Song of Solomon 1:15 “Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves.”

This is one of the pieces I made for my final project in my Song of Solomon class.  The Song of Solomon is an allegory, a symbolic narrative to tell a greater truth, of how the Lord relates to the Church, but also the individual believer.  I’ll share with you some of my thoughts as I meditated on these verses as well:

Song of Solomon 1:15 “Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves.”

            This verse is early in the song.  I would imagine that the Beloved still sees herself in the tension of her confession of verse 5, that she is dark, but lovely to her Lover.  The Lover begins with praising her beauty and emotions and the “budding virtues” even though he knows that her dedication is weak.  Doves are a perfect natural reference to her eyes because their eyes cannot see to the left or the right; they are only fixed on what is before them.  Doves also mate for life, they will not find another mate if tragedy takes their mate from them.  Doves are also a symbol of purity in the Old Testament because of their use as a purifying sacrifice in Leviticus 12.  I think it’s interesting that the Lord prescribes doves as the sacrifice for those who cannot afford to sacrifice a lamb.  Perhaps this is because the Lord wanted to make a way for anyone to be able to worship Him, that anyone can be pleasing to Him, even when their strength (of faith, experience, or even finances) are weak.  Doves are also able to fly which I think even speaks to the same concept presented in 2Corinthians 4:17-18 “ For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” and also 2 Corinthians 5:6-8 “So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” And Hebrews 12:2 “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfected of our faith…” It’s also interesting to note that when Holy Spirit descended on Jesus at His Baptism, He was seen “like a dove”.  (Firstly, I have fun imagining, how much like a dove did He appear like.  Would we recognize Him as something special, or did He take the form of some bizzaro-doveish thing?  It’s fun to think about.) It’s interesting to consider how even as believers, we need Holy Spirit’s help to fix the eyes of our faith on Jesus and as described Philippians 2:13 “for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” The Lord as portrayed as the Lover in Song of Solomon is literally praising her for His work in her. By comparing her eyes to doves, the Lover is describing their natural abilities and dedication, to her internal reality and dedication to Him.