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beauty reserved

Song of Songs 6:13-7:9 (JDV)

Song of Songs 6:13 Come back, come back, Shulammite! Come back, come back, that we may look at you! How you gaze at the Shulammite, as you look at the dance of the two camps!
Song of Songs 7:1 How beautiful are your sandaled feet, princess! The curves of your thighs are like jewelry, the handiwork of an expert.
Song of Songs 7:2 Your navel is a rounded bowl; it never lacks mixed wine. Your belly is a mound of wheat surrounded by lilies.
Song of Songs 7:3 Your breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle.
Song of Songs 7:4 Your neck is like a tower of ivory, your eyes like pools in Heshbon by Bath-rabbim’s gate. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon looking toward Damascus.
Song of Songs 7:5 Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel, the hair of your head like purple cloth– a king could be held captive in your tresses.
Song of Songs 7:6 How beautiful you are and how pleasant, my love, with such delights!
Song of Songs 7:7 Your stature is like a palm tree; your breasts are clusters of fruit.
Song of Songs 7:8 I said, “I will climb the palm tree and take hold of its fruit.” May your breasts be like bunches of grapes, and the fragrance of your breath like apricots.
Song of Songs 7:9 Your mouth is like fine wine — flowing smoothly for my love, gliding past my lips and teeth!

beauty reserved

When the all male chorus asks the Shulammite woman to return so that they may look upon her, the prince intervenes. Her beauty is reserved for him. Pornography parades the sacred sexual life and makes a mockery of its intimacy.

LORD, thank you for the intimate life you have provided within the marriage bonds. May we not defile it.