This aromatic gum is from a tree common in Arabia. The Hebrews called it Mur. It formed a principal ingredient in the holy ointment for anointing the tabernacle and the vessels of the sanctuary, and also Aaron and his sons; and the Lord forbade the use of it in common, or any composition by way of imitating it, on pain of being cut off from his people. Was not this a striking type of the Holy Ghost in his divine offices, and the awful consequence of attempting any thing which bore a resemblance to the holy unction of the Spirit? (See Exodus 30:22-33.)
The Holy Ghost hath been pleased to mark out so many things concerning the Lord Jesus under the figure and type of myrrh, that we ought not to pass over a short consideration of some of them at least. Jesus himself is the sweet scented myrrh of his gospel; hence the church saith of him, that he is "a bundle of myrrh," (Song of Solomon 1:13) meaning, no doubt, that he is a cluster, a fulness, of all divine and human excellences. Every thing in Christ, and from Christ, is most grateful and full of odour to his church and people; hence his garments are said "to smell of myrrh, aloes and cassia"--all temporal, all spiritual, and eternal blessings are in him for his spouse, his fair one, his redeemed. "I will get me (saith the church) to the mountains of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense, until the day break, and the shadows flee away." (Song of Solomon 4:6.)
Myrrh is not only figuratively made use of to denote the sweetness and rich odour of Jesus, in his person, grace, and fulness, but the blessed Spirit uses the figure of myrrh to speak of his sufferings also; yea, the offered myrrh mingled with wine to Jesus on the cross, and which was among the predictions concerning the Lord in that solemn season, plainly testified the bitterness of Christ's sufferings. And the double quality of this Arabian gum, its fragrancy, and its bitterness, formed a striking union to shew forth how precious a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour was that very death, which to Jesus was gall and bitterness, indeed, in the extreme. (Mark 15:23.) And may we not suppose that the Lord Jesus had an eye both to his own sufferings, and to the sufferings of his faithful ones, who had followed him to glory through persecution and not unfrequently death, when he said: "I have gathered my myrrh with my spice?" for in his own person he trod the wine-press of the wrath of God alone, and may be said to gather the fruits of the labour and travail of his soul when beholding the blessed effects of it in the everlasting salvation of his people. And in their lesser conflicts and exercises, the bitterness of their sorrows Jesus takes notice of and gathers, when owning them for his own, and bringing them home to his Father's house, he brings them to himself, that where he is there they may be also. Blessed Lord Jesus! come as thou hast said to my house, to my heart, while thine hands are dropping with myrrh, and thy fingers with sweet-smelling myrrh, and be thou "like a young roe or an hart upon the mountains of spices!" (Song of Solomon 5:1; Song of Solomon 5:5; Song of Solomon 8:14.)