SOURCE: "Lectures on the Song of Solomon," translated by Ian Siggins, in Luther's Works, Vol. 15, edited by Jaroslav Pelikan and Hilton C. Oswald, Concordia Publishing, 1972, pp. 191-210.

In the following excerpt from a series of lectures delivered in 1539, Luther provides a close exegesis of the first chapter of the Song of Songs. Luther attributes the Song specifically to Solomon, suggesting that the work deals with Solomon's government and his people's relationship with God.

Dr. Martin Luther's Preface to the Song of Songs

Many commentators have produced all manner of interpretations of this song of King Solomon's—and they have been both immature and strange. But to get at the simplest sense and the real character of this book, I think it is a song in which Solomon honors God with his praises; he gives Him thanks for his divinely established and confirmed kingdom and government; he prays for...