The soul ( nephesh ) is the seat of desire in Scripture. Souls hunger for food, thirst for water, yearn for God like a panting deer in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
And, souls long for other souls. “He whom my soul loves” is the Bride’s epithet for her Lover (1:7; 3:1-4). In the longing of her soul, she seeks the Lover’s paths and resting places; in the desperation of her soul, she searches the streets and endures beatings to find him, to be joined to him.
Love is a longing of the soul. It is not merely a bodily urge. Marital love is not merely a practice necessity – filling the need to have a liturgical partner, or a helper for work in the garden, or for having and raising children. Those are all dimensions of marriage, and very important ones. But the Song depicts love as love of soul, and shows that the purpose of marriage is to create a one-flesh, and one-soul relationship between man and a woman, to figure the love of Christ for His church. Love commingles souls, to fill lovers with common desires and directions and longings and hopes.
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