TPT The Book of Song of Songs E-Book

Brian Simmons

• Herausgeber: BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: The Passionate Life Bible Study Series
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 183

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

The book of Song of Songs is a breathtaking divine allegory of love, rich with symbolic and poetic depths. It unfolds the Shulamite's journey, revealing the path every lover of Jesus takes. This melody of our Savior's love unlocks our hearts, drawing us closer to our Bridegroom-King. This 12-lesson study guide on the book of Song of Songs, designed for both individual and group study, provides a unique and welcoming opportunity to immerse yourself in God's precious Word as expressed in The Passion Translation®. Begin your journey with a thorough introduction that details the authorship of Song of Songs, date of composition, first recipients, setting, purpose, central message, and key themes. The lessons then walk you through every portion from the book and include features such as notable verses, historical and cultural background information, definitions of words and language, cross references to other books of the Bible, and character portraits of figures from the Bible and church history. Enrich your biblical understanding of the book of Song of Songs, experience God's love for you, and share his heart with others.  

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BroadStreet Publishing® Group, LLC

Savage, Minnesota, USA

BroadStreetPublishing.com

TPT: The Book of Song of Songs: 12-Lesson Bible Study Guide

Copyright © 2025 BroadStreet Publishing Group

9781424567669 (softcover)

9781424567676 (e-book)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Passion Translation®. Copyright © 2017, 2018, 2020 by Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible, public domain.

Stock or custom editions of BroadStreet Publishing titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, ministry, fundraising, or sales promotional use. For information, please email [email protected].

General editor: Brian Simmons

Managing editor: William D. Watkins

Writer: Christeena Kale

Design and typesetting | garborgdesign.com

Printed in the United States of America

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Contents

From God’s Heart to Yours

Why I Love the Book of Song of Songs

Lesson 1

The Heart of the King for His Bride

Lesson 2

Let Him

Lesson 3

From Shame to Grace

Lesson 4

Resting in His Shady Grace

Lesson 5

The Invitation

Lesson 6

Lessons from the Night Season

Lesson 7

Fear Overcome

Lesson 8

The Garden Restored

Lesson 9

The Fellowship of His Suffering

Lesson 10

Arising like the Dawn

Lesson 11

The Harvest

Lesson 12

The Fiery Seal of Eternal Love

Endnotes

From God’s Heart to Yours

“God is love,” says the apostle John, and “Everyone who loves is fathered by God and experiences an intimate knowledge of him” (1 John 4:7). The life of a Christ-follower is, at its core, a life of love—God’s love of us, our love of him, and our love of others and ourselves because of God’s love for us.

And this divine love is reliable, trustworthy, unconditional, other-centered, majestic, forgiving, redemptive, patient, kind, and more precious than anything else we can ever receive or give. It characterizes each person of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and so is as limitless as they are. They love one another with this eternal love, and they reach beyond themselves to us, created in their image with this love.

How do we know such incredible truths? Through the primary source of all else we know about the one God—his Word, the Bible. Of course, God reveals who he is through other sources as well, such as the natural world, miracles, our inner life, our relationships (especially with him), those who minister on his behalf, and those who proclaim him to us and others. But the fullest and most comprehensive revelation we have of God and from him is what he has given us in the thirty-nine books of the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) and the twenty-seven books of the Christian Scriptures (the New Testament). Together, these sixty-six books present a compelling and telling portrait of God and his dealings with us.

It is these Scriptures that The Passionate Life Bible Study Series is all about. Through these study guides, we—the editors and writers of this series—seek to provide you with a unique and welcoming opportunity to delve more deeply into God’s precious Word, encountering there his loving heart for you and all the others he loves. God wants you to know him more deeply, to love him more devoutly, and to share his heart with others more frequently and freely. To accomplish this, we have based this study guide series on The Passion Translation of the Bible, which strives to “reintroduce the passion and fire of the Bible to the English reader. It doesn’t merely convey the literal meaning of words. It expresses God’s passion for people and his world by translating the original, life-changing message of God’s Word for modern readers.” It has been created to “kindle in you a burning desire to know the heart of God, while impacting the church for years to come.”1

In each study guide, you will find an introduction to the Bible book it covers. There you will gain information about that Bible book’s authorship, date of composition, first recipients, setting, purpose, central message, and key themes. Each lesson following the introduction will take a portion of that Bible book and walk you through it so you will learn its content better while experiencing and applying God’s heart for your own life and encountering ways you can share his heart with others. Along the way, you will come across a number of features we have created that provide opportunities for more life application and growth in biblical understanding.

