Jan 14
25
“His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers.” Song of Solomon 5:13
Lo, the flowery month is come! March winds and April showers have done their work, and the earth is all bedecked with beauty. Come my soul, put on your holiday attire and go forth to gather garlands of heavenly thoughts. You know where to betake yourself, for to you “the beds of spices” are well known, and you have so often smelled the perfume of “the sweet flowers,” that you will go at once to your well-beloved and find all loveliness, all joy in Him. That cheek once so rudely smitten with a rod, oft bedewed with tears of sympathy and then defiled with spittle—that cheek as it smiles with mercy is as fragrant aromatic to my heart.
You did not hide Your face from shame and spitting, O Lord Jesus, and therefore I will find my dearest delight in praising You. Those cheeks were furrowed by the plough of grief, and crimsoned with red lines of blood from Your thorn-crowned temples; such marks of unbounded love cannot but charm my soul far more than “pillars of perfume.” If I may not see the whole of His face, I would behold His cheeks, for the least glimpse of Him is exceedingly refreshing to my spiritual sense and yields a variety of delights. In Jesus I find not only fragrance, but a bed of spices; not one flower, but all kinds of sweet flowers. He is to me my rose and my lily, my heart’s-ease and my cluster of camphire. When He is with me it is May all the year round, and my soul goes forth to wash her happy face in the morning-dew of His grace, and to solace herself with the singing of the birds of His promises. Precious Lord Jesus, let me in very deed know the blessedness which dwells in abiding, unbroken fellowship with You. I am a poor worthless one, whose cheek You have deigned to kiss! O let me kiss You in return with the kisses of my lips.
Charles Spurgeon.
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(extract from) Christ’s Gracious Words
It was one of the grand and peculiar characteristics of our Lord’s preaching, that He Himself was the great theme. Without entrenching upon His Father’s glory, or arrogating to Himself an honor not His own, He could embody in His teachings all the truth of which He himself was the subject. As He came down from heaven to reveal heaven, as He came from the bosom of His Father to unveil that bosom, as He was one with the Father, it was impossible that He could faithfully and fully proclaim His gospel unless He Himself were its one grand and holy theme
The Lord Jesus is one into whose lips God’s grace is poured; and the gracious words that proceeded out of those lips. In Psalm 45 we have this truth beautifully exhibited: “My heart is inditing a good matter [the matter is always good where Christ is the substance,] my tongue is the pen of a ready writer. You are fairer than the children of men; grace is poured into your lips.” You who have a spiritual eye to discern spiritual things will find another striking unfolding of this truth in Cant. 5:13,16: “His cheeks are as a bed of spices his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh; His mouth is most sweet.” It is a description by the Church of the superlative excellence and preciousness of her Lord. This is one of the marked excellences His anointed lips. The great truth here set forth is the plenitude of grace poured into the humanity of our adorable Lord not into His lips merely.
We proceed now to consider the gracious words that proceeded out of those lips. It will be difficult to imagine any other than gracious words flowing from Christ, whose heart was the overflowing fountain of grace and love. Our Lord was the great Prophet of His Church. A greater than He never appeared, to whom His hearers bore witness, “Never a man spoke like this man.” What, for example, are His doctrines but doctrines of grace? Our Lord was a doctrinal preacher. He made doctrine the basis of precept, and precept the basis of promise. It is the foundation of all truth. Did He propound the everlasting love of the Father? Did He set forth the great doctrine, the election of grace? Did He exhibit the sovereignty of God’s mercy? Did He unfold the perpetuity of God’s covenant? They were all exhibited as doctrines that laid man’s pride in the dust, and exalted the grace and mercy of God. There is not a doctrine in Christ’s ministry that does not tend to abase the creature.
We know that these doctrines are by some abused, awfully abused- nevertheless, the abuse of a doctrine is no valid argument against the truth or holiness of a doctrine. But we know there are those who do use them to the glory of God’s name, and can bear this testimony, “I never saw my heart so sinful, I never was so weaned from self-confidence, as when these glorious doctrines of grace were opened up to my mind by the power of the blessed Spirit, and I saw that God’s everlasting love, God’s choice of me, the effectual calling of the Spirit, sprang from the fathomless depths of His most full and sovereign grace.”
And was not this free, unconditional grace the charm of Christ’s preaching? Did He not reiterate the glorious truth, “You have destroyed yourself, but in Me is your help.” Was not His one blessed theme, the announcement of God’s matchless love and pardoning grace to the vilest sinner, drawn by the Spirit to avail himself of the divine and precious boon?
