Notes
Song of Solomon 5:5: My hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling on the handles of the lock. ‘Dropped with myrrh.’ נָטְפוּ־מוֹר natephu mor, literally ‘dropped myrrh.’ So SEPTUAGINT, VULGATE, LUTHER, &c. MAR TIN: The myrrh dropping from my hand. The myrrh from Solomon’s having taken hold of the lock on the outside with profusely anointed hands. ZÖCKLER, WILLIAMS. From the unguent flowing in from the outer look through the keyhole. HITZIG. Some drops inserted by her lover through the hole or above the door, and trickling down on the inner lock, showing how richly anointed he had come to her. DELITZSCH. Left on purpose by himself. EWALD, THRUPP, ROWE. Proceeding from the moisture of his hand when he introduced his finger to remove the bolt. DEL RIO, NOYES, HAHN. She imagines how her beloved, while calling her, had smeared the lock with perfume for its smell to meet her. EWALD. LUCRETIUS speaks of lovers perfuming the doors of their mistresses. Some, on the other hand, view the perfume as having been brought by the Bride herself. So WORDSWORTH. SANCTIUS: Not having time to perfume her garments, she pours the myrrh on her hand, wishing thus to receive and gratify her Bridegroom. FAUSSET: Anointed herself profusely, as the best proof she could give him of a hearty welcome. WEISS: Just having gone to anoint herself as a delicate lady among the Romans. PATRICK and PERCY: Having taken it to anoint her husband’s head with it, she in her haste spilt it on her hands. A. CLARKE: Those who brought the Bride to the Bridegroom’s house often anointed the door posts with fragrant oils, and sometimes the Bride herself anointed them: hence uxor, for unxor. Allegorized by the Fathers generally as indicating penitence, chastity, and mortification of the flesh. DURHAM: Lively exercise of faith and other graces. AINSWORTH: Godly sorrow, faith, and love; or the sweet alluring odour left by Christ. PATRICK: Most ardent love with which the believer seeks to entertain his Saviour. BRIGHTMAN: Her endeavours as most acceptable to God. DEL RIO: The Bridegroom moving his Church to undertake the work of preaching the Gospel with the desire to endure hardship and even death for His sake. COCCEIUS: The Church’s begun labour that she and the brethren might be partakers of Christ. DAVIDSON: The application to the Church of all the efficacy of Christ’s atonement and resurrection, symbolized by the myrrh with which His body was embalmed, and which flows from Him as the Head to His members. Threefold Mystery: The setting forth anew of the precious doctrines of the atonement and mediation of Christ. M. STUART: Historically, the reference to the disciples with myrrh seeking Jesus in the tomb. FAUSSET: Also, to bitter repentance as the fruit of the Spirit’s anointing (2 Corinthians 1:21-22).
THE BRIDE’S REPENTANCE
I rose to open to my beloved;
And my hands dropped with myrrh,
And my fingers with sweet-smelling myrrh,
On the handles of the lock.
Shulamite not only felt, but acted. ‘I rose to open to my beloved.’ In matters of religion, feeling valuable as it leads to action. Such actions to be prompt. ‘Whatsoever thine hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.’ ‘I made haste and delayed not.’ ‘Repentance, when real, puts the most careless on their feet.’—Durham. So the Prodigal Son: ‘I will arise and go to my father. And he arose and went.’ So the penitent Corinthians (2 Corinthians 7:10-11).
A circumstance connected with Shulamite’s action related. ‘My hands dropped with myrrh, &c., upon the handles of the lock.’ Did she bring it with her? or did she find it there? Probably the language only a poetic way of expressing the feelings of sweet and joyful ardour with which she hastened to admit her beloved, and anticipated his embrace. Thoughts of him were now to her in the place of the best sweet-smelling myrrh. Observe from the passage—
1. No time to be lost in opening to Christ. The Bride delayed and suffered for it. Now shakes off her sloth and rises at once. Christ’s call to Zaccheus that to each soul: ‘Make haste and come down, for to-day I must abide at thy house.’ The conduct of Zaccheus to be ours: ‘He made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully’ (Luke 19:5-6).
2. A special sweetness accompanying true penitence and a hearty reception of Christ. Shulamite’s hands dropped with sweetest myrrh while attempting to open to her beloved. Every act of faith and self-denying obedience for Christ accompanied with a sweetness and satisfaction unable to be found in the pleasures of the world or in the indulgence of the flesh. True penitence a sweet sorrow. Myrrh bitter to the taste, but sweet to the smell. Christ brings sweetness with Him. His name: ‘Ointment poured forth.’
Grace acts in order to move the soul to action. When the Bridegroom puts forth his hand at the hole of the door, the Bride must put forth her hand to open to him. Believers to work out their salvation, because God works in them both ‘to will and to do of His own good pleasure.’
4. Nothing sweeter to Christ than a soul penitently and earnestly rising to open to Him. Fingers perfumed that open to Christ.
5. Grace supplied as the soul rises to perform its duty and obey Christ’s call. Only when Shulamite rose to open, her hands dropped with sweet-smelling myrrh. Duty earnestly and obediently attempted at the Saviour’s call found both easy and pleasant. The handles of the lock found perfumed with myrrh. Delay accumulates rust, and renders duty more difficult.