  Experience God’s Heart

This feature focuses questions on personal application. It will help you live out God’s Word and to bring the Bible into your world in fresh, exciting, and relevant ways.

  Share God’s Heart

This feature will help you grow in your ability to share with other people what you learn and apply in a given lesson. It provides guidance on using the lesson to grow closer to others and to enrich your fellowship with others. It also points the way to enabling you to better listen to the stories of others so you can bridge the biblical story with their stories.

  The Backstory

This feature provides ancient historical and cultural background that illuminates Bible passages and teachings. It deals with then-pertinent religious groups, communities, leaders, disputes, business trades, travel routes, customs, nations, political factions, ancient measurements and currency…in short, anything historical or cultural that will help you better understand what Scripture says and means.

  Word Wealth

This feature provides definitions for and other illuminating information about key terms, names, and concepts, and how different ancient languages have influenced the biblical text. It also provides insight into the different literary forms in the Bible, such as prophecy, poetry, narrative history, parables, and letters, and how knowing the form of a text can help you better interpret and apply it. Finally, this feature highlights the most significant passages in a Bible book. You may be encouraged to memorize these verses or keep them before you in some way so you can actively hide God’s Word in your heart.

  Digging Deeper

This feature explains the theological significance of a text or the controversial issues that arise and mentions resources you can use to help you arrive at your own conclusions. Another way to dig deeper into the Word is by looking into the life of a biblical character or another person from church history, showing how that man or woman incarnated a biblical truth or passage. For instance, Jonathan Edwards was well known for his missions work among native American Indians and for his intellectual prowess in articulating the Christian faith, Florence Nightingale for the reforms she brought about in healthcare, Irenaeus for his fight against heresy, Billy Graham for his work in evangelism, Moses for the strength God gave him to lead the Hebrews and receive and communicate the law, and Deborah for her work as a judge in Israel. This feature introduces to you figures from the past who model what it looks like to experience God’s heart and share his heart with others.

  The Extra Mile

While The Passion Translation’s notes are extensive, sometimes students of Scripture like to explore more on their own. In this feature, we provide you with opportunities to glean more information from a Bible dictionary, a Bible encyclopedia, a reliable Bible online tool, another ancient text, and the like. Here you will learn how you can go the extra mile on a Bible lesson. And not just in study either. Reflection, prayer, discussion, and applying a passage in new ways provide even more opportunities to go the extra mile. Here you will find questions to answer and applications to make that will require more time and energy from you—if and when you have them to give.

As you can see above, each of these features has a corresponding icon so you can quickly and easily identify them.

You will find other helps and guidance through the lessons of these study guides, including thoughtful questions, application suggestions, and spaces for you to record your own reflections, answers, and action steps. Of course, you can also write in your own journal, notebook, computer document, or other resource, but we have provided you with space for your convenience.

Also, each lesson will direct you toward the introductory material and numerous notes provided in The Passion Translation. There each Bible book contains a number of aids supplied to help you better grasp God’s words and his incredible love, power, knowledge, plans, and so much more. We want you to get the most out of your Bible study, especially using it to draw you closer to the One who loves you most.

Finally, at the end of each lesson you’ll find a section called “Talking It Out.” This contains questions and exercises for application that you can share, answer, and apply with your spouse, a friend, a coworker, a Bible study group, or any other individuals or groups who would like to walk with you through this material. As Christians, we gather together to serve, study, worship, sing, evangelize, and a host of other activities. We grow together, not just on our own. This section will give you ample opportunities to engage others with some of the content of each lesson so you can work it out in community.

We offer all of this to support you in becoming an even more faithful and loving disciple of Jesus Christ. A disciple in the ancient world was a student of her teacher, a follower of his master. Students study, and followers follow. Jesus’ disciples are to sit at his feet and listen and learn and then do what he tells them and shows them to do. We have created The Passionate Life Bible Study Series to help you do what a disciple of Jesus is called to do.