What, too, are the invitations of Christ but gracious words? Truly, “His lips are like lilies.” When He invites the weary and the burdened to come to Him for rest; when He stretches out His gracious hand to the vilest sinner, to the man who has lifted his arm against God; when He heals the broken heart, lifts up the dejected spirit, and with the skillful tongue of the learned, speaks a word in season to him that is weary; are they not gracious words? The invitation that bids me to throw down the weapons of my rebellion before the cross, and meet the embrace of a reconciled Father- is not that gracious? The invitation that bids me come and slake my soul’s deep thirst at the well-spring of free salvation- is not that gracious? The invitation that bids me reason the matter with God, and tells me that “though my sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool”- is not that gracious? The invitation that bids me lay my deepest sorrows on His heart, and my heaviest burdens on His arm; is not that gracious? O beloved! the words of Jesus are full of grace and there is nothing in the gospel of Christ that wakes one harsh note upon the ear of a poor, sin-burdened, guilt-distressed soul.
There may be an allusion here to the manner of our Lord’s teaching- He spoke gracefully. There was that in His mode of stating the gospel like Himself. There was nothing harsh or severe in His unfoldings of truth. He spoke like one who had authority. “I am the light of the world,” “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” “I am the bread of life,” “I am the good Shepherd,” “I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly,” “You call me Master and Lord; you say well, for so I am.” With what authority He preached, with what boldness He enunciated His own gospel! And it is no small comfort to a child of God to know that He has authority to announce salvation, to declare the mind of God, and that, if we believe His testimony, and cast ourselves upon His word, we shall be saved. There is no view of the Lord’s ministry more blessed than this. With what dignity and skill did He speak! His enemies sought to entangle Him in His conversations. Did they ever succeed? No, did He not foil them with their own weapons, and send them away abashed at their folly?
Let us for a few moments trace the different effects which the words of Christ have upon some. In all cases it is not the same. This unfolds an instructive feature- that the same gospel sometimes produces almost opposite effects. With some, it is the emotion of gratitude, love, and praise. They heard the gracious words of the gospel, and they were just the words they needed. They came as poor bankrupts, with the pressure of guilt upon their hearts, with the great inquiry, “How may I be just with God?” The Savior met them, bade them bathe in the fountain of His precious blood, cast from them their own righteousness, and rest in His finished work, yes, to rest in Himself; and they were saved!
So, my reader, may you be found hanging upon the lips of the Savior, into which grace was poured, and from which words of grace abundantly flow. Oh, do these pages speak to one heart-broken sinner? It is their mission to tell you that the Lord Jesus has not in His lips one harsh expression for your ear. He invites you to receive salvation. He bids you come and sit down at His feet, and hear the gracious words that flow from His anointed lips. Precious Son of God! at Your feet we will sit, on Your lips we will hang- You alone shall be our Teacher, our Prophet, Priest, and King.
“Encouraged by Your word
Of promise to the poor,
Behold a beggar, Lord,
Waits at Your mercy’s door
No hand, no heart, O Lord, but Thine,
Can help or pity wants like mine.”
“The beggar’s usual plea,
Relief from men to gain,
If offered unto Thee,
I know You would disdain;
And pleas which move Your gracious ear
Are such as men would scorn to hear.”
“I have no right to say,
That though I now am poor,
Yet once there was a day
When I possessed more
You know that from my very birth
I’ve been the poorest wretch on earth.”
“Nor can I dare profess,
As beggars often do,
Though great is my distress,
My faults have been but few
If You should leave my soul to starve,
It would be well what I deserve.”
“It was folly to pretend
I never begged before,
Or if You now befriend,
I’ll trouble You no more
You often have relieved my pain,
And often I must come again.”
“Though crumbs are much too good
For such a dog as I,
No less than children’s food
My soul can satisfy.
Oh, do not frown and bid me go!
I must have all You can bestow.”
“Nor can I willing be
Your bounty to conceal
From others, who, like me,
Their needs and hunger feel.
I’ll tell them of Your mercy’s store,
And try to send a thousand more.”
“Your thoughts, You only Wise!
Our thoughts and ways transcend,
Far as the arched skies
Above the earth extend
Such pleas as mine men would not bear
But God receives a beggar’s prayer.”