His cheeks are like beds of spices, mounds of sweet-smelling herbs. His lips are lilies, dripping liquid myrrh.
The bride is describing her Beloved to others, feature by feature. Here she reaches His cheeks and His lips, and she reaches for flowers and perfume — so why does a face that men struck look like a garden to her?
Why she describes Him at all
She is telling others what He is like. That telling does something to her own heart.
Hamilton SmithThis lovely description is only another step in the awakening of love. As the bride unfolds the perfections of the Bridegroom to others, her heart, occupied with Himself and His glories, is stirred to its depths again. Telling others about the glories and perfections of Christ is certain to rekindle your own love for Christ.
Cheeks: a beauty most people never see
Cheeks carry the look of a face. But the beauty described here is not the kind anyone can notice by looking.
An Outline of Sound WordsNatural beauty, with its charm and attraction, is written on the cheeks. But men could not see the beauty of the Lord Jesus with natural eyes. The eyes of the heart had to be opened to see "His cheeks as a bed of spices." He grew up before the Father as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. But Israel said of Him, "There is no beauty that we should desire Him." There was a little remnant whose eyes God opened, and they saw His beauty.
The cheek that was struck
The cheek she calls a bed of spices took a blow from His enemies and a kiss from His betrayer.
Hamilton SmithThe cheeks speak of beauty and attractiveness. The world saw no beauty in Christ, and struck Him on the cheek. Judas claimed to be drawn to Christ, but only to betray Him by kissing Him on the cheek. The believer, on the other hand, can delight in the beauty and attractiveness of Christ. It is the delight a bed of fragrant herbs draws from someone passing by.
Cruelty did not spoil the fragrance; it released more of it.
An Outline of Sound WordsBlinded by sin, the Jews had rejected Him... Their hatred went so far that they struck "the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek." But even this show of hatred brought out the perfections of His holy nature, because in His sorrows the sweet spices were most fragrant. Human hatred and malice could not stop the spreading of that scent from heaven which belonged to the Man out of heaven.
Lips like lilies
Two things are said about His lips: what they are like, and what falls from them.
Hamilton SmithHis lips are compared to lilies dropping sweet-smelling myrrh. The lily may speak of purity and the sweet-smelling myrrh of grace. Isaiah had to confess he was a man of unclean lips, but the lips of Christ were pure; no deceit was found in His mouth. And of Christ it could be said, "Grace is poured into Your lips." As He walked through this world, words of grace dropped from His lips like sweet-smelling myrrh.
That grace was not rationed, and it does something no other voice can do.
Andrew MillerThe believer knows the truth of that blessed word: "Grace is poured into your lips." It is not dropped out in small amounts, but poured out in full. The lips of Jesus, and His only, can speak peace to a troubled soul. Until He, and He alone, is listened to, true peace is unknown.
Words from a Man of sorrows
The words that carried this fragrance came out of a life of sorrow.
An Outline of Sound WordsGrace was poured into His lips from the inner springs of His being. His words did not only reveal God's grace; they also expressed His own deep compassion for men. How sweet the smell of the myrrh in the words of love spoken by the "Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief."
What the verse asks of us now
If His lips drop myrrh, the obvious response is to stay where the words fall.
VariousCan we wonder that Mary sat at His feet to hear His words? When the Lord of glory came to her humble home, He did not come to receive. He came to reveal and give out the full love He had in His heart for her. Would not our own souls be far larger and richer if we took more time to sit at His feet? There we hear His words dropping as sweet-smelling myrrh from His lips like lilies.
Summary
- Fragrance under pressure. Blows and hatred did not kill the fragrance; they spread it, because "in His sorrows the sweet spices were most fragrant."
- Fragrance unseen. Natural eyes find nothing desirable in Him; the eyes of the heart must be opened before a struck cheek looks like a bed of spices.
- Fragrance poured. Grace is not measured out to us drop by drop from His lips but poured, and His voice alone speaks peace into a troubled soul.
- Fragrance from the depths. The myrrh came from pure lips and from the heart of the Man of sorrows; His words reveal God's grace and His own compassion for us.
- Fragrance spreading. Two things keep it alive in us — sitting at His feet to hear Him, and describing Him to others, which stirs our own love again.