The views expressed in this article are of the author only and do not necessarily represent those of the Center for Pastor Theologians.
The Song of Solomon: An Invitation to Intimacy
Douglas Sean O’Donnell
Crossway (2012). 192 pp.
This is a good book, adapted from a sermon series that must have been a real treat.
The first chapter features the same breezy-but-thoughtful style that pervades the whole text. O’Donnell is less thorough in his review of issues than a standard commentary, but still briefly canvases options (authorship, interpretive method, history of interpretation, original setting—“Perhaps . . . written to be sung during the seven-day marriage festival,” p. 16). He explains his approach while engaging scholarship. Among other significant judgments: Solomon is the author, but the story of the text is not about him, and in fact serves as something of a foil to his infamous marital and sexual exploits. It’s possible to link the sexual union of the primary couple to Christ’s love for the church, if one reads Christianly (cf. Eph 5), and O’Donnell is a major proponent of Christ-centered interpretation. But he also explains how Neo-Platonism derailed the church’s ability to interpret Song rightly for over a thousand years. And his commitment to Christ-centered interpretation is not an obstacle to mining for instruction, discipline, and encouragement (see 2 Tim 3:15–17 for both emphases in NT's interpretation of the OT). “Holiness equals happiness” and “purity,”—not forgiveness alone—“equals peace,” we're told. O'Donnell also lays great stress on repeated refrains.
The exposition itself consists of nine chapters that are (on occasion) unapologetically steamy and always insistently digging into the text as well as the contemporary world. But there’s no bed on stage, no clamoring to get the audience/reader's attention. O'Donnell is tasteful but preserves the tastiness of the text. He probably pushes beyond what's comfortable for the boundaries of squeamish and older generations. There is no blushing over Christological connections, no resistance to using “climax” in a tongue-in-cheek way, and no lack of commitment to teaching readers about human sexuality. Although traditional in its approach to ethics and gender roles, O’Donnell would have us conform our sexuality to the text: “When she says, ‘Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth’ (1:2) to start the Song, when she says, ‘Be like a gazelle’ and climb these ‘mountains’ in 21:7, and here [3:1–5] when she gets out of bed to bring him to bed, our application is not, ‘Men, as the leader of the home, you must always make the first move,’” (p. 68).
Of course there is the repetition that one would expect to find in a sermon series, but O’Donnell varies his pitch and keeps things fresh, not least by attending to the vivid imagery of the text and connecting the word to the marriage or singleness or temptations or trials of the twenty-first century reader. There’s no slavish formula here (apart from fulfilling what I call the 2 Tim 3:15–17 mandate).
To give an idea of the variety: One sermon contains a contemporization and slight embellishment of one of the beloved’s poems, a compare/contrast exercise with contemporary approaches to sexuality (Sex and the City and Eat Pray Love don’t fare well next to the Song), and reflections on Christ as a “greater than” object of our desire, the ultimate antidote to our immoral desires, just as sex and marriage are celebrated in the Song are written in part as “an antidote to immoral intimacies.” Another sermon-chapter engages worldview and idolatry with reflections on unity, beauty, and worship. Our culture insists sex is meaningless recreation while “Sex is [simultaneously] an idol and perhaps the most prevalent one today. It has its own house of worship . . . and its own priests and priestesses (porn stars, suggestive pop singers, lingerie models, etc.) and billions of worldwide parishioners who pay money and give homage . . . I have yet to hear a congregant say that Islam or Judaism or Hinduism or atheism has compelled him to do something, but how often I have heard, ‘Love made me do it,’” (p. 81).
O’Donnell is gifted at combing through biblical research and historical and contemporary thought (not just “theology”) and putting it to use thoughtfully but lightly so that the chapters do not become compendiums of research. Throughout the book, scholarship appears more often in endnotes and occasionally in the text itself in order to provide insight. Monographs, commentaries ancient and new, history and biography, and a variety of contemporary sources are mined for illustrations: we find John Piper, Roland Murphy's commentary (among many others), Mark Twain, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and the Real Housewives of New Jersey. Observations are fleshed out (and if you catch that pun, you'll really enjoy O'Donnell's book), literary sensitivity is achieved, and none of the chapters come within a hundred miles of being boring. If only more interpreters took this approach!
The volume is a fantastic resource for its intended audience (preachers and teachers) and useful for devotional purposes for educated laity. It would also function well as a supplemental text in a wisdom literature course. Young pastors, and in truth almost every pastor, can learn much from O'Donnell. He navigates the fine line between personal honesty and pastoral example and the precipice of tackiness with finesse and a gentle sense of humor.
Above all, even if this is not the book's primary purpose, it winds up being an excellent apology for manuscript preaching. He illustrates how one can study deeply without losing sight of application in the life of the believer or the need to point to Jesus and the gospel. And he shows how one can write it all out thoughtfully ahead of time. In my experience there are few such apologies made in the contemporary scene. In fact, attempted apologies usually make the case for the prosecution. But O'Donnell has a rare gift that comes through in the text; you want to sit under his preaching yourself. Perhaps it will give more of us the courage to try our hand at thoughtful, well-researched manuscript preaching that engages our listeners in their world.
Jason Hood (PhD, Highland Theological College and University of Aberdeen) is the pastor of North Shore Fellowship (PCA) in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He has also served as assistant professor of New Testament at Gordon–Conwell Theological Seminary and is the author of Imitating God in Christ: Recapturing a Biblical Pattern (IVP Academic, 2013).
