Journey Through the Song launches a 10–12 week teaching series through the Song of Solomon—the Bible’s most beautiful and often overlooked love song. In this introductory episode, Sam and Debbie Wood invite couples into a rich exploration of God’s design for love, romance, and intimacy. You’ll discover why this book sits at the heart of Scripture, how it reflects both the joy and tension of real relationships, and why biblical romance is far deeper than sentiment or technique. This series is honest, hope-filled, and rooted in the gospel—offering a vision of love that is joyful, resilient, and anchored in God’s redeeming love.

Checkout these other Family Fortress Ministries Podcasts:

TIME FOR THREE daily couples devotional: https://time-for-three.captivate.fm/listen

RELATIONSHIP REALITIES: https://relationship-realities.captivate.fm/listen

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Welcome to the Fortifying youg Family podcast.

It can be daunting to navigate through an anti marriage and family culture.

Our teacher will expound biblical principles to help fortify our families and keep these sacred institutions strong.

And now, here's this week's teaching from Sam Wood.

All right, we're Sam and Debbie with Family Fortress Ministries, and we're about to embark on an exciting journey through the Song of Songs.

And this is one of my favorite little books in the Bible.

Isn't it one of yours, Deb?

I always love studying this and I've always loved sharing it with other people because there's so much in the Song of Songs that they're not expecting.

Yeah, it's so rich.

And it's a book that's not taught on or preached on much.

So it's.

It really is a journey.

And we're.

We're excited just to share with you in the upcoming weeks this journey through the Song of Solomon.

You know, as we get started, I just want to ask you as a couple, if you're sitting there as a couple, what is your love song?

You know, most couples have a love song, you know, when they.

When they get married, there's some song that they love and dance to together, and it's their.

Like their love song.

You know, when I think of a more modern song, which I'm not into as much, but I think of songs like, I think John Legend, all of he's all of Me by John Legend.

And then Bruno Mars has a song Just the Way youy Are.

But when I think of love songs, maybe you got others.

There's I will always love you.

I'll always love you.

You know, and if you go way back Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers.

I. I just called to say I love you by Stevie Wonder and can't help but falling in love.

I mean, there's all kind of songs, you know.

What is.

What's the love song that you have in your marriage?

Well, I asked that because Debbie and I, before we got started tonight, we were talking about what is our love song.

And there's so many different songs.

We, we love to sing and I love to sing to Debbie, which aren't always the best sounding, but we.

We have a lot to me, we have fun and.

But I said, you know, I think your love song is this song, the song of songs.

And I really think maybe after we finish going through all this, this may be come your love song.

It is a beautiful song.

And the reason it's the most beautiful Love Song is because it's about the most beautiful story that's ever been told.

And that's why God declares in verse one of the Song of Songs that it is the Song of Songs.

Solomon wrote about a thousand songs, and God said, this is the most beautiful love song of all the songs that ever been written.

God declares it the most beautiful love song.

And I think you'll see why as we go through it and we see so much packed in it.

That's.

That's so exciting to see.

But it's about the greatest love story.

And when I say that, I think about the Bible, because the Bible people don't often think of it this way, Deb, but the Bible is a book about marriage.

You know, it starts with a marriage and it finishes with a marriage.

I like what Philip Rykin says.

I'm just going to read it because I don't think I can say it quite the way he says it.

He says, we were made to be married to the son of God, the fair prince who is waiting for us at the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Think of it this way.

The Bible begins with a blind date.

I like that.

Where God presents Adam, Eve to Adam.

It begins with a blind date and ends with a wedding reception where we all get to dance with Jesus, you know, and I think that's pretty neat way to think about it.

And, you know, as he was saying, it begins with a blind date.

If you think back, you think back to the first recorded words by man in the Bible in Genesis chapter two was when God presented Eve to Adam.

And Adam said, this is at last.

Oh, wow, at last.

Bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

You shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.

And really, in Hebrew, that is a song.

So the first recorded words in the Bible were a song that Adam sang when he saw Eve.

When God presented Eve to him to become his wife.

I love song.

How beautiful.

How beautiful is that?

When we think about that.

And, you know, a lot of times when you think about romance, you think about love.

You.

And I've had people come up and say, you know, is God a romantic God?

