Hebrew Word Study – My Beloved – Dodi   דוֹדִ֔י  Daleth Vav Daleth Yod

Song of Solomon 7:11 – “I am my beloved’s and his desire is toward me.”

Now keeping in mind that this is a metaphor of our relationship with God, what does that mean “I am my beloved?”  Does that mean, you know like “Baby I’m yours until the poets run out of rhymes?”  The preposition before the word beloved is a Lamed which is usually rendered as to or for.  So literally what the Shulamite woman is saying about Solomon is that she is for her beloved.  To loosely paraphrase: “Baby, I’m yours.”  This implies that she was created just for Solomon.  She was just a peasant woman in love with a king, yet the king was in love with her and she saw herself as a soul mate for the king. She was created to compliment him and fulfill him.

Now how does that fit into the picture of our relationship with God?  I recall as a child hearing Billy Graham preach and he said something that has stayed with me for all these years.  He said that we were created and made for God.  That was so meaningful to me yet I was always haunted by the fact that he just said that and did not give a Scripture passage to back it up. I know we can infer it from many passages of Scripture.  Yet, I always wished there was a passage which clearly said: “We were made for God.”  I believe in Song of Solomon 7:11 I have found such a Scripture passage. In the original Hebrew the Shulamite woman is saying she is for or to her beloved and if it follows that this is a picture of our relationship with God then we were made for God.  God created us for Himself.  I know that is only logical but think on it for a moment. Come on practice a little meditation and meditate on this thought. He created you and me just for Himself, for His pleasure.  We were created to bring pleasure to God. 

You know sometimes we get so hung up on getting our own pleasure we never stop to think that our main purpose and function in life is to bring pleasure to God.  He is really the only one we need to please and He is the easiest person to please because he designed and equipped us to bring pleasure to Him.  Maybe some of us are not too pretty or talented, but if God created us that way then whatever we look like or perform to our best will bring Him pleasure.  We may feel we are untalented, but there is something about us that God designed to bring pleasure to Him.  I know a Christian young man who is really uneducated, can’t sing, can’t play a musical instrument and will never read a book, but boy is he a handyman.  He can fix anything and when he is fixing things he is as happy as a clown with an audience.  His joy over using the gift that God gave him most certainly brings pleasure to God more than someone who sits around reciting prayers over and over or saying “bless you Lord” a hundred times in hopes of getting some blessing from Him.  We are all good at something and if we can discover that and do it then we are performing, showing off for God our creator who gave us the ability to perform for Him and bring pleasure to Him.

Oh, but behold, we are not some pet or toy, He is our beloved and His desire is toward us.  That word beloved in Hebrew is dodi which is where the word David comes from and is really a form of the word yadiyad which means beloved friend.  The word yadiyad is the word yad which means hand repeated two times meaning hand in hand. The most common way to touch someone is with your hand. A touch of the hand is universally understood as a sign of affection or aggression.  Legally it is the difference between assault and battery. It is also a way to express you desire for intimacy.  The ancients believed your heart was in the palm of your hand.  Hence yadiyad or beloved friend is the sharing of your heart with another.  In ancient times a handshake was more than just a formality, there was powerful meaning behind a handshake.   Often the first advance of a lover to his beloved is what is known as a bisexual interdigital relationship (holding hands).  So we are not just God’s toy or pet we are a beloved and He is our beloved. 

The verse says that His desire is toward us. The word toward is ’al  which is usually rendered as upon.  His desire is not just toward us, it is upon us. He is just pouring out His desire all over us. Unfortunately, we never stop to take the time to enjoy it. Like rain pouring on us we run to a shelter or put up an umbrella so we do not get wet.  What’s wrong with getting a little wet?  You get that when you take a shower.  Next time you have just a moment, stop, close your eyes and just imagine God showering you with His desire, imagine what it feels like and maybe that desire will become a reality in your life.  Hebrew 11:1 in the Aramaic suggests that a faith is the substance of things hoped for (savra – positive imagination) and the evidence of things not seen. Use that positive imagination, use your faith to imagine God pouring His desire upon you and you may experience some evidence of something not seen.

So what is this desire anyways?  I mean what are we trying to imagine?  The word desire is teshuqah from the root word shuq.  It is often used to express the idea of a craving and longing. It is used to express a man desiring a woman or a beast desiring to devour its prey. The word shuq is also used to express affection.  However, when we trace this word to its Semitic root we find it has its origins in a market place.  Thus, the word also carries the idea of abundance.  My study partner said that desire likely stems from the fact that when you go shopping you may go in for one item but like in a market place you are exposed to all these other things that will arouse a desire in you to possess.  

So this word for desire has the idea of a desire to possess something.  When God’s desire is over us He is expressing His longing to just possess us, own us and have us for His very own.  So the Shulamite woman declares she was created or made just for her beloved and her beloved just overwhelms her with a desire to make her all his own.  In the same way God is our beloved, we were made for Him and as a result He is longing to just completely possess us.  He gave us a free will, we can choose whether or not to let Him possess us. If we see Him as our beloved then just as a bride wants her husband to possess her so too we long to just let God possess us and if He is longing or shug us, then all we need to do is say, “Baby I’m yours until the poets run out of rhymes.” 

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