must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband’ (Eph. 5:32–33). Here is a clue to the full understanding of the Song. It speaks not only about the important matter of human love between a man and his bride, but also the mysterious intimacy that exists, and that is to be cultivated, between true believers and their Lord and Saviour, Christ. Surely it is the sort of thing that we find in the Song that Paul has in mind when he writes, for example, ‘I am jealous for you