So go.

Read God’s words.

Hear what he has to say in them and through them.

Meditate on them.

Hide them in your heart.

Display their truths in your life.

Share their truths with others.

Let them ignite Jesus’ passion and light in all you say and do.

Use them to help you fulfill what Jesus called his disciples to do: “Now wherever you go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And teach them to faithfully follow all that I have commanded you. And never forget that I am with you every day, even to the completion of this age” (Matthew 28:19–20).

And through all of this, let Jesus’ love nourish your heart and allow that love to overflow into your relationships with others (John 15:9–13). For it was for love that Jesus came, served, died, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. This love he gives us. And this love he wants us to pass along to others.

Why I Love the Books of Song of Songs

Among the vast tapestry of literature, few works can match the ethereal beauty, profound depth, and timeless relevance of the Song of Songs. As a reader who has immersed himself in its verses time and again, I am spellbound by its unique allure. This divine allegory, penned by Solomon, is the sweetest song of the ages, and it has captured my heart.

The Song of Songs unravels the breathtaking journey of the Shulamite, an allegorical figure whose tale transcends mere mortal romance. This narrative speaks to the core of human longing, desire, and ultimate fulfillment. Through the song’s verses, we witness the tender wooing, the passionate pursuit, and the consummation of love—a journey that resonates deeply with every follower of Jesus.

Yet, beyond its surface narrative, the Song of Songs unveils a deeper truth, one that transcends the realms of earthly love. It is a divine parable that mirrors the journey of every yearning follower of Jesus—a path of surrender, intimacy, and transformation. In its verses, we see the echoes of Christ’s relentless pursuit of his beloved, drawing her closer to himself with each tender whisper.

What sets the Song of Songs apart is its unparalleled depiction of love—both human and divine. It is a symphony of passion, desire, and devotion woven into the very fabric of its eight chapters. As the Shulamite declares her love for her beloved, affirmation and encouragement echo through the ages, resonating with the bride of Christ in every generation.

The Song of Songs is not just a literary masterpiece but a divine invitation—a call to the depths of the heart, where Christ yearns to reside. It is a sacred text that doesn’t just touch the soul but also stirs the embers of love and devotion within us. In its verses, we hear the gentle whispers of the Divine Lover, beckoning us to a deeper intimacy and union with himself.

When I contemplate the Song of Songs, I am struck by its universal relevance and profound influence. It is a beacon of hope in a world marred by brokenness and despair—a testament to the power of true love, both earthly and heavenly, to redeem, restore, and renew. In its pages, I find comfort, inspiration, and a glimpse of the divine romance that awaits us all.

I love the Song of Songs because it reveals the boundless love of our Savior—a love that pursues us relentlessly, drawing us ever closer to himself. It is a divine allegory nestled in the heart of our Bible, inviting us to embark on a journey of love and intimacy that transcends time and space. May we heed its call, allowing it to penetrate the depths of our being and transform us into the radiant bride of Christ.

So if you’re seeking a love story like no other, look no further than the Song of Songs. It is a masterpiece of divine romance, waiting to unfold its mysteries and captivate your heart. This beautiful study guide will be a light shining on the pages of the Song of Songs. I know you’re going to love it!

Brian Simmons

LESSON 1

The Heart of the King for His Bride

(1:1)

Most believers have a deep longing to understand the heart of their Savior Jesus. We pour over the Gospels, studying every word carefully to glean a more fully developed picture of the one who gave his life for ours, the one who promises an eternity of abiding together in perfect unity. However, sometimes in our Christian walk, this God-man who is our heavenly Bridegroom can seem distant from our present reality.

If you have ever longed to read the thoughts and feelings of Jesus for his church, for his bride, and for yourself specifically, the Song of Songs will become a healing balm to your soul. It is filled with words of encouragement, words of adoration, and words of transformation coming directly from the heart of a King for his bride. We will see in our study how deeply this book has touched many believers throughout history. It has been termed the “Holy of Holies” of Scripture because reading it can bring you into the very presence of God. And in his glory, you can experience the fullness of his abiding love.

