On the Shushan

The Bride of the Song declares that she is a “lily” (shushan), and her lover agrees (Song of Songs 2:1-2). The word is used eight times in the Song (2:1, 2, 16; 4:5; 5:13; 6:2, 3; 7:2), sometimes for the Bride, sometimes for her lips, sometimes for her breasts. Not surprisingly, gathering from the garden is linked to gathering lilies: The Bride is the pick of the garden.

A form of the same word is used in the titles to several songs: “On the shoshannim” (45:1; 69:1; 80:1). Lexicons suggest that the reference is to a musical instrument that in some way resembles a lily, but the link between the Song and the Psalms is suggestive of thematic connections. Psalm 45 is clearly a Song-like Psalm, an epithalamion, and Psalm 80, with its narrative of a vine and vineyard planted, abandoned, and (in hope) restored also picks up themes from the Song.

Psalm 69 has few verbal, conceptual, or thematic links with teh Song. It is a Psalm of lament, one frequently quoted or alluded to in the Passion narratives of the gospels. Perhaps, though, there is a connection with the Song, since the Psalm describes the passion of the Lover for His beloved and their house, which is Yahweh’s house. Perhaps we should read Psalm 69 as a poem of lovesickness.