Bible Flowers: Lily of the Valleys
Bible Flowers: Lily of the Valleys.
“Spring flowers are unfolding in the fields. The season of glad songs has come, the cooing of the turtledoves is heard in the land. The fig tree is forming its first figs, and the blossoming vines give out their fragrance. Come then, my beloved, my lovely one, come away with me.” (Song of Songs 2:12-13).
Every flower and blossom mentioned in Scripture has a story to tell. Bible flowers are planted in a context, and could be anything from an object lesson or sermon illustration, to a metaphor or a symbol, or perhaps simply a prime example of some of God’s creative genius. No matter what, when we study the flowers of the Bible, we will undoubtedly come to understand the Scriptures that much better,, whether we’re referring to the Henna blooms (Song of Songs 1:14) or the almond tree blossoms (Numbers 17:8); the Rose of Sharon (Song of Songs 2:1) or the hyssop flowers ( ); the Lily of the Valley (Song of Songs 2:1) or the Pomegranate blooms (Ex 28:33); the Crocus Saffron (Is. 35:1-2) or the myriads of wildflowers (Matt. 6:28-29); the Myrtle blooms or Willow blossoms (Ps. 137:1-2).
Is it true that everything physical points to something spiritual? That creation inevitably guides us back to the Creator? That physical realities in nature reflect spiritual realities in supernature? That God’s handiwork leads us to the Handiworker?
Beauty and Fragrance. Flowers are prime examples of how something that appeals to our physical senses can refer us to our spiritual senses. Let’s consider two wondrous qualities of flowers that help us praise the Maker at a deeper level: Beauty and Fragrance. Is there any doubt that only a beautiful God could have created the beauty we discover in flowers? Or that the sweet-smelling aroma of flowers serve to deepen our understanding of the Christian’s role in the world as the aroma of Christ? Because flowers lead the way in appealing to our natural senses, they are able to help us mere mortals to sense God in the full meaning of the term.
Senses and Symbols. Scripture loves to use our physical senses as symbols because if there’s one thing about us we can truly understand, it’s our senses. We may not truly understand our thoughts and actions, but we can understand our tangible senses. So the Bible uses our senses as reference points for how we can experience God more deeply. Our senses represent ways of participating in the Faith, of growing and knowing. Scripture encourages believers to use our senses both literally and spiritually in experiencing God. We can, with God’s help, sense God figuratively, using our physical senses as ideas that trigger a deeper understanding of the Faith.
A Word About the Song of Songs in the Hebrew Bible: “For all the world is not as worthy as the day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel, for all the Writings are holy, but the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies.” (Rabbi Akiva, the ‘Chief of the Sages,’ 50-135 AD).
The Song of Songs, often called the Song of Solomon ever since it was written around 960 BC. The title of this love poem means that this is the best song of all the songs, the most important song, and that this one song surpasses all others. There is debate as to whether Solomon literally wrote this extended love poem, or it was composed for Solomon, or written in honor of Solomon. Because this biblical poem has been understood in many ways down through the centuries, perhaps we can discuss it in the classic Jewish way of, on the one hand this, and on the other hand that…
Literally. On the one hand, the Song of Songs has been accepted simply as a superb piece of poetic literature in honor of romantic love between the lover and his beloved. It has become more popular now to claim that we shouldn’t read too much into it, that it is no more than an extended erotic conversation between two lovers. The intimacy between them is spelled out in graphic detail and the language is the most sensuous and explicit in all of Scripture. The faithful love between the two is a beautiful thing to behold as they celebrate the divinely created union between a woman and a man, a union that is enjoyed physically, emotionally, whole-heartedly, just as God intended.
Symbolically. On the other hand, limiting this classic piece of Scripture to a love poem flies in the face of how it has been historically understood by Jews and Christians alike. Jewish scholars and readers have always understood this book to be an exquisite picture of how God loves His people, Israel. Picking up on this, the early church leaders embraced the Song of Songs as a glorious allegory of the love Christ has for His bride the Church, as well as the love He has for each individual soul. If we followed the tributary of human love back to its source, we find the mysterious river of divine love. The pure intimacy between man and woman is the closest picture we get on earth to grasp the union that God wants with each of us and His body of believers. The human intimacy of Song of Songs is intended to help us understand and develop a profound spiritual intimacy with the Lord. The Song of Songs has been used throughout the history of faith to enable believers to contemplate the mystical union between God and His people, between Christ and His followers, both collectively and individually. In this surprising biblical poem, love is in the air, on every page, in every word. Eugene Peterson encourages the believer to read the Song of Songs devotionally, and he observed that this poem is a “prism in which all the love of God in all the world, and all the responses of those who love and whom God loves, gathers and then separates into individual colors.”
