I invite your attention to the
Song of Solomon, chapter one. The Song of Solomon, chapter
one. Today's exposition will be beginning in verse number 12.
We probably will look at three verses today. Verses 12 through
14. I'll begin reading in verse number
one. The song of songs which is Solomon's. Solomon here represents Jesus
Christ. His wife represents the church
of Christ. And she says in verse two, Let
him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love is better
than wine. Because of the fragrance of your
good ointments, your name is ointment poured forth. Therefore,
the virgins love you. Lead me away. And the daughters
of Jerusalem, the members of the Church of Christ say, we
will run after you. Christ's wife now continues in
saying, the King has brought me into his chambers. We will be glad and rejoice in
you. We will remember your love more
than wine. Rightly do they love you. I am dark or black, but lovely,
O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kadar, like the
curtains of Solomon. Do not look upon me because I
am black or dark, because the sun has tanned me. My mother's sons were angry with
me. They made me the keeper of the
vineyards. but my own vineyard I have not
kept. She had been bruised and beaten, prevented from following Christ
in her own vineyard, and forced to work in the vineyards of others.
Now she says to her beloved, tell me, O you whom I love, where
you feed your flock, where you make it rest at noon, For why
should I be as one who veils herself by the flocks of your
companions? Christ replies, if you do not
know, oh, fairest among women, follow in the footsteps of the
flock and feed your little goats beside the shepherd's tents.
I have compared you, my love, to my filly among Pharaoh's chariots. Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments,
your neck with chains of gold. And Christ here speaking for
the Holy Trinity says, we will make you ornaments of gold with
studs of silver. Now we come to our text for the
day. Beshulamah, the wife of Christ,
speaks to him saying, while the king is at his table, My spacknard
sends forth its fragrance. A bundle of myrrh is my beloved
to me that lies all night between my breasts. My beloved is to
me a cluster of henna blooms in the vineyards of En-Gaddai. That's our text for today, verses
12 through 14. In this passage, verses 12 through
14, the Shulamites speak and here she addresses Solomon. And this is the first time that
she speaks to him directly. She expresses her joy at being
face to face with him as they sit at his table. I should bring out, and you have
the synopsis, and I put the note regarding this in the synopsis,
but she says, I am at his table. My beloved is at his table. It
may be objected that the ancient Israelites did not sit at tables,
but rather they reclined on the ground. couches or on the floor
around the food that was put on a pallet there on the floor. And I found this interesting
note in Kylan Daly's commentary that says, it is to be remarked
that not till the Greek Roman period was the Persian custom
of reclining at table introduced, but in earlier times they sat,
he gives the references. reclining and eating are to be
viewed as separate from each other. This evidently was a table
that had been set, and she calls it his table, and she says, I
am at his table. And here they are for the first
time, face to face, and she will speak to him. She says, while
the king is at his table, Notice she calls him the king. Not only
is he her husband, but he also is her king. She submits to his
lordship, she knows him as her lord, and the Church of Christ
will obey the Lord not only as her husband, but also as her
king. She says it is his table. His
table. Now there are three tables in
the scripture that may be called the table of the Lord. The first
is the table of the gospel, and we find Jesus Christ speaking
about it as the divine wisdom in Proverbs 9, verses 1 through
6. He says, wisdom has built her
house. Christ is that wisdom. She has
slaughtered her meat, she has mixed her wine, she has also
furnished her table. She has sent out her maidens,
those are gospel preachers. She cries out from the highest
places of the city, whoever is simple, let him turn in here. As for him who lacks understanding,
she says to him, Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine
I have mixed. And all of these items on that
table speak of Jesus Christ. He is the meat that has been
slaughtered. His body was broken for us and
slaughtered for us on the tree, but of Him we eat His blood. We take in partaking of the wine. But here we're told that unless,
or elsewhere we're told, except you eat the flesh of the Son
of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. We partake
of Jesus Christ. We eat his flesh and we drink
his blood in believing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus speaks
at this table in the prophecy. of Isaiah 55 verses one through
two saying, ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come
buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without
money and without price. And here is Jesus Christ in the
gospel. He has set a table and he invites hungry thirsty sinners Come to
the table and dine on me and we do this when we believe in
Jesus Christ in our conversion when we put our faith and hope
and trust in him we come and we eat at his gospel table Now,
if we partake of Christ at his table of the gospel, we will
partake of his table in the Lord's Supper as well. And that expressly
is called the Lord's Table in 1 Corinthians 10, 21. And here
is that table that our Lord established during the days of his earthly
ministry. This table is for those who have
already come to the gospel table and have followed the Lord in
baptism. And they are invited to come
to this table and he says, there's bread on that table. and it's
broken and it represents my body which is broken for you in your
place instead on Calvary. And he says, this wine represents
my blood of the new covenant which is shed for the remission
of your sins and do this often and as often as you do it, you
do show my death until I return. So there's the table of the gospel.
