A Bundle of Myrrh — Hattie Hammond

He who dwells of harmony with Thee, and Thou art the Mother of all beings, and the light that illuminates the ends of the earth. And we thank Thee that still Thy loving eye runs true and strong throughout the whole earth, to show Thyself strong in behalf of those whose hearts were upright before Thee.

And we think, Lord, that our human limitations are the many that are in the dark places of the earth. But Lord, as the doors are closed to keep us here, we thank Thee that while there is trouble, every little touch, every little breath of heaven, so sweet and so clean and so pure and so out of this world, we love Your presence, we love Thy kingly steps and stately moving in our midst.

Oh, just wash our hearts and thoughts and every part of us now as we turn to the sacred pages of Thy Word, where we eat and drink together in Thy precious Name. Meet us in Thy Word and around this sacred communion table for Jesus' sacred prayer.

Everybody said, Amen. Shall we turn to the precious Word of the Lord? I told you last Sunday morning, or perhaps two Sundays ago, every Wednesday night for some time we have been studying the Songs of Solomon, and the Lord has certainly been with us.

This past Wednesday night was most precious in His presence, and the blessing of Wednesday night carried over until Friday night, so that Friday night was even much, much more blessed than Wednesday night.

I just didn't care if I ever left this place on Friday night. His presence was so with us. And it seems to me it's carried over until this morning, too. I believe Brother Diffenworth caught it, gave us a touch of it in his solo.

The Beloved’s Shadow and the Sweetness of His Fruit

Our thought was that I sat down under his shadow. It's wonderful to be overshadowed by God. You have to be very, very close to a person to be in their shadow, don't we? And he'd like us to abide just so close with him with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

But a previous portion we saved to share with you this morning. I felt it was the will of the Lord, and then we'd like to share with the Sunday morning folks what the Lord is giving us on Wednesday night.

Maybe you would like to come and join with us, because the Wednesday night crowd has been constantly growing, and God is with us. All right, now our portion for this morning is the first Song of Solomon.

The Song of Solomon as a Spiritual Song

I'd like to say to you the Song of Solomon has nothing whatsoever to do with Solomon himself. Some folks are afraid of the Song of Solomon because they don't think Solomon had very much in his life to give anybody.

Well, as far as Solomon himself is concerned, there are many things in his life that we disprove of. But Solomon was anointed king, and the anointing of God rested upon his life, and he did walk with the Lord for a while.

And while he was walking with God, one day the Holy Ghost came upon Solomon. Solomon was blessed with songs. He wrote over a thousand songs, or rather the Spirit through him sang over a thousand songs.

And this portion of his songs is all that we have recorded. But evidently this is the portion when it was purely of God, what came through the man. So Solomon has no more to do with the songs of Solomon than David had to do with singing his psalms.

The Spirit of the Lord came on him, and it's the Spirit of the Lord through David that sang those songs. Solomon had many more to do with it than Isaiah had when the Spirit of the Lord prophesied through Isaiah, the 53rd of Isaiah.

Isaiah hadn't anything to do with it at all. It was just that the Holy Spirit was there and gave to us that beautiful, beautiful prophecy, so purely God, that God himself has told us that it would be fulfilled to the very jot and tittle.

It's so purely Spirit and of God. And so has the songs of Solomon been given to us, not from Solomon, but while Solomon was in the Spirit, the precious holy glue of that man. He hadn't anything to do with it at all.

Purely, purely a song of the Spirit, something purely of God, as to be given to us as something inspired, so purely inspired by the Spirit that it could be given to us as the holy word of God and not a word that Solomon himself had to give.

So that's the first time I've even mentioned Solomon for a long time, only to explain that Solomon has nothing to do with the song of Solomon. It has nothing whatsoever to do with Solomon's life. It has nothing whatsoever, there isn't one word of it, that has anything to do with Solomon's wives.

The whole song is a solid spiritual thing concerning the heavenly bride and the bridegroom. It's all of him. The whole thing is the most spinless scriptures and can only be interpreted by the same Spirit that gave it.

The King’s Table and the Bundle of Myrrh

All right, then let us come to the King and sit down with him in the first song of Solomon, the twelfth and the thirteenth verses. While this table, my spite-nerd, sendeth forth the smell thereof. A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me, a bundle of myrrh.

