Song of Solomon 1:3

To her heart it is full of fragrance. All His names, titles, attributes, and relationships are sweet to her taste. His name is Himself. It expresses His nature, His excellence, and His graces. She cannot find words for the riches of His goodness, so she says, "Your name is oil poured out."

While the perfume stayed in the alabaster jar, its fragrance was shut in. Once poured out, "the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume." Prophets, priests, and kings had foretold the coming of Christ and the names He would bear. But in their day the fragrance of His name stayed shut in the jar. Then Christ became man and lived among us, full of grace and truth. Now His name was truly poured out. The name of Jesus stood revealed as the perfect expression of meekness, gentleness, patience, endurance, holiness, and love. Other names may disgust people because of the cruelty and wickedness of those who bear them. This name is fragrant with every grace.

The "good ointments" stand for the fragrance of His excellent perfections — seen in His life, in His acts of tenderness and grace, in His words, and in His walk of complete dependence and obedience before God as He passed through this world… Report and testimony can impress us deeply, even at a distance, as they impressed the Queen of Sheba. But only when, like her, we hear and see for ourselves are we lost in adoration before the fragrance of the good ointments.

Ointments speak of fragrant grace. "Your anointing oils." Oh, how many and varied are the graces that abound in Him, each having its special charm and all fragrant. Ointments were not only used for perfumes but also for healing. (See Isaiah 1:6.) There is not a heartache nor a wound that His ointments cannot soothe and heal.

The sweet fragrance of the life of Christ, as we may gather from Leviticus 2, was first and foremost for God. The priests might eat of the fine flour, mixed with oil, that made up the grain offering… but all its frankincense was to be burned on the altar, an offering made by fire, a sweet fragrance to the Lord… If there had not been a single soul on the face of the earth to delight in the fragrance of the good ointments of Christ, His life would still not have been in vain. It brought glory to God and filled His heart with infinite joy… And the more Christ was tested — and He was tested in every possible way, even by the holy fire of the altar itself — the more richly His sweet fragrance flowed out to gratify the heart of His God.

"Therefore virgins love you." Who does she mean by "the virgins"? Those who stayed clean from the corruptions of that day. This Song assumes the heart of the godly in Israel. They will be the true Israel, the true bride, when the day comes for this to be made good — a day of widespread corruption and turning away from God.

It is only the virgins — the pure in heart — who value His name and appreciate His love… They love because of His love. "We love because He first loved us."

Every trait, every perfection He showed in His walk through this world may be reproduced in those who are His… The more we are with Him and taken up with Him, the more we will be transformed into His likeness, and the more surely the fragrance of His good ointments will spread… The sweet fragrance of the name of Christ will flow from our walk as well as from our words.