You know, And I think, yes, part of the character of God is romance.

He's wooing us to himself.

All through the Old Testament, he's wooing his people to himself.

God is a faithful God.

He's a God with a steadfast love, and he is wooing his people to love him.

And he pictures this relationship with marriage in the New Testament as we go.

The New Testament we see marriage is a picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ and his church.

So God is wooing us to himself in romantic love.

I believe as we think about it, it is part of the character of God.

So is this thing a romance?

Is it important in marriage?

You know, James Altheas, Dr. James Altheus said, without the emotional connection we call romance, a marriage lacks the zest and excite excitement that leads to satisfaction.

Most couples, if all is well, experience this connection in a host of unsung and uneventful ways, as well as moments of intense passion, ways of tenderness and candles and soft music.

Certainly that's the way we think about it.

But then he ends with this very profound statement.

He says, a marriage without such a connection as a divorce that's waiting to happen.

And see, that's one of the reasons I like the Song of Solomon so much, because it uncovers this aspect of who God is.

It uncovers that he is romantic at heart and that he wants that for us.

It also uncovers this emotional closeness that is so a part of the person of God and he wants it for.

For us.

So I love that about the song, that it magnifies these aspects of who he is and not just that.

Also there's this fun part of him.

The Song of Solomon shows how much pleasure and joy and just fun he wants a couple to have that's part of who he is.

And it gives us a real permission to liberty to experience that ourselves.

And, you know, that's so important to God that he puts it right in the middle of Scripture.

Right in the middle of the Bible is the Song of Songs.

So this is important to God.

You know, Dr. James Dobson did a survey even several years ago, and he asked over 10,000American wives to list their top sources of depression.

And in the top four answers given was the absence of romance.

That is, most wives are saying, my husband's not so romantic.

He could work on that a little bit.

But, you know, we're looking at the most romantic book that is a song that's ever been written.

In fact, the Song of Solomon.

In the Song of Solomon, romantic love is mentioned directly about 26 times.

And it's only mentioned two times in the Pentateuch, five times in historical books, six times in the Prophets, but 26 times the song of Songs.

So if you want to look at romantic love and what God has to say about romantic love, you have to really look to the Song of Solomon, the Song of Songs.

And so we want to kind of, as introduction this week, talk about this a little bit, but give you an overview of how it's put together, because a lot of people really don't understand how this book is put together.

And so we have the writer and this is up for debate.

Right?

I mean, you can read a lot of different commentaries and believe me, we have read a lot of different commentaries on this little book.

And there's debate over who wrote it, whether Solomon really wrote it or not.

I really believe that he did.

I'm not going to go into that as much this week as probably will mention it in the next time that we have a live session, but I believe Solomon is the one who wrote the book.

This song of Songs, the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's, it says in verse one.

But the structure of the Song of Solomon is what.

What do they call it?

A lyric idol?

I'm not sure if you pronounce it that way or not, but it's a collection, basically.

It's a collection about 15 scenes or short love songs that are made up within this song.

And the thing about them is they're not in chronological order.

It's kind of like a movie with flashbacks where you're in this scene and then all of a sudden you're pulled over into this scene.

Then you're in this scene.

So it makes it kind of hard to understand if you are not familiar with that and don't really study it, because you can be one scene, all of a sudden you're jumping to a total different scene.

So you might say, well, who are the characters in this song?

Well, you have Solomon.

He is Israel's king.

He's very wealthy.

He's very wise.

The wisest man the Bible said, who ever lived.

Who are the other characters?

Dan, his bride or his bride to be.

And his bride.

Later in the song, we choose to call her Shulamite, because that is the feminine version of the name Solomon.

It's like calling her Mrs. Solomon.

Yeah.

In some places Solomon refers to or compares her, we'll see later, to one of the most beautiful cities that's ever been built, Tirzah.

And so some people refer to her as Tirzah because of that.

Tierza, because of that.

So whatever you might want to say, we refer to as the bride or we refer to her as Shulemite.

Then you also have the chorus in the song.

Tell us a little about the chorus.

The chorus is called the Daughters of Jerusalem in the song, and they're an imaginary chorus.

And when I say that they're not actually present in some of These very intimate scenes, they're a literary device, but they give bits of information, bits of advice, and sometimes it's just a transition from one scene to the next scene.

