Spikenard- נֵרְדְּ
Nerd {nayrd}: an aromatic plant from India: A sweet fragrance: Song of Songs 1:12 indicates a relationship, communion and dining with the King: communion and eternal Life with the Bridegroom has a sweet and enduring quality, often referred to a a sweet fragrance, but intimating a pleasantness so fine and great as to be only described by peripheral fine things such as perfume and fragrances. Fine fragrances were offered daily in the Tabernacle (tent of meeting) and the Temple reminding Israel of the sweetness of the relationship with her King.
Sgs 1:12 While the king [sitteth] at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.The first reference for spikenard in the passage refers to the sweet savor of the stuff: and that it is at the presence of Israel’s King, her Messiah, at HIS table. The parallel here is the offering of sweet savors in the Temple on the altar of Incense, although the word ‘ointment’ may be applied yet there is no direct reference to spikenard. Spikenard used in 1:12, denotes a ‘breathing forth’ of the sweet smell, associated with the sacrifices of the Old Testament. The perfumed scent or aroma is also seen in walking past an “orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; campire, with spikenard”—it was the custom of Kings to have orchards or parks outside their castles, so again the ‘kingly’ nature of the aroma surrounding the place where a king abides or at the table of a king is noteworthy.
Sgs 4:13 Thy plants [are] an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard,
Sgs 4:14 Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices:
The third reference is the inclusion of spikenard with the other valuable, costly and fragrant substances found in the Garden where the Messiah bridegroom meets with the Bride. This is the ‘garden enclosed’ which while alluding to the betrothal of a husband to wife,also alludes to the meeting or communion of God with Israel, and also the assembly of believers. Just earlier there is the passage regarding the ‘fountain enclosed’ a reference to the indwelling Spirit. This also refers back to Eden, where the waters of the four rivers proceed from the center of the Garden.
The two places in Scripture that Spikenard is directly mentioned, are these three passages in Song of Songs, and in the gospels, referring to the anointing of Messiah as mary of Magdala pours the costly Spikenard over his head, preparing him for his death and burial.
This garden of the betrothed King, with the sweet savor is where we find the King in the new Testament as well:
Mar 14:3 And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured [it] on his head.The woman, so grateful for the forgiveness of sin, as mentioned under ‘ointment’, uses Spikenard as the anointing for the greatest act of obedience in human history: the walk to the Cross and death, and the remarkable outcome. The one other passage, refers to the same instance of the burial of the Savior and Redeemer on his way to enter the Holy of Holies in Heaven with the anointing of his blood on an altar not make with human hands:
Jhn 12:3 Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.
Following the anointing, Jesus is immediately criticized for allowing a woman of that sort near him, and she is condemned for wasting costly perfume: those doing the criticizing, fail entirely to see sweet sacrifice to the LORD for his purposes, nor the wisdom, of the King and Bridegroom at his table, waiting to take back all that is his, eminently, the bride, Israel.
