Song of Songs Advent Devotion for Couples – Advent 3 Thursday

Jesus told a parable once about a man who had come into the wedding banquet but didn’t have the proper wedding clothes on (Matthew 22:1–14). He didn’t think he needed them and either never put them on or took them off. The bride in Song of Songs ch. 5 fears the exact same thing has happened to her and is afraid her Groom will not take her back.

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 5:2-8

Nightmare: Searching

Wife: I slept, but my heart was awake. A sound! My beloved is knocking.

Husband: “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.”

Wife: 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.

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Discussion

Knocking: In her sleep, she hears her Bridegroom’s knock. Luke 12:36-37: “Be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.” The Bride seems to fear not living up to this command, and this scene plays out like a nightmare.

Does the thought of the Last Day ever frighten you? Why do you need not fear? Luke 21:28: “Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Watchmen: Earlier in the Song, the watchmen had been helpful to the Bride in pointing the way to her Groom, as pastors point the people of God to their Savior. In her nightmare, it seems, she worries that she will be unworthy to find her husband. Those who should bring her to him, who should protect her, have rejected her. She is spurned from the city, rather than being protected in its walls.

And then she calls upon the “daughters of Jerusalem” to tell her beloved that she is “sick with love.” She desperately needs his rescue and comfort.

Is love something we earn or define according to our own will and whim? Where does true love come from? (cf. 1 John 4:9, 10.) How can you emulate this kind of love in your relationship with your spouse?

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.

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