MacArthur rescues Song of Songs?

MacArthur is a good guy. I like and value his ministry for its focus on good doctrine, faithful exegesis and contending for the truth. I don't like it in other ways, for its tendency to be simplistic and reactionary. But please don't just slip into 'taking sides' between your preferred American preacher guy!

"The Rape of Solomon's Song" is the kind of reaction to Driscoll's series last year you might expect from MacArthur in 'contending' mode:

That approach is not exegesis; it is exploitation. It is contrary to the literary style of the book itself. It is spiritually tantamount to an act of rape. It tears the beautiful poetic dress off Song of Solomon, strips that portion of Scripture of its dignity, and holds it up to be laughed at and leered at in a carnal way.

There is a cultural gap between MacArthur and Driscoll... and MacArthur kind of mocks this kind of 'cultural relevance' argument earlier in this post. Older conservatives who claim to understand the cultural relevance argument and then blunder into hard-line critique show that they totally don't get the cultural gap at all.

So I think MacArthur's critique is well worth a careful hearing, but his apparent lack of hearing, as evidenced by his tone, is well worth critiquing.

H/T Challies.