“While the king sat at his table, My spikenard sent out its fragrance. My beloved is to me as a bundle of myrrh, That lies between my breasts. My beloved is to me as a cluster of henna-flowers, In the vineyards of En-gedi.”
The young maiden has found her beloved, and now she is sat at his table in his stately tent sending out her message of love through the perfume that she wears. And it made her think of what he was to her. He was to her like a small bundle of sweet smelling myrrh (myrrh was a symbol of love - Proverbs 7:17) which hung around her neck on a string and lay between her breasts (the place of love where she wanted him to be), and thus something to be cherished, and like a cluster of henna-flowers in the vineyards of En-gedi, received by a lover and held close to the heart. En-gedi was west of the Dead Sea and the henna flowers would be fragrant white blossoms which could be found growing in the vineyards, suitable for lovers, and found in a place well known to lovers.
The idea of sitting at the king's table and sharing signs of mutual love is a reminder that that was how God wanted Israel to be with Him. He wanted their love and their fellowship (Exodus 24:11; Deuteronomy 12:7; Deuteronomy 12:12; Genesis 31:54; Psalms 23:5). That is one reason why the future restoration is depicted in terms of a great feast (Isaiah 25:6). But the truth was that, with exceptions, their hearts were not towards Him as they should have been.
‘My spikenard sent out its fragrance.' We can compare with this Psalms 141:2, ‘Let my prayers be set forth as incense before You.' The very purpose of the offering of incense was in order to make Israel a delight, and acceptable to God.
Jesus also regularly depicted Himself as calling us to eat and drink with Him, so that He might feed us with spiritual nourishment. Indeed He calls us to eat and drink with Him day by day as we keep ‘coming' and ‘trusting' and looking for sustenance (John 6:35), while His parables regularly indicate that His chosen are invited to feast with Him (Matthew 22:1-14; Matthew 25:1-13; Luke 14:15-24). See also Revelation 3:20. And for us as His true people He has even prepared a regular Table at which we too can physically eat and drink in remembrance of Him, and can enjoy His presence (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). Consider also His miraculous feeding of the crowds who followed Him which depicted what He had come to bring them, and made some recognize Him as the King (John 6:15). If only when we were at worship we were as taken up with our beloved as this young maiden was with her beloved, how glad God would be. He was in all her thoughts. And that is how it should be. For we too can all eat of His delights continually in the secret place, as we feast on His word, (that letter of love that He has given to us), and as we daily go out into our lives with Him. While in our case the incense that goes up to God is ‘the prayers of the saints' (Revelation 5:8).
We may also see the spikenard that sent out its fragrance as for us representing the beauty of Christ's righteousness with which we have been clothed (Isaiah 61:10; 2 Corinthians 5:21) and which now goes out from us, and the sweet savor of Christ that we are to God as by testifying to others we bring them before God as an offering (2 Corinthians 2:16).
As the story moves on we are now privileged to listen in on their conversation at the table. First the BELOVED speaks to the young maiden,