Now it's the spices, it's the spices that I want to speak to you about this morning, and the sweet ointments, the sweet fragrances that are ours at his table. While the King, wiles it from my heart, my spite-nerd sendeth forth the smell thereof.

I say this portion because we're coming to the King's table this morning. We're coming to his table, and my heart has just been all melted before him in this little portion of his word. While the King sits at his table, my spite-nerd sendeth forth the smell thereof.

And I ask him, O Lord, while we sit at the table with you this morning, what has my heart to offer? What has my life to bring? What can you call forth from me this morning? Listen, beloved, when we come and sit at the table with our King this morning, I wish you'd take a good look at him.

I wish we would stop and take the shoes off our feet, and just take time to think at whose table we're sitting, table himself hidden from us. It's there that he ever pulls back his robe and lets us see this one with whom we're sitting has nail wounds in his hands.

And you're across the table from him. What has my hands to offer one who has nail wounds in his hands? As I come to the table this morning, I receive from his nail-wounded hand the emblem of the flesh that was rent for me.

I receive from his hand his life that flowed from his wounds for me. We're sitting at the table with one whose brow is marred, and he's our living head. If any of us have this morning came down from him, any life that any of us have this morning is flowing into us now from the living head.

From the living head. He gave all that we have he brought, that he has a broken heart, but he has. And if we're caught up in the spirit with him, this one with whom we sit down has a broken heart. The heart is asking, what have I this morning to bring to one with a broken heart?

One with nail wounds in his hands, and he invites me to come to his table. He asks of any of us his hand to draw us out after him, and he waits for our decision that we'll go. That we'll go. That last night in Jerusalem when the king sat at his table, that very last night's heart to his own.

It's deepest secrets at that time, the fact that he must suffer. And there's no other way through for him. He must suffer. And he calls to us his heart after him. His gifts, he gives us his blessing to recline upon his bosom with John.

We can feel his breath upon our face. We can look into those wonderful eyes. The warmth of his nature. John, the pulse of his very heart. Privileged to get so close to him. What can I bring him? What can I bring to such a one?

I can give him that that he longs for more than anything else. For one thing only, and he knows it. He's on his way to a cross. He must suffer. His life must be given. It must be poured out. And as he sits there at the table, to make our decision that we will go to Calvary with him.

We'll go all the way with him. We love his gifts and we accept his gifts. We love his blessings. We appreciate all that he does for us. And oh, it's wonderful to be blessed and to be gifted and to be endued and to be loved.

But when we make our decision, Every communion service to me is a time of bliss. And it's a time to consecrate beyond any consecration we've ever made. We've come thus far. We've come faithfully through thus far.

And the King is asking us, Will we another month? Another month? It's the first Sunday. We're beginning again. Will we another month? Lay down our lives and give up ourselves to be poured out for him.

That's what he wants. To be poured out for him. To really, when I say poured out, I really mean poured out. Because he's accepted in his presence. He cannot accept our natural goodness. All of those things that we bring to society and the unregenerate heart and life, And it's accepted as sweet and loving and kind and beautiful.

Because it's the goodness, it's the beauty of the natural, good, refined man. But that isn't the thing that he wants here. That isn't what he could offer to the Father. A sweet, lovely, good place. God cannot accept.

He doesn't thank us for the gift of our goodness. And our sweetness and our loveliness in the natural. He cries and pleases. His heart is the life laid down and the life poured out. When he came, it wasn't his good life that was accepted.

He lived by everybody. He ministered to everybody. He was the most wonderful citizen in Palestine. He never harmed anyone. He never touched any life. But it wasn't his good life that was poured out before God.

It wasn't his sweetness and his goodness and his kindness that was accepted. All had to be taken to Calvary and crucified, nailed to a cross, put there in death. His life had to be poured out and offered back to God.

Natural Goodness and the Work of Grace

And as we sit at his table, no matter what is in our life of goodness, how good we are by nature, God doesn't accept that. The Lord says, I just want you to do one thing. Your life, yourself, your human spirit.

Bring me your flesh. There's one thing I want to do with it. And that's so that all will be of grace, will be of the fruit of the Spirit in our life. And we'll not be offering the Lord our natural goodness, but that which is of the fruit of the Spirit, because of the work of grace in our hearts and lives.

Not that, but what is of God. God can only receive God. God can only find joy in God. God only takes pleasure in God, in God. God is only pleased with God. Many of us are or have or can bring ourselves, no matter what I am by disposition in the natural, I can't offer that to God.

