Song of Solomon 1:12  “While the King was at His table my spikenard gave forth its fragrance”

Jesus is not only our holy Bridegroom, but He is the King of all kings. It is almost incomprehensible that we have been invited to sup with the Sovereign Ruler of the universe and that He calls us to sit with Him at His table. Through the cross where He gave His life for us He has made every provision to make us clean, pure, holy, spotless and blameless so we can commune with Him at His table.

It is at this table that He feeds our spirits with the revelation of who He is and what He did to redeem us to Himself. At His table we freely partake of the gift of our salvation and the amazing heritage He has called us to. What riches have been bestowed upon us!  He has given to us exceedingly great and precious promises that we may be partakers of the divine nature, (2 Peter 1:4) We have been raised up and made to sit in heavenly places in Him, (Ephesians 2:6) We are chosen, a royal priesthood, holy, His own special people, (1 Peter 2:9) He has crowned us with lovingkindness and mercy and satisfies us with good things, (Psalm 103) and Romans 8:32 tells us, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” I don’t think we can begin to conceive the depths of God’s desire and intimacy for us or the honor and glory in which we are created.

As we sit as His table and meditate on the depths of His love and the truths related to our salvation, our hearts are stirred to extravagant worship.  True worship comes from seeing God; one glace upon His beauty and glory will ruin us for anything else in life. Our worship is a sweet fragrance, like spikenard, that ascends before our Beloved.The Lord enjoys the aroma and fragrance that emanates from our spirit when we focus on His provisions. 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 says we are the fragrance of Christ to God. Jesus' life , death, and resurection is a fragrant aroma to God the Father, but like spikenard it came with a great cost. The bride chose spikenad to symolically speak of our worship, love, and affections that acend to the Beloved because meditating on His incarnation, redemptive work of the cross, and our eternal inheratance invokes an extravagant worship from our hear. This type of abandoned worship seems rare and costly in the world today, but for the pleasure it brings to His heart it's worth every moment spent in His presence!

Devotional Prayer,
Jesus, You have created us with so much honor; the wonder of being created as Your bride is beyond comprehension!  Thank You for the demonstration of Your love and affections by becoming like us, taking on the form of man, in order to redeem us from our fallen nature. For all eternity we will gaze on Your beauty and never exhaust searching out the depths of Your love for us! Help us to never lose the awe of our salvation and the love You displayed at the cross. Holy Spirit, give us greater revelation into these truths and anoint our hearts to worship from the dephts of our being. May our lives be a fragrant aroma to You that the Lamb who was slain may receive the reward of His suffering. Thank You that You take pleasure in our lives to the extent that You have placed Your own Spirit within us that we will never be apart! In every season of our lives You prepare a table before us, even in the presence of our enemies, that we can partake and commune with You.

Song of Solomon 1:11 We will make for you ornaments of gold with beads of silver

Ornaments of gold speak of divine character. The Lord does not merely give us “ornaments of gold” or divine character, but He makes our nature to be like Him. Genesis 1:27 says that God created man in His own image; the word used for created is "Bara" it implies an initiation of something, an entirely new production, an activity that can only be performed by God. But in Song of Solomon 1:11 the word used for "make" is the word "Asah" which has an emphasis on fashioning the created thing and deals with refinement.  We are created and made by God not only in a general way in which all things are formed by Him, but also in an intimate way; we are His workmanship - His poem  (Eph 2:10). He is fashioning us to be His Bride for all eternity. Jesus nourishes and cherishes us because we are members of His body, as we read in Ephesians 5:29 – 32, "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church." We are one flesh with Jesus; how much more intimate can one get!

 But it is not just the Bridegroom's commitment to perfect His nature and godly character in His bride, but the "We" represents the Holy Trinity; the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit’s promise to accomplish the work in our nature. It is the workmanship of the Holy Spirit that impresses the image of Jesus upon the soul: we are partakers of the divine nature, pure, spotless, blameless, and the temple of the Living God! From Genesis to Revelation we read of God's tender affections and affirmation of those who have surrendered their heart to Him. He has so cleansed us by the power of His blood that He says to His bride, "you are altogether beautiful, My love, and there is no blemish in you" (Song of Solomon 4:7). And Psalm 45:13 says, "The King's daughter is all glorious within; Her clothing is interwoven with gold."