(The bride to the groom): “I am a lily of the valleys.” (The groom to the bride): “As a lily among the thorns, so is my love among the young women.” (Song of Songs 2:1-2).
The Lily. The Hebrew word for lily is “shushan,” and it meant either a lily or any of the lily-like wildflowers of that place and time such as the daffodil or the hyacinth. The lily wildflower was renowned for its beautiful bright whiteness and its graceful bell-shaped petals Even ancient historians like Pliny recorded that lilies were the whitest of all the flowers and had the most sweet-smelling fragrance. So besides becoming a symbol of purity, innocence, and the beauty of God’s creation, lilies symbolized fertility and fruitfulness, since one lily root could produce as many as fifty lily bulbs. Lilies were considered both noble and humble, since they were the tallest of flowers but their thin stalks couldn’t bear the weight of the flowers, causing their heads to hang low, so to speak. Because lilies were held in such high esteem by the Israelites, the likeness of the lily was engraved on all the pillars in Solomon’s Temple (1 Kings 7:19, 22). This Biblical lily in Israel evolved into what we now call the “Easter Lily,” since it bought new life and flourished early every spring.
The Lord promises… “I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily; he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon…” (Hosea 15:4-5).
Lily of the Valleys. The lily wildflower was able to grow abundantly in difficult places such as the valleys at the foot of mountain. So the bride may very well have been modestly revealing to her beloved that she is merely a humble wildflower, a common flower that is not cultivated and therefore generally overlooked. That is why there are some Bible versions that translate her words as, “I am merely a valley-lily,” a common wildflower in a humble setting, and not exalted like a mountaintop blossom. So in this passage we find a modest country girl who reveals her humble self to a handsome king, an unworthy valley-lily humbling herself to royalty.
A Lily Among Thorns. But the lovesick king does not let his beloved look at herself that way for long. He immediately exalts in her beauty and loveliness even in the midst of difficulty. He exclaims that even if she is surrounded by the thorns of rejection in the low places, even as she is surrounded by so many other wildflowers that are also uncultivated, he only has eyes for her. His ardent desire is for her above all others. Her beauty has captured him, even if she feels she is overlooked in the company of other young women.
Types. There have been many songs written about Jesus being the Lily of the Valley, and certainly Christ’s beautiful character, spiritual fruitfulness, and fragrance of holiness can make this analogy. This incredible gospel song brings this idea to a crescendo:
Lily In The Valley (feat. Christian Walker) | The Choir Room (Official Live Music Video)
Or here’s the country gospel classic sung by Johnny Cash:
Others say, since the original passage in the Song of Songs has a woman claiming to be the lily of the valley, that this is a picture of the Church, the Bride of Christ, victorious, humble and surrounded by difficulty while remaining beautiful and fragrant with the aroma of Christ. But perhaps we should consider that the lily of the valley is also a poignant picture of Mary. The early church leaders closely associated Mary with this passage as both the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valleys. Her loveliness of character, her purity and innocence, and her humility speak for themselves here. The art world has also associated Mary with lilies as we commonly see the angel Gabriel handing a bouquet of white lilies to Mary. Of course, how could any woman ever be as fruitful as Mary, with the fruit of her womb being the very Son of God. The tradition of Mary being like a lily also might stem from ancient mythology, in which the lily was strongly associated with motherhood, the lily being sprung from the milk of Hera, the Queen of Heaven.
Passion. It’s no wonder that lilies were mentioned in the Song of Songs eight different times, including the bride’s passionate words of love in 6:2-3: “My beloved has gone down to his garden of delights, to his beds of spices, to feed in the gardens and to browse among the lilies. I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine; he caresses the sweet-smelling lilies.”