No matter what you are in your horrible, terrible disposition, God is no more pleased with one's natural than he is pleased with that mean, quite hateful disposition. Both, likewise, have to be brought to the cross.

Both have to go down in death. Both have to be quickened by His Spirit and brought forth by His grace and be a product of the Spirit of life and the work of grace in our hearts and lives. Only God has its origin in that incorruptible seed that He plants in our hearts and lives that is very God Himself.

So as I sit down at the table with Him, all that I ever can bring to God is what divine grace has wrought out in my life and in your hearts and in your lives. Nothing in my hands I bring. How the Lord talked to me about that.

I was the nothing. It isn't I'm coming empty-handed. I'm the nothing. I bring just nothing. Nothing in my hands I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. Hallelujah. And while He sits there and the sweet beauties and the sweet fragrances pours out from His heart and His light to us and we see who's of God and our life not affected by it.

You can't. He's but blessing all with His wonderful presence. Praise the Lord. And then my spikenard will flow out and flow back to Him. What is my spikenard? Any perfume. Out of the box. Cross. Presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And He said wherever this story will be told. Oh, there's certainly nothing wasteful about that, is there? The master box is yielding dividends and returns for the Lord Jesus. To this day wherever this story is told there's something more brought to the Lord Jesus Christ.

So that's why my heart wants to, to all of us this morning don't withhold yourself from the Lord. Hold back nothing from Him. Don't keep yourself in any way from Him. But flow out to Him. Pour out to Him.

Let your spikenard come forth. The perfumes of your love, your worship refreshing His presence and ravishing His heart. Before me. In the presence of mine and runneth over. Well, we have nothing to give to anybody else until our own cup runs over.

Worship as an Offering Rather Than a Request

Yes, we have. We're asking until our cup is running over then we have to give. That's the difference between a prayer meeting and worship. When we come into a prayer meeting we come empty. We come to ask.

We come to pray. We come to receive. We come, oh Lord. We're here to pray. We're here to plead. We're here to intercede. We're here to pray. But not so when we come to worship the Lord. My over, we're worshiping.

And worship the Lord until the cup does run over. When the Spirit of God comes. Cups are running over. Just flow right out and respond. Other cups that feel a little empty and dry. Just aren't flowing forth as easily.

Aren't pouring forth so readily. I think the Savior wants us to keep our hearts full of praise. Don't you? Oh, the power of praise. The praise. The beauty of worship. And gives us of His fragrances. When He comes and pours forth to us.

How wonderful it is. And from the other side of the table. He wants our worship. He wants our praise. He wants our devotion. Nothing could please the heart so. His heart so much. And of course we can't worship the Lord.

We can only worship Him. And forget ourselves. Forget ourselves. And detach from ourselves. So we flow out in worship. And praise and adoration to Him. Just as soon as worship and praise to the Lord flows forth.

Listen. Never ever do we bring Him an offering. That He doesn't bring us one. Never. You just let your spikenard begin to flow. And right away another fragrance will fill the air. What is it? That bundle of myrrh, she says, was with me all through the night.

That bundle of myrrh was with me all through the night. It's a long night that you and I are in, isn't it? All through the song of Solomon. When night, whenever night is mentioned, it speaks of his absence.

As far as his bodily presence is concerned. Just the time, the song of Solomon is divided into three different songs. Three different verses, I call it. The one verse is when he was here on earth. And the whole thing has to do when he was here on earth.

And then the next part is when he went away and the night came. And then all that part of the song of Solomon is what happened in the night. And then as we near the rest of it is when he's coming back to receive his bride.

Christ’s Presence Through the Night of Suffering

All through the night he was with me. A bundle of myrrh. Fragrance. And you know, there isn't anything that'll strengthen us for the journey like the fragrance of his presence with us. Isn't it true? The fragrance of his presence.

I tell the Lord sometimes when the way just gets a little hard, I say, Jesus, if you'll only stay with me, I can go through it. I feel I can go through anything if you'll just stay with me. But whatever you do, Lord, please don't withhold your presence from me.

If you'll just give me the comfort of your love and the strength of your abiding presence, I can go through anything. And I feel that way about it. But Jesus, please, whatever you do, don't leave me. He promised never to leave us, didn't he?

And he really doesn't. He really doesn't. Sometimes he just withdraws his conscious presence just to make us run after him a little harder, that's all. That's all. And when he draws his presence, he tells us where he is.