where we come to feed on Christ in our conversion. There's the
table of the Lord's Supper where saints gather regularly in order
to partake of Christ. But there is yet a third table
that is called the table of the Lord and that is the table of
the marriage supper of the Lamb. At the last day Our Lord will
return and all who have come to the table of the gospel, the
Lord's table, all who have come to the table of the Lord's supper,
the Lord's table, will be invited to the table of the marriage
supper of the Lamb and that is most Likely, the table of which
the Shulamite speaks in our text. She has come to the banquet of
the marriage, and she speaks of that table that we will come
to that is described in the book of Revelation, but she describes
it for us, and she says, the king is at his table. She comes to partake of this
table with the king in the marriage supper of the lamb. She says
in the latter part of verse 12, my spacknard sends forth its
fragrance. Spacknard is the very aromatic
oil derived from the plant named nard and it was shaped like a
spack. This oil has been used for centuries
as perfume and as incense. The Shulamite speaks of my spacknard,
this fragrant herb she calls my spacknard. How did it come
to be her spacknard? Because the Lord had planted
it within her. In the song of Solomon, chapter
4, verses 12 through 14, we read, a garden enclosed is my sister,
my spouse. And this is Christ speaking of
his wife. He says, I have gone to a place
and I wanted a garden and so I fenced it around. And that's
what Christ has done for his wife. He has put a fence around
her to protect her from the wolves and from the world and from the
influences of the world. He says, it's my garden. There
is no trespassing allowed. This garden is his spouse, his
sister. It is the one that he loves.
And what does a man do in his garden? Well, he takes care of
it. What does he do? takes out of
it what it does not want there, weeds, thistles, he pulls them
up, he gets rid of them, he goes into the forest and into the
fields, he finds plants he wants, and he comes and he brings them
and he plants them or puts the seeds in his garden, he waters
them and makes them grow. Now that is what Christ does.
We read in Solomon chapter four, verse 13, that your plants are
an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits, fragrant henna
with spacknard, spacknard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon,
with all the trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all the
chief spices. What do these sweet and fragrant
herbs and trees and spices represent? These are the graces of Christ
to his church. He's blessed her with graces
and he's given these unto her. And here she speaks of the spacknard
that comes from her. She says it sends forth his fragrance
because it's probably on her breath. I recall taking a tour some time
ago in St. George Estate. And there in St. George Estate there is a botanical
garden. And the lady who was giving us
the tour was showing us all the different plants. And if you've
never taken that tour, I suggest you do it. You probably know
more about the trees and the herbs that are in there than
I would. But I found it fascinating. And as we were going through,
she was telling us things that we could touch and things we
should not touch. And then she took us to a small
tree and she said, pull a leaf off and put it in your mouth
and chew it. And we did. And it was mint. And she says, the people who
lived on this plantation years ago, that's what they used to
make their breath smell fresh. And well, it worked. It worked. Well, here is the shulamite. And she has, as it were, taken
the plant or the leaf of this plant and put it into her mouth
and now she says, my breath is like the fragrance of spacknard
as I speak with my husband at his table face to face across
from him. But spacknard was used for something
else as well. It was used as a perfume. Twice in the Gospels we read
of a woman who had a very costly vial of spacknard. It was very expensive. On two
different occasions, both of them in Bethany, by the way,
as Jesus was sitting at a meal, a woman came up to him and took
her spacknard, this spice, the spice that was in liquid form,
and anointed his feet, pardon me, anointed his head and his
feet with it, anointed him. Jesus was made to smell very
good because of what these women had done for him. And here is
this woman, the Shulamite, and she has the spacknard either
on her breath, or she is anointing Jesus Christ, or doing both. But in whichever instance, she
says, it is my spacknard. He gave it to me, and now I return
it to him. Then in verse number 13 she says,
a bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me that lies all night between
my breasts. Now observe that the scene has
changed. They have gone from the table
where they ate of their marriage supper and now they go to the
bedroom where the marriage is consummated. It is his bedroom,
a bundle of myrrh that lies all night between his breasts, my
breasts, he says, having moved from the table to the bedroom.
