His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.
The Song of Solomon (also called Song of Songs) is an ancient Hebrew collection of love poems included in the Bible. In this verse, a woman is describing the man she loves to other women she calls "daughters of Jerusalem." She uses extravagant, beautiful language — his words are pure sweetness, his entire person is lovely. Her closing phrase — "this is my lover, this my friend" — holds together two kinds of intimacy that don't always coexist: passionate love and deep friendship. Many readers across history have also interpreted this book as a picture of God's love for his people, or Christ's love for the church.
God, it's hard to believe I'm delighted in and not just tolerated. Teach me to receive that. Let me know you not just as Lord but as the one who calls me friend — and let that change how I come to you today. Amen.
"My lover, my friend." Two words that should naturally go together, and yet so often get treated as competing desires — as if romance burns out friendship over time, or friendship slowly cools passion into something merely comfortable. This woman holds both in the same breath, about the same person. She doesn't choose between them. She doesn't apologize for the fire or domesticate it into something safer. Whether you read this as a love poem, a picture of how God feels about us, or both — there's something worth sitting with here. Real love, the kind that lasts and heals, isn't just one thing. And if this is also a portrait of how God sees you — "altogether lovely," worth every word of extravagant praise — that's almost too much to absorb. You are not just tolerated by God, not a project or an obligation. You are delighted in. That changes the texture of prayer, of sitting in silence, of what it means to belong to someone who calls you both beloved and friend.
The woman describes her beloved as both 'lover' and 'friend' — why do you think both words matter here? What would be lost if she only used one of them?
When you picture your relationship with God, do you tend to relate to him more as a distant authority, a close friend, or something else entirely? Where did that picture come from?
Some people find it strange or uncomfortable that passionate love poetry is in the Bible at all. Why do you think it's there? What might that say about what God thinks of human love and desire?
How does the way you speak about someone — your language, your descriptions — reveal how deeply you actually feel about them?
If you genuinely believed God delights in you and not just forgives you, how might that change the way you live or the way you speak to yourself this week?
Whom having not seen , ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
1 Peter 1:8
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.
Psalms 50:2
Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever.
Psalms 45:2
As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
Song of Solomon 2:3
Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green.
Song of Solomon 1:16
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.
Song of Solomon 1:2
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Philippians 4:8
I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.
Song of Solomon 1:5
"His mouth is full of sweetness; Yes, he is altogether lovely and desirable. This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem."
AMP
His mouth is most sweet, and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.
ESV
'His mouth is [full of] sweetness. And he is wholly desirable. This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.'
NASB
His mouth is sweetness itself; he is altogether lovely. This is my lover, this my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.
NIV
His mouth is most sweet, Yes, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, And this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem!
NKJV
His mouth is sweetness itself; he is desirable in every way. Such, O women of Jerusalem, is my lover, my friend.
NLT
His words are kisses, his kisses words. Everything about him delights me, thrills me through and through! That's my lover, that's my man, dear Jerusalem sisters.
MSG