He's just hidden behind the lattice for a little while. But he's peeking through at us. And he's mindful of us. He's just as much with us as he was before. But think when Jesus was hanging on the cross, when Jesus said to the Father, My God!

God had forsaken Jesus. Why, never did Jesus mean more to the Father than he did right then and there in that hour. Never was the Father closer to him. But the Father had to withdraw his conscious presence while Jesus was becoming sin for you and for me because God is too holy to look upon sin.

And he couldn't look on his only begotten Son while he was becoming sin for us. And he had to withdraw his conscious presence. But God was right there and watched over him that he was able to go through that thing in the will of God and how perfectly he satisfied his heart.

All through this night, listen, beloved, no matter how dark the night or how bitter the hours that you were passing through, it could never be harder or darker or more bitter than that little bundle of myrrh that promised to be with us all through the night.

Myrrh as a Token of Love and Suffering

That's why, that's why it meant so much in the Orient when a lover gave to his beloved a little bundle of myrrh before he went on a trip or before he went on a journey. All the time that he was away, all during his absence, she carried that little bundle of myrrh with her wherever she went, day or night, she was never separated from her little bundle of myrrh.

It was a token of his love to her. It was a token that he was suffering too while he was absent from her, while he was apart from her. But it was a token to her that he would come back and then would return again.

When one wants to make known his love to another and if she advances, he'll put myrrh on the door of her home, thus showing, to prove to her that with all of his heart he means his love toward her and he's suffering to be apart from her.

And that's why I'd like to say a little thing here that I know we have criticized, I think unduly, some of our friends for little things that they carry with them, little tokens that they might carry and so on, but the origin of certain emblems that are used in the scripture.

And for some time I had been studying the cross and the emblems of the cross and the meanings of the different crosses and why they were used at particular times. And I discovered that the first crucifixes that were worn and that were carried by the first mystics and devoted saints were just that they might, they carried it in their bosom or they carried it in their hand or put it someplace where every once in a while they would be edges of the cross and thus reminded of his love, reminded of the suffering of this wonderful Savior, reminded of the myrrh and the bitterness that he, when they fell to crucifix, suffered for me, I can go through this thing with him.

And they'd carry it and into the Colosseum face the lions and as they felt in their hands the prick of the cross, he suffered for me, he endured the cross for me, I can go through for him. Things are dissipated.

Paragons were beautiful and sweet and pure. And so if someone to this day would want to carry a cross for some reason to feel the prick remind them of Christ then how could they just say this do in remembrance of me.

I could love that. Could you? I could appreciate that and I could accept that going on in a heart, between a heart to me of one and the beloved. So let everybody else alone and let them serve God as they will.

The Bitterness and Costliness of Myrrh

Amen. A bundle of myrrh is my beloved unto me. He's with me all through the long night. The bitterness of that myrrh and I have been searching out and I did that a long time ago and just looked it up again to be real sure Myrrh is the life or the gummy of the tree and the way it's gotten in it's very best that they can get the best substance and essence the tree and when the tree is pure then this substance oozes out of the tree one drop at a time just like a drop of blood or a tear just one drop at a time and it's gathered that's why it's so costly and it's very bitter but costly.

Myrrh is so much in the life of our Lord symbolic of bitterness symbolic of death symbolic of suffering and if we're going all the way through with him if we're going to tell him at the table. Yes, Jesus, yes and we've already told him that my dear, there'll be myrrh and bitterness in every one of our lives.

Yes there will but he wants us to accept it with sweetness and offer it back to him with praise and with worship and with adoration. I wonder how many of you have myrrh in your life today. Maybe you've been eating myrrh you've been drinking myrrh from the first gift that was brought to Jesus in his birth the wise men brought him gold and frankincense and myrrh myrrh.

Myrrh was ministered to him all through his life on the cross they gave him wine mingled with myrrh when David the psalmist was caught up in the spirit and singing of the ivory palaces they brought spices to anoint him and one of the spices was myrrh.

But Mary had already been there and had anointed him before he died so that his nostrils were full of the fragrance. Oh, listen my dear no matter what bitterness is in your life today do you want to know him in the fellowship of his suffering.

Or do you want to go to heaven without any bitterness without sorrow without trouble without any hard things in your life to discover when you get there. I don't know the Lord in this relationship when he talks about his suffering when he lifts the foal back from his male womb.