The book of Psalms is full of exhortations regarding the steadfast love of God that will never fail us. The Song of Songs, on the other hand, is the written expression of his steadfast, abiding love for his beloved. In the song, we find a Bridegroom who never stops loving, encouraging, hoping, or believing in his beloved—independent of the season in which she finds herself. The Song of Songs describes every season that we will encounter as Christians and shows us the steadfast love of God pervading every storyline.

Through the ages, the Song of Songs has been subject to many interpretations, with some interpreters seeing it as Hebrew love poetry, others as wisdom literature, and still others as a how-to guide for romance and marriage. Despite the different approaches to this book, Hebrew rabbis and the early Christian church fathers defended the inclusion of this book in their respective canon of holy books because it represents the heart of God for his people.

A Christian today can receive the impartation of this love story of God for his beloved bride through the study of this book. Held within the mysteries of the Song of Songs is the transformation of the desert wilderness to the secret garden that will feed the nations. The story begins with a broken-hearted, sunburned shepherd girl and ends with a passionate, fiery, beloved wife who is taking new territory for their kingdom.

  EXPERIENCE GOD’S HEART

This study is an invitation to delve into the heart of the Bridegroom King, your Savior Jesus Christ, and allow his love to transform your life. We will experience moments in Scripture that will take our breath away as we consider God’s profound love for his people. As we begin this journey, let’s celebrate how God has already shown his heart of love toward us.

Was there a time in your life when you tangibly felt God’s love? Describe what happened in you and through you.

How did this experience change your understanding of God?

How did this experience change your understanding of yourself?

  SHARE GOD’S HEART

As we progress through the song, we will see that sharing what we experience and learn about the love of God is one of the simplest forms of sharing the good news of the gospel. While most of us might balk at preaching a gospel message in a public square, we do not find it difficult to share with a friend or family member a story about a loving God.

With whom do you share stories of God’s steadfast love?

Who in your life needs to experience unconditional love? How can you share a story of your experience of God’s love so it may become healing for them?

What activities in your natural weekly rhythms allow for conversations about God’s goodness with your friends and family?

Authorship

The writer of the Song of Songs introduces the book with this verse: “The most amazing song of all, by King Solomon.” Because of this introduction, the Song of Songs is traditionally considered to have been authored by King Solomon sometime during the middle of the tenth century BC. However, some of the geographic references in the song could allow for a compilation of poetry over centuries.2 For the purposes of this study, we will follow the traditional acceptance of King Solomon as the author.3

Read 1 Kings 3:5–12 and then answer the following questions:

What did God ask of Solomon?

What was Solomon’s reply?

Did God give Solomon his request? If so, why?

Now read 1 Kings 4:29–32 and provide answers to the following questions:

What did these verses reveal to you about the wisdom of Solomon?

How many proverbs did Solomon speak?

How many songs did he write?

Of all of Solomon’s songs and proverbs, what we know as the Song of Songs is titled “The most amazing song of all.” The Song of Songs was considered the most profound writing from the wisest man to walk the earth—until Jesus Christ, that is.

Interpretation Matters

Interpretation involves discovering the true intended meaning of a text, not simply what it says. For example, when Jesus said, “I am the Way, I am the Truth, and I am the Life” (John 14:6), what did he mean by “Way,” by “Truth,” and by “Life”? When we read these words, we tend to interpret them within our twenty-first-century culture and language. To understand what Jesus truly meant, we must look more closely at what those words meant in his context and language. Perhaps his message contained cultural inferences that those present would have understood and we might have missed. This is true for every Scripture passage and is especially important when studying the Song of Songs. We need to observe what the passage says and interpret what it means before we can begin to grasp how to apply it.

Why do you think that the interpretation phase of Bible study matters?

Why is it not enough to simply notice what a passage says?

Why is it important to also know what it means (its interpretation)?

What other Scripture passages can you identify for which the cultural context impacts their meaning?

Historical Interpretations

A tension has existed throughout the ages regarding how to interpret the Song of Songs. It is Hebrew love poetry that is filled with imagery describing the relationship between a king and his bride. Should we take this book literally? Or is it an allegory? Indeed, at various times in Hebraic and Christian history, some have argued for its removal from both the Christian and Hebrew holy books of Scripture. In each case, those prevailed who held the view that this book is an allegory that describes the love of God for his people, and thus the book has remained in the holy books.