So we have Solomon the shulamite, and then we have the chorus and Daughters of Jerusalem.

The daughters of Jerusalem.

The imaginary chorus.

And the imaginary chorus speaks into the song sometimes, or shulemite or might be speaking to the chorus.

So we.

We see interplay there with the chorus and the characters in the song.

It's really beautiful.

Now, Solomon always calls her or the shulamite, my love.

Okay, guys, look at your wife right now and say, my love.

Okay, get used to this.

This is what it's.

You're going to see this many times through the Song of Solomon, he refers to her as my love.

And then she refers to him as my beloved.

So we have my love and my beloved.

Beloved.

So y' all need to practice that this week.

Call each other my love, my beloved.

You could do that, and you'll have fun with that.

But that's what they call each other in this song.

And this is the most romantic couple that you could ever read about, hear about, or think about in a song.

We see right here that God gives us in this little song called the Song of Songs.

But what I like about this too, in the Song of Songs, it doesn't just present them as the perfect couple, as the perfect specimen of romance, because all through the book, it shows their insecurities and how they deal with it, how they help each other in their own private struggles.

It also shows conflict.

It shows how there's things sometimes they just don't see eye to eye, but yet how they deal with it God's way.

So.

So it's real.

It's not just a fairy tale.

It's real.

So it's very practical.

It really applies to where we are living in our own marriage, relationships and things that we face every day, how we relate to each other every day, how we deal with conflict, intimacy, all these different things.

And it's a rich, rich little book.

Now, before I close this introduction tonight, let me just say I really believe if you were to say what is the.

Or ask what is the key verse in the song?

I believe you'd have to go to chapter eight.

I love chapter eight.

And we got a long ways to go before we get there.

But I'm going to make.

Go ahead and mention this verse because I really believe if you say this, what is the theme or what is the key verse of the song?

You would find it in Chapter eight.

And it goes like this in verse six.

Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm.

This is a Shulamite talking to Solomon.

And then she says, for love is strong as death, jealousy is cruel as a grave.

The coals, there are coals of fire with hath a most vehement flame.

Well, that word vehement flame means the fire flame of Jehovah.

And this pictures really, as the curtains are about to close on the song at the end of it, it pictures the relationship, the passionate relationship, love relationship that Solomon and his bride Yeshua might have.

And it's all rooted.

The reason they can love each other this way, the reason they can forgive each other, the reason they can be passionate with each other the way they are is because their love is rooted in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

And so this is, to me, the theme verse in the Song of Songs.

Hey, there's a lot to explore in the weeks to come, and we're going to try to do this somewhat weekly.

And I hope you'll catch us on Facebook Live and you'll catch us on YouTube as we continue the teaching through and discussion.

We're going to discuss this and teach through the Song of Songs and you're going to have a lot of fun joining us with it next week.

We're going to talk about the first couple verses.

Verse two goes like this.

Kiss me with the kisses of your mouth for your love is better than than wine.

It's a lot to unpack right there, you know, and it's just so, so beautiful.

Maybe this week, as a couple, y' all could read over the next two or three verses, think about them, those verses, maybe talk about what you think they might mean.

And then I want to give you another little assignment this week, and that is, what does romance mean to you as a husband?

And what does romance mean to you as a wife?

Because men and women think about romance pretty differently, don't you think, babe?

Definitely.

To women, I think romance is more of a mystery.

It is, yes.

It's candlelights.

It's intrigue.

It is.

There's a lot of intrigue in it.

But a man is more logical and he kind of thinks of putting romance into a formula, like A plus B equals a romantic relationship.

You know, some men, I think other.

Men are very romantic.

Some men are very romantic.

Some maybe not so much.

But it's a good assignment.

I think, this week, separately, take time.

Guys, write down what you think romance looks like.

And ladies, write down what you think romance looks like, and then read each other's answers and talk about a little bit with each other this week.

That's your assignment until we meet next time.

And I think you have a lot of fun doing that.

Well, we're so excited to be with you and be able to go through this study with you, and I hope you'll join us.

You can join us on YouTube, and if you haven't subscribed to our YouTube channel at Family Fortress Ministries, you can go there and subscribe to it.

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