I have no song to offer him. The other day the Lord made me to know. The song that satisfies the beloved is a song that issues from suffering. The song of the redeemed unto him that loved us and has washed us from our sins in his own precious blood wounds, sacrifice, death.

And if we're going to have song to offer him that song will issue from the fellowship of his suffering. And that, my dear, that we must know here. So if any of you are in the valley of sorrow if any of you are going through suffering or some hard place today oh, I pray, I pray there'll be nothing in your spirit that will want to turn back nothing in your spirit that will not yield or commit off or surrender off or murmur.

Let there come an offering of sweetness before the Lord. May I just hurriedly tell you one time I went home for Christmas and I was so tired I didn't know if I'd get through that last Sunday of meetings or not.

Offering Sweet Myrrh in Times of Trial

I just felt I had enough strength to get through that day and get on home. And I was looking forward to the time of rest at home and it was Christmas and I could be with my loved ones and I'm with them so seldom.

Well, my father met me at the train and on the way home he said well, my dear, I don't know what awaits you. And I said, what, dad? Well, he says, the town is just being ravished with an epidemic of influenza and you just cannot.

Well, my father met me at the train and on the way home he said well, my dear, I don't know what awaits you. And I said, what, dad? Well, he says, the town is just being ravished with an epidemic of influenza and you just cannot get a nurse.

You cannot find anybody to come into the home. And he said, I'm sorry to tell you, dear but your brother has had the flu and he's gone into pneumonia. His wife, my very dear sister-in-law that went to be with the Lord since I'm with you.

She had heart trouble and was sick for ten years. And he says, dear Mae has the flu added to her heart trouble. And their only child, Rosemary has a very bad case of the flu. All three of them are in bed.

We can't find a nurse or anybody to come in anywhere. I knew what dad didn't say. I knew that. So at Christmas, the Lord said to me this is my birthday. And I said, yes, Jesus it is your birthday. And immediately I knew it wasn't mine.

It's your birthday. And then he said, will you give me on my birthday the celebration that I would like on my birthday? Lord, what is it you want? Well, he said, the wise men brought me gold and frankincense and myrrh.

I would like you to bring me some myrrh. And I knew what was ahead of me. And immediately the Lord said to me but sweet myrrh. Myrrh is a bitter thing. But all through the bitterness I knew there wasn't to be one little hinderness in the myrrh that I was bringing to him.

It would be bitter myrrh to me but sweetness to him. And I said, Lord, you know I'm so physically depleted it seems to me I was never further down physically and right away. I was reminded when God took Jesus to the cross.

Never was he more physically unfit. For such an hour. He had been through Gethsemane. He had seen trails of one of his own. The denial of agony and the weather kept him in horrid old puke physically exhausted.

And for that God's command this is my will. And I want to tell you something else. He was the most beloved of the fathers. Sometimes when people are going through through bitter things and hard things and trials some old gossip.

Excuse me I don't really mean it that way. But they'll say wonder what's in their life. Wonder what's covered up. Wonder why the Lord has to deal with them like this. What's in there. Wonder why. It's all some.

It's just God's judgment. Something just we don't know anything about. But God knows what it is. The most beloved of the fathers. The only begotten son suffered more suffered most suffered more than you.

And I will ever be called on to suffer. Remember what it says about Lazarus. He whom thou is sick. Not he whom you hate. Not he whom you want to judge. But he whom thou lovest. Hallelujah. But through your tears we can offer him sweetness.

We can offer him sweetness. Hallelujah. The Lord took me into that thing. I was home long enough to change my clothes and get into a washable dress. And was taken over to the home of my brother. And for three days and three nights I did not have that dress off.

But the strength that he poured in the strength that he gave the life that he gave. Oh how he can minister. How he can help. How he can take us through.

Praise the Lord praise the Lord praise the Lord.

Trusting God Through Testing

He's worthy to be praised. He's worthy to be praised. And then I oh it just all depends you know on how we interpret the things the Lord permits in our lives. How we interpret it. There was dear old Job who says oh he's slaving me yet I'll trust him.

And I love the way Job says this when the devil has tried me I'll come forth as gold kid. Could you imagine such a what does it say when when he has tried me he has tried me. Folks would try to tell you that God doesn't permit trial.

God doesn't allow trial. God doesn't permit care. God doesn't allow care. He certainly does. Thank you.