A Song for the Presentation of the Newborn King

After pondering the Gospel story of Mary and Joseph presenting the Infant Jesus in the Temple, I opened The Song of Songs to the passage at verses 3:6-11 and as I read it a scene unfolded in my imagination. This very familiar passage of The Song suddenly took on a whole new meaning. I had previously understood the line “What is this coming up from the desert?” as a reference to Jesus entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday but this time I saw the infant Jesus entering the Temple in the arms of Mary and Joseph.

Will you journey back in time with me to the Temple and imagine that we are witnesses to the Presentation of Jesus? As we watch, we hear an angel of the Lord singing the narration of this event to our hearts in the words of The Song of Songs.

“What is this coming up from the desert
like a column of smoke,
breathing of myrrh and frankincense
and every perfume the merchant knows?
See, it is the litter of Solomon.”

Mary and Joseph climb the steps of the Temple tenderly yet firmly holding the baby Jesus in their arms. Here is a royal procession yet we do not recognize the King of Kings, the Son of God, because His royalty and divinity are hidden within flesh and blood as in a “column of smoke”. Our eyes cannot see His glory but our spiritual senses are awakened and stirred by the subtle scent of myrrh and frankincense that lingers in His wake. Even as an infant, the scent of the Bridegroom is unmistakable. See, how the arms of Mary and Joseph have become “the litter” that carries the true King Solomon, the King of Peace, (for the name Solomon means “peace”), up from the desert of our fallen world and into the House of God?

“Around it are sixty champions,
the flower of the warriors of Israel:
all of them skilled swordsmen,
veterans of battle.
Each man has his sword at his side,
against alarms by night.”

This tiny Babe is the Flower of Israel, the Rose that has blossomed from the stump of Jesse, and He comes surrounded by a legion of angels, “sixty champions” and “skilled swordsmen”.
His Father has commanded the “flower of the warriors of Israel” to stand guard around His Precious Son and defend Him in His helplessness and vulnerability from the “alarms by night”, the assaults of the prince of darkness.
Can you see in your mind’s eye, Mary, Joseph, and our newborn Bridegroom climbing the steps of the Temple surrounded by an army of angels with flaming swords of Almighty God’s righteousness and power at their sides?

“King Solomon
has made himself a throne
of wood from Lebanon.
The posts he has made of silver.
the canopy of gold,
the seat of purple;
the back is inlaid with ebony.”

He, our Lord and our God, has “made himself a throne”. He, the Creator, made the throne of Mary’s body for Himself. Her womb was His royal throne and today her arms that present Him to Simeon are the throne He sits upon. He has adorned His Immaculate Mother with silver, gold, cloths of royal purple and precious stones of ebony. Does not the King of Kings deserve such a fine throne? How right it is that He “made himself a throne” for there is none besides Him who could make a throne befitting the King and Creator of the Universe.

“Daughters of Zion,
come and see
King Solomon,
wearing the diadem with which his mother crowned him
on his wedding day,
on the day of his heart’s joy.”

The royal procession enters the Temple and now He is recognized as the King He is. Simeon and Anna accept the long-awaited invitation to “come and see King Solomon”. The diadem He wears is not the crown they expected their Messiah to come wearing and yet what a stunningly beautiful crown it is! For “the diadem with which his mother crowned him on his wedding day” is the crown of Sacred Humanity. On the wedding day of His Incarnation, within His mother’s womb, His divinity married her humanity, our humanity, and His heart leapt with joy. The Bridegroom has divinized our fallen humanity and our hearts are full of awe and thanksgiving. Let us rejoice with Simeon and Anna!

As we end our imagined visit to the Temple with Mary and Joseph, may these words continue to sound in our hearts, “Daughters of Zion, come and see King Solomon, wearing the diadem with which his mother crowned him.” Let us joyfully accept the invitation to “come and see” our Bridegroom on “his wedding day, on the day of his heart’s joy”. We need not travel back in time or to Israel for He comes to us hidden in bread and wine yet crowned with His Sacred Humanity
in every Holy Mass. And each devoted reception of the Eucharist is a wedding and we, His brides, become the royal throne that carries the true King Solomon up from the desert and presents Him to the world.
The Song of Songs 3:6-11
THE CHORUS
What is this coming up from the desert
like a column of smoke,
breathing of myrrh and frankincense
and every perfume the merchant knows?
See, it is the litter of Solomon.
Around it are sixty champions,
the flower of the warriors of Israel:
all of them skilled swordsmen,
veterans of battle.
Each man has his sword at his side,
against alarms by night.
King Solomon
has made himself a throne
of wood from Lebanon.
The posts he has made of silver.
the canopy of gold,
the seat of purple;
the back is inlaid with ebony.
Daughters of Zion,
come and see
King Solomon,
wearing the diadem with which his mother crowned him
on his wedding day,
on the day of his heart’s joy.