Song 1:13 | KingComments | STEP | The bride spreads the fragrance of the nard in the presence of the king ( ), because he is her “beloved”. He is her all and all. This short contains three times the words “me” or “my”, which makes her statements very personal. She describes what he is for her. He is primarily for her “a pouch of myrrh”. Myrrh is a pleasantly fragrant resin and can have a bitter, but also a sweet taste. Myrrh is extracted from different species of trees and is obtained by incisions in those trees. So the tree is injured. At high desert temperatures, the softened resin seeps out automatically. In the time of the Bible, myrrh was a symbol of suffering and death. What the bride says applies to our connection with the Lord Jesus. Is not our worship – of which the nard speaks – raised in a special way when we think of His suffering and death? He is our “Beloved” because He first loved us with such a love that He surrendered Himself to death for us. He is “the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” ( ). When He hung on the cross, they tried to give Him “wine mixed with myrrh” ( ). And Nicodemus brought Him after His death “a mixture of myrrh and aloes” to anoint His body ( ). The bride speaks of her groom as “a pouch of myrrh which lies all night between my breasts”. For us this means that the Lord Jesus in His suffering and death has a place of close proximity and intimacy in our hearts. Breasts are more often mentioned in the Bible. Like other parts of the body, they are openly spoken about, without any thought of sinful lust. The parts of the body mentioned are beautiful. They literally show God’s ‘creativity’, while we may also see a spiritual meaning in it. In the Bible breasts are a picture of spiritual maturity, of maturity in faith, through which one is able to pass on food to babies in faith. The “breasts” (plural) also point to balance in the faith life, where we can think of faith on the one hand and love on the other. We find these two characteristics in “the breastplate of faith and love” ( ). The breastplate, which consists of faith and love, protects the breast, where the heart is. Paul prays for the believers in Ephesus that “Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; [and] that you, being rooted and grounded in love” ( ). Christ dwells in our hearts and there we ponder with great gratitude His work in faith and love. We believe in this with all our heart and place our full trust in it. Through His work for us we are also convinced of His complete love for us. Unfortunately, it can happen that we no longer treasures Him in faith and love in our hearts, so that He no longer has that place of intimacy. This is the case if we give our love to the world and the things of the world. The apostle John warns not to love the world, for if this happens, there is no part in the Father’s love ( ). One love excludes the other love. In the mass of God’s people, the opposite is found of what lives in the remnant, of which the bride is a picture. God says of His adulterous people: “Let her put away her harlotry from her face and her adultery from between her breasts” ( ). He notices with his own what is ‘between the breasts’. What is in our hearts: love for the Lord Jesus or love for the world? The answer to that question depends on our understanding of the words “all night” which the bride uses. The world is in the night because the Lord Jesus, the Light of the world, is not there. He is rejected by the world ( ). We are in the world and therefore in the night, but it is a night that is almost gone ( ). “We are not of night” ( ), and we may ‘let the Lord Jesus spend the night between our breasts’, that is, cherish Him as our greatest treasure. What a joy it must be for Him to be the most precious possession for His own who are in the world that has rejected Him.

‏ Song of Solomon 1:13

A Pouch of Myrrh

The bride spreads the fragrance of the nard in the presence of the king (Song 1:12), because he is her “beloved”. He is her all and all. This short Song 1:13 contains three times the words “me” or “my”, which makes her statements very personal. She describes what he is for her. He is primarily for her “a pouch of myrrh”. Myrrh is a pleasantly fragrant resin and can have a bitter, but also a sweet taste. Myrrh is extracted from different species of trees and is obtained by incisions in those trees. So the tree is injured. At high desert temperatures, the softened resin seeps out automatically. In the time of the Bible, myrrh was a symbol of suffering and death.

What the bride says applies to our connection with the Lord Jesus. Is not our worship – of which the nard speaks – raised in a special way when we think of His suffering and death? He is our “Beloved” because He first loved us with such a love that He surrendered Himself to death for us. He is “the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Gal 2:20b). When He hung on the cross, they tried to give Him “wine mixed with myrrh” (Mk 15:23). And Nicodemus brought Him after His death “a mixture of myrrh and aloes” to anoint His body (Jn 19:39).

The bride speaks of her groom as “a pouch of myrrh which lies all night between my breasts”. For us this means that the Lord Jesus in His suffering and death has a place of close proximity and intimacy in our hearts. Breasts are more often mentioned in the Bible. Like other parts of the body, they are openly spoken about, without any thought of sinful lust. The parts of the body mentioned are beautiful. They literally show God’s ‘creativity’, while we may also see a spiritual meaning in it. In the Bible breasts are a picture of spiritual maturity, of maturity in faith, through which one is able to pass on food to babies in faith.

The “breasts” (plural) also point to balance in the faith life, where we can think of faith on the one hand and love on the other. We find these two characteristics in “the breastplate of faith and love” (1Thes 5:8). The breastplate, which consists of faith and love, protects the breast, where the heart is. Paul prays for the believers in Ephesus that “Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; [and] that you, being rooted and grounded in love” (Eph 3:17). Christ dwells in our hearts and there we ponder with great gratitude His work in faith and love. We believe in this with all our heart and place our full trust in it. Through His work for us we are also convinced of His complete love for us.

Unfortunately, it can happen that we no longer treasures Him in faith and love in our hearts, so that He no longer has that place of intimacy. This is the case if we give our love to the world and the things of the world. The apostle John warns not to love the world, for if this happens, there is no part in the Father’s love (1Jn 2:15). One love excludes the other love.

In the mass of God’s people, the opposite is found of what lives in the remnant, of which the bride is a picture. God says of His adulterous people: “Let her put away her harlotry from her face and her adultery from between her breasts” (Hos 2:2b). He notices with his own what is ‘between the breasts’. What is in our hearts: love for the Lord Jesus or love for the world?

The answer to that question depends on our understanding of the words “all night” which the bride uses. The world is in the night because the Lord Jesus, the Light of the world, is not there. He is rejected by the world (Jn 1:5-10). We are in the world and therefore in the night, but it is a night that is almost gone (Rom 13:12a). “We are not of night” (1Thes 5:5b), and we may ‘let the Lord Jesus spend the night between our breasts’, that is, cherish Him as our greatest treasure. What a joy it must be for Him to be the most precious possession for His own who are in the world that has rejected Him.