As we grow in the revelation and knowledge of the depths of God's love for us we can stand against the accusations the enemy brings that cause us to doubt the goodness of God and the intimacy we were created for. It is God who is at work in us and He desires that we run to Him when we see areas of weakness in our lives – not run from Him out of fear or shame. We are not failures when we stumble; we are learning to walk out our salvation in a manner that is pleasing to God.

The “Beads of Silver” referred to in this verse speaks of redemption; the Bride will be equipped to bring salvation and deliverance to others. God promises to complete His work in us. He will make us into a person who is Christ-like in character and empowered to deliver others.

Devotional Prayer

Lord, I thank You that those who are joined to You are one with You. I am Your poem and You are fashioning me to be Your Bride. You live in me and beckon me to abide continually in You; oh, sweet union! You are the Bridegroom and the pursuer in this relationship. I trust in Your jealous love for me to keep me close to You.  You are the seal of fire upon my heart and I live to know You more and more and that You may be glorified through my life

Song of Solomon 1:10 …Your neck (is lovely) with chains of gold.

The neck speaks symbolically of the will; the neck is what turns the head as it chooses which way to go. The Lord sees every movement of our heart and our desire to pursue Him in intimacy. He acknowledges the acts of our will that move us toward Him and calls us lovely. We should not dismiss even the smallest of willful choices we make to pursue God, for He not only sees and acknowledges our choices but His heart is moved and ravished by the "yes" in our spirit.   Remember what the Lord said to Samuel when he was sent to the house of Jesse to anoint the next king of Israel; Samuel was ready to anoint Eliab as king because of his outward appearance but God said, "do not look at his appearance... because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." God selected David as king over His chosen people because David was a man after God's heart. God saw every movement of David’s heart when as a young Sheppard boy he worshiped the Lord with all his heart while out in the pasture and no one else was around. David set his will to obey the Lord and waited on God to establish him. He would not violate God's ways to promote himself. David said in Psalm 40:8, "I delight to do Your will, O my God."  God took note of his steadfast devotion and rewarded David beyond measure 

The neck also conjoins the head with the body. Jesus is the head of the Church, His body, and it is our surrendered will to His leadership that allows us to be united to Him. In Song of Solomon 7:4 the Bridegroom likens the Bride's neck, her will, to a tower of Ivory. Ivory is rare and costly, and therefore a tower of beauty to the Lord. Often our obedience and our resolve to walk according to God's Word are costly. Even setting time aside everyday to read the Word and spend intimate time face-to-face with the Lord can be costly. Life is filled with demands for our time surrounding us with a barrage of things that compete for our attention and affections. Entertainment can strangle our devotion to the Lord if we are not careful to guard our time. With the increase of social media it is incredibly easy to spend countless hours on the internet, or our phones for that matter! But every act of the will that moves us toward God is a victory over the flesh and remembered before God. 

The Bridegroom gives high praises to his beloved as He calls her lovely. The spiritual gifts and graces which He bestows on every true believer are described by “ornaments” or “chains of gold.” Some translations interpret the verse as “chains of gold” which was rare and costly in those days. Few could afford a chain of gold, therefore it speaks of royalty.  The gifts Jesus has given us were costly for Him; and through His death and life we are now royalty to rule and reign with Him.

Devotional Prayer

Lord, I thank You that you see the “Yes” in my heart, and even when I fall short at times You still see the “yes” and call me lovely. Holy Spirit, I ask You for greater revelation to believe that You acknowledge even the smallest acts of my will to walk in obedience to Your Word and to give myself to You. Help me to guard my devotional time with You, to give You first place in all things, to honor You with the hours of my day. I know You see every movement of my heart toward You and You view these acts of my will as costly, like a tower of ivory.  The very fact that You call me Your bride demonstrates You don’t evaluate with the same measures I use; to ponder being joined to You as Your Bride for all eternity is almost inconceivable to the human reason!