Questions from the Scripture text: Who is where in Song of Songs 1:12a? What sends forth what (verse 12b)? Whose? Who is what (Song of Songs 1:13a)? To whom? Whose is He? Where is it (verse 13b)? How long? What else is He (Song of Songs 1:14a)? Where (verse 14b)?
In what manner is the church sanctified? Song of Songs 1:12–14 looks forward to the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these three verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the church is sanctified through mutually delighted fellowship with her beloved Lord.
The bride has recognized deficiencies in herself ( Song of Songs 1:5-6), and she has looked to the Bridegroom, her Beloved, the King, to be the One Who resolves those things—particularly by feeding her (Song of Songs 1:7). So far, the image of how He would feed her has been one that is very protective and tender and generous and kind and watchful, that of a Shepherd with His flock (Song of Songs 1:8).
But the image of the feeding changes now. The Lord doesn't just govern us and protect us as One Who is infinitely greater than we are, and Who is taking care of His little creatures. Those things are all true. And that is represented here in the fact that He is referred to now not only as Shepherd, but even as King. It is in fellowship with Himself that the Lord provides for His people, feeds His people, nourishes and grows us. He feeds us at his table.
Now, this is important for how you read the Bible and how you seek to grow, how you seek to be sanctified, that it's not just a function of learning things and getting better at things. When you read your Bible, and when you listen to preaching and when you meditate upon the word, you should do so as someone whose heart is being lifted up to Him, in fellowship with Him.
And there's a reciprocation here. You remember the fragrance of His Name, when she's giving some of her first descriptions of him back in Song of Songs 1:3. Now, His love for His bride makes her to know that she is pleasing to Him; her spikenard sends forth now to Him (Song of Songs 1:12). We are pleasing to Him, and we should love to please Him: being pleased to be pleasing to Him.
And reciprocation continues in these verses, for not only does the bride's spikenard sends forth its fragrance to Him, but He also is a bundle of myrrh (Song of Songs 1:13)—again, a different kind of fragrant perfume. And here, not just a small amount, but an abundance. It's not just a sprig of myrrh or a blossom of myrrh, it's a bundle of myrrh. Similarly, the cluster of henna is an abundance (Song of Songs 1:14). Not only is there abundance and sweetness and pleasantness in the cluster of henna, but the Lord's presence to us makes everything pleasant. It turns his banquet table into the vineyards of En-Gedi.
It's the King Himself that makes everything pleasant. He brings fellowship and sweetness and delight to us wherever we are, when we come and have fellowship with Him. The name changes from the King in Song of Songs 1:12 to “my Beloved” in Song of Songs 1:13 and “my Beloved” in Song of Songs 1:14. Without losing the glory of His greatness, we ought to have very close, very intimate, very near fellowship, very sweet fellowship.
Finally, note the “to me” in Song of Songs 1:13, and the “to me” in Song of Songs 1:14. There’s not just recognition about Him here. There is appropriation, experiencing for oneself—taking that which you know to be true about Him generally as something that is experientially true to you personally. “A bundle of myrrh is my beloved TO ME … my beloved is TO ME a cluster of henna.”
When you think about those things that are sweet to you, and those things that are pleasant to you, that which is most sweet to you should be He. That which is most pleasant to you should be He.
This is why the bundle of myrrh, representing Him, “lies all night between my breasts” (Song of Songs 1:13). She holds Him dearly. She holds Him persistently. That which she would hold closest, and would be most reluctant to let go, the last thing that she would ever give up, would be the King, her Beloved. Christ should be to us, the One Whom we would hold closest and even to our very heart. For her to hold the myrrh in between her breasts, is to hold Him as dear and close as possible.
And she does not just make a beginning of holding Him dear and holding Him close, but all night. It is a common problem in our walk with the Lord that we would make a beginning of holding dearly to Him, but then grow cold towards him. “All night” in the poetry here teaches us that we must seek from the Holy Spirit the grace to make us treasure the Lord Jesus like this, and the further grace to make us persist in that treasuring.
This image of reciprocal delight in sweet table fellowship is more than just an image. The Lord Jesus actually brings us to His table week by week to delight in Him, and to enjoy His delighting in us, at the Lord’s Supper. In His Word, He feeds us upon Himself. And in His sacrament, He feeds us upon Himself. This is how He remedies the deficiencies in His Bride: mutually delighted fellowship with Himself.
How are you seeking to be delightful to Christ in your fellowship with Him? How are you delighting in Him?
Sample prayer: Father we thank You for this song, because we thank You for Your Son, and Your glorious and good design and for how we grow by the grace and by the knowing of the Lord Jesus. So, give us to know Him in the ways that are described in these images, in these three verses, we ask in His Name, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP23B “The Lord’s My Shepherd” or TPH471 “The Sands of Time Are Sinking”
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