Now, she speaks of myrrh. Myrrh was a sap, came from a
number of different trees. In order to get the sap, you
had to cut somewhat deep into the sapwood of the tree where
the sap runs through the wood. And when you cut it, the resin
begins to flow out. You collect the resin, drops
of resin, and lay them out, and you let them dry. This resin
is very fragrant, and it has a very sweet fragrance. And after
it dried, you could use it as perfume. A woman would take a
number of these drops of resin and put them into a little pouch
or a little sack and pull the string and then she would put
it down into her bosom. And it was used as perfume in
that way. And whereas a woman today might
take a perfume and put it on some throbbing vein or artery
or against her skin or on her wrist, a woman in those days
would take this myrrh that smelled so good into a little pouch and
just drop it down into her bosom. This is what the Shulamite is
saying that Jesus Christ is. Myrrh. was used as incense. It was used in the holy anointing
oil of the tabernacle. It was used as a painkiller when
mixed with wine and used as a perfume as in this instance. She is saying
that since she is a bundle of myrrh between my breasts that
evidently it is not just a sprig of the flowers because it was
a thorny plant. You would not take a thorny plant
and take a bundle of it and put it into your bosom. but she's
taken this myrrh in the form of dried perfume, a pouch of
it, and whereas a woman would do that, she says, that's what
Christ is to me. Jesus Christ is a bundle of myrrh
between my breasts. She calls him my beloved. The King James Version calls
him well-beloved. He is not only beloved by her,
but also He is her beloved, her well beloved, her best beloved,
her only beloved, because Christ has no rival in the heart of
His church. Many a woman is married to a
man who has someone else as a rival in
his heart. Many a woman says she loves a
man, but in her heart there is also a rival for him, but not
so with the church of Jesus Christ. He is in her heart, and she has
him and him only in her bosom. She calls him a bundle of myrrh,
and he fits this description, Christ as fragrant as myrrh. He is perfumed with myrrh when
he comes out of the wilderness in Song of Solomon, chapter three,
verse six. For it is said, pardon me, Who
is this coming up out of the wilderness perfumed with myrrh? Even when Christ comes out of
the wilderness, He is perfumed with sweet-smelling myrrh. She
says in Song of Solomon 5 verse 13, His lips are dripping liquid
myrrh. Remember that myrrh came out
as a resin that was wet and then dried. But here she speaks of
his lips, they just seem to drip myrrh. His breath is fragrant,
for his mouth is most sweet. Song of Solomon 5, verse 16. His speech is fragrant, for grace
is poured upon your lips, Psalm 45 verse 2. This is true when
he preaches the gospel of grace, teaches the doctrine of grace,
and speaks graciously and gracefully to sinners. His kiss is fragrant,
for which reason his wife says, let him kiss me with the kisses
of his mouth. Solomon chapter 1 verse 2. Everything about the lips of
Jesus Christ, are dripping with myrrh, his breath, his words,
his speech, his kiss. The church of Christ loves to
be face to face with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Furthermore,
all your garments are scented with myrrh." Psalm 45, verse
8. Christ's garments. He wears three
different kinds of garments when He comes to us in His mediatorial
offices. First is His garment as a prophet. It is a plain mantle. It may
be that of coarse hair, may be that of camel's hair, may be
that of sackcloth. When you read about the mantle
or the garment worn by the prophets, it was a very plain mantle. When Christ puts on the mantle
of a prophet, it is scented with myrrh. The words he speak come
to us as sweet and fragrant. Then he wears the beautiful ephod
of the priest. When Aaron was put into his priestly
office, they made a white linen robe for him. They took all kinds
of different colors and wove them in. It was a beautiful robe. It was fit for a priest making
sacrifices for the people of God, to the God they offended. Well, when Jesus Christ wears
the beautiful robe of his priesthood, it is scented with myrrh. Then
there is the royal robe he wears as our king. perhaps a purple
robe, you know the kind of a robe a king would wear. Our Lord comes
to us as a prophet in the plain mantle of a prophet. He stands
before us as our priest in that beautiful effort of the priest. And then he stands before God
and upon God's throne in that beautiful garment of the king,
the robe, and every one of them is scented with myrrh. Christ is delightful not only
when he is heard or seen, but also when he is smelled. Many
a woman has looked upon some man and thought that he was handsome. Perhaps she heard him speak and
thought his voice sounds quite good. I need to get better acquainted
with him. And so she goes up to become
better acquainted and when she comes to him she realizes that
his garments stink. Not so with Christ. Not so with
Christ. When your eyes are opened to
see Him, you look upon Him and you say, He is delightful to
see. When your ears are opened to
hear Him and He speaks to you, you say, He is delightful to
hear. And when you come up to Him to
become better acquainted, His garments smell sweet with myrrh. Christ's fragrance came from
