, we take 2 Timothy 3:16-17 rather seriously, since as it describes all Scripture as being breathed-out by God, those two verses themselves were also breathed-out by God.

Therefore, our series this week – plus one, since there are eight chapters in our current Bibles (none in the original, of course) – will post one chapter a day, without comment.  This is the word of God just as much as John 3:16 and Ephesians 2:8-9 and it is therefore, good, lovely, true, breathed-out by God and beneficial for the people of God.  Perhaps you’ve never read it and most likely you’ve never heard a sermon or been taught this section of Scripture.  Here it is, without comment, editorializing or verse numbers (thanks to ESVBible.org‘s swell Settings feature, which allows you to read the Bible without chapter heading and verse numbers).

He

Behold, you are beautiful, my love,

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.

Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes

that have come up from the washing,

all of which bear twins,

and not one among them has lost its young.

Your lips are like a scarlet thread,

and your mouth is lovely.

Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate

behind your veil.

Your neck is like the tower of David,

built in rows of stone;

on it hang a thousand shields,

all of them shields of warriors.

Your two breasts are like two fawns,

twins of a gazelle,

that graze among the lilies.

Until the day breathes

and the shadows flee,

I will go away to the mountain of myrrh

and the hill of frankincense.

You are altogether beautiful, my love;

there is no flaw in you.

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.

You have captivated my heart, my sister, my bride;

you have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes,

with one jewel of your necklace.

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!

Your lips drip nectar, my bride;

honey and milk are under your tongue;

the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.

A garden locked is my sister, my bride,

a spring locked, a fountain sealed.

Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates

with all choicest fruits,

henna with nard,

nard and saffron, calamus andcinnamon,

with all trees of frankincense,

myrrh and aloes,

with all choice spices—

a garden fountain, a well of living water,

and flowing streams from Lebanon.

Awake, O north wind,

and come, O south wind!

Blow upon my garden,

let its spices flow.

She

Let my beloved come to his garden,

and eat its choicest fruits.

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The Song of Solomon presents a very real challenge to 2 Timothy 3:16-17.  Not only is this little book not only not taught in our churches/classes (it is, after all, about sex, which God created as the means to populate the earth and for husband and wife to glorify God through a special kind of intimacy, becoming one.  In addition, He made it pleasurable for man and woman.  Thus, it can’t be taught, right?(!)) it most certainly does not fall into the list of those passages read to a congregation as the weekly Scripture reading.  Well, here at our little corner of cyberspace, we take 2 Timothy 3:16-17 rather seriously, since as it describes all Scripture as being breathed-out by God, those two verses themselves were also breathed-out by God.

Therefore, our series this week – plus one, since there are eight chapters in our current Bibles (none in the original, of course) – will post one chapter a day, without comment.  This is the word of God just as much as John 3:16 and Ephesians 2:8-9 and it is therefore, good, lovely, true, breathed-out by God and beneficial for the people of God.  Perhaps you’ve never read it and most likely you’ve never heard a sermon or been taught this section of Scripture.  Here it is, without comment, editorializing or verse numbers (thanks to ESVBible.org‘s swell Settings feature, which allows you to read the Bible without chapter heading and verse numbers).

On my bed by night

I sought him whom my soul loves;

I sought him, but found him not.

I will rise now and go about the city,

in the streets and in the squares;

I will seek him whom my soul loves.

I sought him, but found him not.

The watchmen found me

as they went about in the city.

“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”

Scarcely had I passed them

when I found him whom my soul loves.

I held him, and would not let him go

until I had brought him into my mother’s house,

and into the chamber of her who conceived me.

I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

by the gazelles or the does of the field,

that you not stir up or awaken love

until it pleases.

What is that coming up from the wilderness

like columns of smoke,

perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,

with all the fragrant powders of a merchant?

Behold, it is the litter of Solomon!

Around it are sixty mighty men,

some of the mighty men of Israel,

all of them wearing swords

and expert in war,

each with his sword at his thigh,

against terror by night.

King Solomon made himself a carriage

from the wood of Lebanon.

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.

Go out, O daughters of Zion,

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.

Read Full Post »

The Song of Solomon presents a very real challenge to 2 Timothy 3:16-17.  Not only is this little book not only not taught in our churches/classes (it is, after all, about sex, which God created as the means to populate the earth and for husband and wife to glorify God through a special kind of intimacy, becoming one.  In addition, He made it pleasurable for man and woman.  Thus, it can’t be taught, right?(!)) it most certainly does not fall into the list of those passages read to a congregation as the weekly Scripture reading.  Well, here at our little corner of cyberspace, we take 2 Timothy 3:16-17 rather seriously, since as it describes all Scripture as being breathed-out by God, those two verses themselves were also breathed-out by God.

Therefore, our series this week – plus one, since there are eight chapters in our current Bibles (none in the original, of course) – will post one chapter a day, without comment.  This is the word of God just as much as John 3:16 and Ephesians 2:8-9 and it is therefore, good, lovely, true, breathed-out by God and beneficial for the people of God.  Perhaps you’ve never read it and most likely you’ve never heard a sermon or been taught this section of Scripture.  Here it is, without comment, editorializing or verse numbers (thanks to ESVBible.org‘s swell Settings feature, which allows you to read the Bible without chapter heading and verse numbers).

I am a rose of Sharon,

a lily of the valleys.

He

As a lily among brambles,

so is my love among the young women.

She

As an apple tree among the trees of the forest,

so is my beloved among the young men.

With great delight I sat in his shadow,

and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

He brought me to the banqueting house,

and his banner over me was love.

Sustain me with raisins;

refresh me with apples,

for I am sick with love.

His left hand is under my head,

and his right hand embraces me!

I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

by the gazelles or the does of the field,

that you not stir up or awaken love

until it pleases.

The voice of my beloved!

Behold, he comes,

leaping over the mountains,

bounding over the hills.

My beloved is like a gazelle

or a young stag.

Behold, there he stands

behind our wall,

gazing through the windows,

looking through the lattice.

My beloved speaks and says to me:

“Arise, my love, my beautiful one,

and come away,

for behold, the winter is past;

the rain is over and gone.

The flowers appear on the earth,

the time of singing has come,

and the voice of the turtledove

is heard in our land.

The fig tree ripens its figs,

and the vines are in blossom;

they give forth fragrance.

Arise, my love, my beautiful one,

and come away.

O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,

in the crannies of the cliff,

let me see your face,

let me hear your voice,

for your voice is sweet,

and your face is lovely.

Catch the foxes for us,

the little foxes

that spoil the vineyards,

for our vineyards are in blossom.”

My beloved is mine, and I am his;

he grazes among the lilies.

Until the day breathes

and the shadows flee,

turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle

or a young stag on cleft mountains.

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