Why is Solomon brought into Jerusalem like this, on that day? It is for his marriage! We know this because he is sitting in this palanquin (ESV: carriage) not with the royal crown on his head, but with the crown that his mother put on his head on his wedding day. We have to think of some kind of wreath. It was customary in Israel that on the day of someone’s marriage, the mother would put a wreath on her son’s head that she had made herself. The Holy Spirit recalls this event and calls the daughters of Zion to reflect back to how happy Solomon was at that time.
We see here that marriage is a wonderful gift from God. It truly represents a reason to celebrate. We also learn from this that it is wrong to claim that someone who is not married is a better Christian than someone who is.
It is good to celebrate on your wedding day—to be glad about your husband or wife whom you have received from the Lord. It is beautiful to be able to start the beginning of a new period in your life with a feast and to thank the Lord for his wonderful gift. At our wedding feast we may never forget that it is first and foremost a feast of thanksgiving dedicated to God. This will therefore determine the character of that feast.
We are not yet finished with what we read in this chapter. It is striking that Solomon remains somewhat at a distance. There is mention of Solomon and the joy on his wedding day. Also notice that this is not about marriages, but about that one wedding day. The youth of the church are reminded of that one time when Solomon married the queen. That was a great celebration. That day should be an example to them. All the other wives that Solomon has should be forgotten because in this regard Solomon is not a good example. In this he does not show the way of Jesus Christ, the King of kings. In this Solomon was not the image of God he should be. The Lord Jesus shows us in Matthew 19 how God does want it to be: as he gave it in paradise. In lifelong love and faithfulness to the one man or woman he has given you. The Lord Jesus is asked the question by the Jews, Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?
(Matthew 19:3). Then the Lord Jesus responds, Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.’ They said to him, Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away? He said to them, Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery
(Matthew 19:4–9).
Returning now to the text itself, it is striking that in the section that deals with Solomon nothing is said about the bride. There is no attention given to her at all. In doing so, the Spirit shows that after this one woman, many more followed. Readers of the book of Song of Songs know this very well. Solomon’s joy about his wife then was good. Yet it does not mean that he remained devoted to this woman with his whole heart. He did not devote himself to her in undivided love but instead he took more than 900 other wives.
These things the daughters of Jerusalem need to know, so as not to dream of courtship and marriage with a man or woman who is handsome, powerful, rich, or famous in the eyes of the world. Our dreams should not be controlled by the external and especially not by movie stars, sports heroes, and other people who are considered important
in the world. We also need to learn to sanctify our feelings in our desires for love and marriage. Then you may see that in a marriage in which Christ and his love are supreme, the wonder of the husband or wife with whom you are married will remain. You can also pray together for this.
11 Go out, O daughters of Zion, and look upon King Solomon, with the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, on the day of the gladness of his heart.