There is a warning in the Song of Solomon: “I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and by the does of the field, do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires” (Songs 2:7).
If we are not careful it is easy to render these words of counsel from the bride as a warning, “be careful!… not too much love now… take it easy before you commit…. romantic desire is a hazardous thing… ‘kiss dating goodbye’” …etc.
And while there is certainly wisdom in not being reckless in romance, that is not here what she is trying to communicate to the daughters of Jerusalem. Such a reading misses entirely what the Bride is saying. It’s good to be wise and careful that’s just not what she’s saying here.
She’s not giving a warning as much as making a promise.
Let us think, what just happened? She and her Beloved spent some delightful time picnicking —he feeding her fruit and she resting in his shade (Songs 2:3). He brings her into the “house of wine” and raises a banner over her of love —proclaiming “This is my beloved one!” (Songs 2:4).
She then, filled with love, being awakened to her identity as the One He Loves, she cries out for more love —to be fed by him on the things that will produce love, the things that will arouse and awaken love: “sustain me with raisins, / refresh me with apples, / for I am sick with love” (Songs 2:5). Note: love makes her long for more love, she wants to grow in the ways of his love.
She finds repose upon him. She lays her head upon his breast, presumably under shadow of that love banner fluttering in the wind, and he holds her, with his left hand under her head and his right hand embracing her.
It is this moment of deep content that leads her to make her statement about not waking-up love. She’s not speaking the adjuration from the consequences of hasty love. She’s not speaking from the ruin of love gone awry but of love going well.
Why then does she call us to wait?
Throughout the Bible God has good things in store for those he loves (Rom. 8:28). And the temptation again and again is to doubt God’s goodness and faithfulness to His promises. Satan says “Did God really say?” (Gen. 3:1) and “If you are the Son of God….” (Matt. 4:6) precisely to militate God’s promises against God’s timing in order to tempt us from a place of bringing doubt about whether God is going to be good to us.
She calls us to wait as someone who is bearing witness to how good God is. The joy of her current circumstances make her proclaim “It’s worth it!” to those on the outside of those experiences, those who may look at her and say “God’s forgotten me, I’ll never have the banner of love raised over my life; I guess I’ll just take things into my own hands…”
She adjures us, moreover, by the “gazelles.” And while much more could be made of this, I want to suggest it gives us a key clue:
Jonathan is the famous gazelle of Israel, as David calls him in the lament of 2 Samuel (cf. v.19). Why does this matter? David (whose name means ‘beloved,’ and puns with the Songs’ frequent use of the word ‘beloved’) is promised kingship very early on in his life And yet, unlike so many other figures to whom God gives promises, David refuses every opportunity to grasp for those promises. He does not kill Saul when he has many chances to do so. He trusts that all his times are in the Father’s hands (cf. Ps. 31:15) and he waits for God to make his messiah, not to seize it.
In the midst of this waiting Jonathan’s faithfulness serves as a living sign of God’s faithfulness. God is good to David in his waiting, and chief among those goodnesses God gives is the friendship with Jonathan. Jonathan’s love for David during this time is more delightful than the love of his wives (2 Sam 1:26) during this season precisely because it declares that God has not lost the plot of David’s storyline.
Jonathan is David’s gazelle who signals God’s goodness amidst David’s waiting.
So also the Bride in Song of Songs overflows with joy at having at last received God’s good gifts and adjures us by the gazelles, by the “Jonathans” as it were, of our days of waiting.
Wait upon the Lord in hope, “for the Lord God is a sun and shield […] and no good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly” (Ps. 84:11).