Exalting Jesus in Song of Songs

Christ-Centered Exposition

by Daniel L. Akin

Exalting Jesus in Song of Songs is one volume in Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series. This series affirms that the Bible is a Christ-centered book, containing a unified story of redemptive history of which Jesus is the hero. It’s presented as sermons, divided into chapters that conclude with a “Reflect & Discuss” section, making this series ideal for small group study, personal devotion, and even sermon preparation. It’s not academic but rather presents an
easy-reading, practical and friendly commentary. The series is projected to be 48 volumes.

Genres: Christianity, Christian, Theology, Nonfiction, Reference

205 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 13, 2015

Reviews

[DT · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book hardly qualifies as a commentary. Most of it consists of quotes from other sources, random anecdotes and some pretty offensive, reductionist views of gender that have absolutely nothing to do with the biblical text.

There is very little exposition of scripture and a whole lot of marriage advice. There were several times where it was hard to follow where Akin’s comments were coming from in relation to the text. For example, in the chapters on Song of Songs 2:15, Akin says women are like cats and men are like dogs, meaning that women are demanding and high maintenance while men are stupid and playful (page 71). He later says men and women never say what they mean and provides “translations” of common phrases. Apparently when a woman says “Do what you want,” she means “you’ll pay for this later” (page 80). How does this connect back to the Scripture? No idea. On page 147, he tells wives to stay physically fit and wear their hair and makeup in a way that appeals to their husbands, but doesn’t suggest that men should look good for their wives. It’s the typical view of men as sex-hungry pigs and women as the providers of satisfaction.

I am a complementarian and I found this highly offensive. It honestly worries me that this man is allowed to counsel married couples when he clearly has a low view of women and the Bible. He has reduced one of the greatest love songs of all time to be about how men are from Mars and women are from Venus. There are several pages full of questions for husbands and wives to ask each other. I thought this was a Bible commentary, not a book on marriage advice. What’s more, this advice is nothing unique or particularly insightful. Dr Phil would probably tell you the same (he actually quotes Dr Phil on page 145 on the importance of sex in a relationship).

I know these commentaries are supposed to be more application based, but at the very least you should start by talking about what the text and the symbols in it mean rather than interjecting your own opinion every step of the way. There is also little mention of Christ and the gospel, which is kind of the point of the series and my biggest beef with this book. The best gospel connection is made on page 191—the very last page of commentary before the works cited—where the waiting for sex in marriage is compared to our eschatological hope.

The book gets slightly better from chapter 5 (of Song of Songs, not this book) onwards, but it wasn’t worth having to read through all the shallow chapters that preceded these.

I have read other commentaries in this series and enjoyed them, so it’s Akin’s approach that is problematic. I will probably never read one of his books ever again.

[Neil Kruger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful commentary on the Song of Songs. The book's application is focused on strengthening marriages and pursuing sexual purity for the married or unmarried alike. Several insights challenged me to be a better husband. The book also contains some helpful sections on how the text ultimately points to Christ, the perfect shepherd-king.

I would recommend this to anyone looking at making more of their devotional time, by using this as an aid to help come to a better understanding of the text of scripture. At the same it serves as a volume to aid in marriage counselling and strengthening, where the applications are directly rooted in the text of scripture.

[Becca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was… disappointing. I have really benefitted from others in this series but this was by far my least favorite. It felt more like a poorly written marriage book based on Song of Songs than a commentary, and some of it was kind of offensive—I think some of Dr. Akin’s examples or anecdotes are meant to be funny, but they felt out of place in a biblical commentary meant to exalt Jesus. Not all of it was bad; the parts that were actually commentary on the text as it connects to the rest of Scripture were good. I appreciated the parallels between Songs and Revelation especially. I just think as a whole this could have been so much better.

[Nathaniel Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a great commentary, particularly as an entry point into this ancient love poetry. Dr. Akin does a great job of highlighting contexts of the passages and then making good biblical applications to marriages, all with both serious exhortations and whimsical humor. The only reason I would not give it 5 stars is there were times the commentary would jump right off into marital counsel and wisdom that aren’t clearly exposited from the passage at hand. There is a sense in which this is a much better book on godly, gospel-centered marriage than it is a straight forward commentary. I appreciate also how he ties the whispers of Jesus exaltation together. So while it might not always be the best exposition, I would have no problem recommending this commentary to others. It, much like the Song itself, has me wanting more.

[Tyler Hurst · Rating 3 out of 5]

Same as my view of Ryken's Song of Songs book, Akin does a good job of making sense of Song of Songs on the basis of the standard view, however, I think the standard literal view is flawed. I like Klink/Van Pelt's reading called the Shepherd reading. It makes much more sense of the text as a whole in my opinion. I will say that Akin, seeking to be practical, makes up for some shortcomings with helpful marriage advice that makes up a sizable percentage of each chapter.

[Aaron Bolin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adds a lot of depth to the Song of Songs. However, also adds a lot of extraneous stuff with little relevance.