His mouth is most sweet and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, oh daughters of Jerusalem.
– Song of Solomon 5:16
What a beautiful picture of God’s design for marriage not just to be about, as we prayed according to in Song of Solomon 4, physical intimacy, but spiritual friendship. This is my beloved whose mouth is most sweet, and this is my friend.
Song of Solomon 5:16 reminds us that marriage is a friendship.
This makes me think about Tim and Kathy Keller’s book, The Meaning of Marriage. It’s such a great book. I would highly recommend it to any married couple, any single. They’ve got a whole chapter on singleness and he talks about how from the very beginning, he wrote this book in many ways for the many singles in the congregation that he was leading before he went to be with the Lord.
I recommend this book all the time, but he has a chapter entitled The Mission of Marriage. He says from the very beginning, “Let’s ask, what is marriage for? What is the purpose of marriage?” Then he says, “The Bible’s answer to this question starts with the principle that marriage is a friendship.” The whole chapter is about friendship in Christ, spiritual friendship. Then he closes with saying, “Marriage is designed to be a relationship with your best friend, where you enjoy friendship with one another. That’s what it’s all about. A love relationship with your best friend.”
I want us to pray for our marriages and others’ marriages. Maybe for future marriages, if the Lord leads you to marriage in terms of friendship and specifically spiritual friendship, not just, “Hey, these people get along pretty well together. Their personality types complement each other.” No, on a deeper level, you just think of all that friendship in Christ involves. Spurring one another toward Jesus, enjoying one another, weeping with one another, caring for one another. All the 59 one-anothers that we see in the Bible, they should play out first and foremost for a husband and a wife in their relationship with each other where they’re doing all those one-anothers for each other.
Song of Solomon 5:16 encourages us to pray for marriages marked by deep spiritual friendship.
Let’s pray for that. God, for those of us who are married, we pray for this in our marriages. For those of us who are not married, we pray this for others’ marriages around us, and for any future marriage you would lead us into, we pray for marriages marked by deep spiritual friendship. God, we pray for marriages where husbands and wives are best friends who delight in each other physically and delight in each other spiritually, relationally, and emotionally. That we love each other, care for each other, bear with each other, encourage each other, pray for each other, all the one-another that we see in your Word. God, we pray for marriages that are marked by that kind of fellowship and friendship.
In you, Jesus, we praise you for how you not only reconcile us to God, but you reconcile us to each other in such a way that we are free and empowered to forgive each other as we’ve been forgiven, to care for each other as we’ve been cared for, to love each other as we have been loved. God, we pray for deep abiding, rewarding friendship in our marriages and in others’ marriages according to your Word in Song of Solomon 5:16. We pray this knowing that you, Lord Jesus, have called us your friends… That we’re your sons, your daughters, we’re citizens of your kingdom and we are friends, friends of God. Oh God, help us to enjoy you in friendship with you. Even the thought, this is amazing.
Oh God, help us to walk with you in friendship with you today in ways that lead us in marriage for those whom that is applicable to deep friendship. Just that leads us to reflect your love and our friendships with others.
Prayer for the Bawaria People
God, we pray that you help us to lead people to friendship with you. Lord, we pray specifically today for the Bawaria people of India… For 129,000 of them, no known followers of Jesus in this Sikh people group.
God, we pray that you would draw them to friendship with you through Jesus. Lord, please send out some of your friends… Some of our brothers and sisters. Use us in any way you want to use us, God. Help us reach the Bawaria people of India… That they might know you and enjoy you as friends of you through faith in Jesus. God, may it be so. We pray all this according to your Word in Song of Solomon 5:16. In the name of Jesus, our friend and Lord and Savior and King we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
