THE SWEET SMELL OF MYRRH
When she saw the Lord’s hand, she stretched out her hands. “I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock” (5:5). She saw the hand of the Lord, and she replied with her hands dripping with myrrh. In chapter one she appreciated the myrrh. In chapter three she was perfumed and permeated with myrrh. In chapter four there was the mountain of myrrh. Now in chapter five, her hands are dripping with myrrh. She has become so thoroughly saturated with myrrh that her hands are dripping with myrrh. This signifies that now her work and her doing have been dealt with by the death of Christ. Even in her work, there is the sweet smell of the Lord’s death. Her hands give the sense of the cross.
To work for the Lord by going to the mission field or preaching the gospel is one thing, but to work for the Lord with the sweet smell of myrrh is quite another. I may preach the gospel, but with no smell of myrrh. I may do much in the name of service for the Lord, yet without the smell of the Lord’s death in my work. But after becoming permeated and saturated with the Lord’s death, my hands will drip with myrrh. Then I may still preach the gospel, but there will be the sense that this is not just preaching. This is the dripping of the sweet smelling myrrh.
In poetry, every sentence, every term, every expression, and even every word speaks much. Her hands dripping with myrrh show that all her working for the Lord is under the dealing of the Lord’s death. This dealing of death becomes the sweet smelling myrrh dripping from her working hands. Drops of myrrh even hit the handles of the lock. This is full of meaning. The door was locked, but becomes unlocked by the dripping of the myrrh. There had been a separation between her and the Lord, but the barrier was removed by the myrrh dripping from her hands. In her working, in her doing, in whatever she does for the Lord, there is now the sweet smell of the dripping myrrh.
We all must be like this in our work for the Lord. When we go to visit others for fellowship, is there the dripping of the sweet smelling myrrh? We may do a lot of visiting, but it means nothing if it is a visitation without the dripping of myrrh. When some visit others, it is not just a mere visitation. Along with the visitation there is the dripping of the sweet smelling myrrh. The sweet smell of the dealing of the Lord’s death is in whatever they do.
FAITH, NOT FEELING
The Lord also taught the seeking one another lesson. During all that time, she had been dealing with the Lord more or less according to her feeling of the Lord’s presence. Now the Lord hides His presence from her feeling. She says she opens herself to the Lord and seeks the Lord, but she simply cannot find Him. She calls, but He will not answer her. Has the Lord left her? No, He has not left, but to her sensation and feeling He is gone. Her fellowship with the Lord in the past had been according to her feeling of the Lord’s presence. Now the Lord is teaching her not to deal with Him only by her feelings. Whether she feels the Lord’s presence or not, He is always there.
Because she cannot find the Lord, she begins to ask others to help her find Him. Then the others ask her about the difference between her beloved and another beloved. As she begins to tell them how altogether lovely her beloved is, she begins to realize He has never left her. He is within His garden. Now she realizes that whether or not she feels that He is with her, He is, nonetheless, always with her. By this lesson, she learns not to discern the Lord’s presence simply by her feeling.
When we lose the feeling of the Lord’s presence, the best way to bring it back is to talk with others about Him. This is the experience of the seeking one. As we begin to talk with others about the Lord, we immediately sense that He is with us. We realize that He is in His garden. Not only is He in us, but He is in all His gardens—not only one garden, but many gardens. “My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies” (6:2). He is feeding and shepherding in all His gardens, and He is feeding among the lilies.
This is very meaningful. We should learn never to care for our feeling of the Lord’s presence. Whether we feel the Lord is with us or not, the Lord is still with us. He is always within us feeding, gathering, and shepherding His garden.
(Life and Building as Portrayed in the Song of Songs, Chapter 12, by Witness Lee)