his blood when he was pierced on Calvary. Remember that that
Myrrh comes from the tree. When you take a knife and you
cut deep into the sapwood, when you get into where the sap is
flowing in the tree, then it begins to drip out. Where did
the myrrh of Christ come from? It came from Calvary, when they
pierced his brow with the crown of thorns, when they pierced
his hands and his feet, and when they drove a spear into his side. The drops of blood coming from
Jesus Christ are like this myrrh coming from the tree. That blood
is sweet. As myrrh was expensive, so is
the blood of Jesus Christ. It is the precious blood of Christ
which is more valuable than silver or gold. She calls him a bundle
of myrrh that is all night between her breasts. Notice where Christ
is to his wife. She has embraced him and drawn
her to a bosom as a token of her love to him. False religion
will embrace adulterers and fornicators and immoral people, but the church
of Christ embraces only Him. Him and He alone is between her
breasts. And she says that Christ lies
between my breasts all night. He will not desert her. She will
not desert him. Christ perfectly exemplifies
the proverb that says, rejoice with the wife of your youth,
let her breast satisfy you at all times, and always be enraptured
with her love. Proverb chapter five, verses
18 and 19. Christ in his youth has found
a wife, She is the delight of his soul. She is the apple of
his eye. She is the jewel of his heart. He is falling in love with her,
smitten as it were. She draws him to her bosom and
there he finds delight all the days thereafter. He is always
enraptured with her love. The Shulamite says in chapter
1 verse 14, My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blooms
in the vineyards of En-Gaddai. Now this verse continues the
thought of the preceding. This plant here called henna,
called camphor in the King James Version. This plant gave henna
blooms. These were the flowers used since
antiquity to dye skin, hair, and fingernails, and fabrics
as well. grown in the vineyards of En-Gaddai,
a town in the wilderness of Judah on the western shore of the Dead
Sea. She speaks of Christ as a cluster
of henna blooms. When she does, she speaks of
him as her ransom and her covering. Consider first that Christ is
the ransom for his church. The Hebrew word here translated
hinnah or camphor in the King James Version, it is usually
translated ransom. Ransom. Henna is associated with
ransom. God uses this Hebrew word in
speaking of Christ with regard to what God says to sinners who
are under conviction. When a man comes under conviction,
when he is convinced of his sins, when he realizes he's lost before
God, when he realizes that he has been brought to the very
precipice of damnation when he realizes that he's about to be
plunged forever away from God. And he cries for help. God says,
deliver him from going down to the pit. I have found the ransom. And that word ransom is the word
that here is translated Henna. What is the ransom? It's Jesus
Christ. Jesus Christ is the henna. He
is the ransom for sinners and furthermore he is the covering
for his church. In ancient times when people
were going gray they could not go to the store to buy a covering
so they took henna. It made a dye. It not only was
used in the sense of a ransom, but it was also used as dye. And they would prepare that plant
or the leaves of that plant in such a way that it made a dye. We do that with some objects,
do we not? Eat cherries, don't drop it on
you, it's not coming out of your clothes. You can eat curry. Do not drop it on your clothes.
It's not coming out. There are some plants that can
be used as a dye. Well, with henna, a person who
was going gray and wanted to cover it up would take the henna
and prepare it and put it into the hair and it would cover all
the gray. Cover all the gray. Henna was
kind of a brown color. Cover all the grave. Well, Jesus
Christ does that with our undesirable sins. We are sin, we're covered
in sins, and Jesus Christ comes as henna, and he is the covering
for our sins. His people declare, I will greatly
rejoice in Jehovah. My soul shall be joyful in my
God, for he has covered me with the robe of righteousness. Jesus Christ covers us as Hinnah
covers that which you do not want to be seen. So does Jesus
Christ in his righteousness cover us and becomes our covering. Christ's church declares Christ
to be her righteousness in covering and saying, my beloved is to
me a cluster of henna blooms. Oh, is that your prayer? Is that your desire? That Christ
would be as henna to you, that Christ would be the ransom for
your soul, that Christ as henna would cover your sins and make
you presentable before God. Is it your desire? that Christ
be brought into your bosom, take residence in your heart, and
never depart from you through all the dark night of this world,
never departing from you. That is the desire that is expressed
by the wife of Christ in this portion of the Song of Solomon,
and I pray that it is yours as well. O God, our Father, Bless
your word to the glory of your son. May we be blessed to sit at his
table. And when we do, may our breath
be fragrant unto him. May we anoint him with the spacknard
he gives to us. May we enjoy that sweet communion
with Christ. May he be to us our ransom and
our covering. To your glory in Jesus' name
we humbly pray. Amen. You are dismissed.