Song of Songs Advent Devotion for Couples – Advent 3 Saturday

A glimmer of Easter just a few days before Christmas. The victory of Easter, of course, is not possible without Christ’s birth of the Virgin Mary, who in Song of Songs 6:1-10 represents the Church having victory over death and the devil.

Opening Prayer

The third Advent candle (rose/pink) along with two violet candles are lit.

The husband may say, or the couple may say together:

In the name of the Father and of † the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Heavenly Father, who has created man and woman and provided them with the estate of marriage, provide us in our relationship the kind of love that reflects your love for us. For you gave your Son to purchase us by his blood, and you will send him again to bring us to the heavenly wedding feast on the Last Day. Strengthen us by your Word as we expect his Advent.  In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Together you may confess the Apostles’ Creed and pray the Lord’s Prayer.

Song of Songs 6:1-10

Garden Conversation

Both: Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women? Where has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you?

Wife: 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.

Husband: 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 eighty concubines, 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?”

It buy levitra where stops the growth of the cGMP specific phosphodiesterase type 5, a long winded name for one of the enzymes that regulates penile blood flow. Shipping to the European countries is free and for the rest of the world, there will be a viagra sample low fixed price for shipping the item. Regular intake of this herbal supplement improves your endurance and ensures everlasting strength browse this viagra from canada just like in your youth. What is Tadalista? Tadalista is the generic medicine manufactured by buy sildenafil viagra the Ajanta Pharmaceuticals.

Discussion

Beds of Spices: The Shulammite answers the daughters of Jerusalem who ask her where her beloved gone, that he 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.”

When Christ died, He was laid in a tomb. On Sunday morning the women would come and try to anoint his body with spices for burial, but he was not there. He had risen! Fields of lilies are used throughout the Song of Songs as a picture of heaven and the resurrection. We also happen to use them at Easter as a picture of the same.

Army: The Bride is depicted as a powerful military force – if not victorious in battle already, at the very least certainly guaranteed victory. Romans 13:12-14: “The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”

What guarantees the victory to the Bride?

Light: The Bride is depicted with the glorious light that only God possesses (Psalm 19:1). This shows that she, the Church, has been given the glory of God as he walks with her and cares for her.

The woman who has the light of the sun, moon, and stars is pictured in Revelation 12:1: a woman who gives birth to a child, who is hunted by the Dragon, Satan. That woman represents the whole Old Testament Church, ultimately funneled into Mary, from whom the Christ-child was born (Romans 9:5). Mary is also the first of the New Testament Church, praising God for the delivering of the Messiah after she has received him by faith: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant” (Luke 1:46-48).

How has Christ been delivered to you? How have you received him? What glory does this mean you now possess?

Hymn

Hymn verses this week: “The Bridegroom Soon Will Call Us,” v. 4

(Listen to the melody here)

4. Our Father, rich in blessing,
Will give us crowns of gold
And, to His bosom pressing,
Impart a bliss untold,
Will welcome with embraces
Of never-ending love,
And deck us with His graces
In blissful realms above.

Author: Johann Walter; Translator: Matthias Loy

Benediction

The almighty and most merciful Lord, the Father, the † Son, and the Holy Spirit bless and preserve us. Amen.

---

Devotions by Rev. Michael Lilienthal and Rev. Jeff Hendrix.