During the fall of 2008, Pastor Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill Church in Seattle did a 10 week sermon series of the Song of Solomon entitled The Peasant Princess. This series is available online here and I highly recommend listening to the series. I have watched all 10 parts and found that it was so refreshingly honest and while openly communicating about sex, Mark Driscoll also firmly adheard to biblical standards in establishing a firm stance on maintaining that sex is a gift from God that is meant to be celebrated freely within marriage.
The series moves through the book looking at the couple’s engagement, wedding, early married days, later married days and even an experience of sexual sin. I appreciated that it was so practical. Mark and his wife took time at the end of each sermon to answer questions that had been sent in from the congregation, and really he just gave so much great information on how to love our spouse better.
I loved that he took the time in Part 5 to exhort us to move out of selfishness within our marriages. It was a heavy message, but one that I found really encouraging actually. I am not afraid to look at my soul and ask God what work He still wants to do there. I have seen amazing benefits from doing so, and so if I hear a sermon that challenges my behavior and attitude, I often take time to look and see how I can apply it. This part looks at Chapter 5 when the beloved sexually refuses an encounter with her lover. The following part looks at how they reconcile.
Part 7 was also very good and talked about how wives need to be “visually generous” towards their husbands. I think it tended a bit towards a stereotype of men being a certain way, but the stereotype exists for a reason; that it probably does fit for most men, at least in our culture. Whether by chemistry or social influence, if your husband is visual, being visually generous is important. I hadn’t realized that this part of the Song is a description of her dancing a striptease for him. I thought that was a fun fact. 🙂
I also liked his description of how to get your husband to take you on vacation. Rather than complaining “You never take me anywhere. When are you going to take me on vacation. Nag nag nag….” the Shulamite woman says “Hey honey, we’ve been working hard and need sometime away. It’s spring time so it might be getting warm enough for us to make love outside….” So much more effective. 😀
Overall I found this series to be excellent and appreciated that finally the church is giving good sex information. There is so much awful teaching out there and I have felt in the last few years that the tide is turning in the church and people are finally seeing the importance of communicating about godly sexuality.
Christian Nymphos 