Who is this coming up from the wilderness
Like pillars of smoke,
Perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,
With all the fragrant powders of the merchant?
— Song of Songs 3:6

In this romantic Old Testament poem that depicts our love relationship with the Lord, Christ is pictured as a “merchant” who sells the “fragrant powers,” such as the myrrh and frankincense. These now perfume the Seeker as she “comes up from the wilderness,” but the fact that they are “all the fragrant powders of the merchant” indicates she did not gain them for free; rather, she had to pay a price.

As Brother Titus Chu shares below, this picture shows us that, while salvation is indeed a free gift, to truly follow Christ to the point that we are “perfumed” with His fragrance is not (cf. 2 Cor. 2:14-15). Rather, if we truly desire to gain such a fragrance, we must be willing to pay a price in our seeking after the Lord today.

— Titus Chu —

“The Merchant”

Here…we begin to realize that the Lord is a Merchant. We can no longer expect that things will come cheaply. The Lord makes it clear that if you pay Him five cents, He will give you something worth five cents, and if you pay Him 100 dollars, He will give you something worth 100 dollars. If you give Him one year, He will give you something worth one year in return; if you give Him ten years, He will give you something worth ten years in return. How much blessing He will give you depends on the price you are willing to pay.

Our relationship with the Lord is no longer one in which He draws us, and then we pursue Him, or in which He freely supplies us, and thus we enjoy Him. Now the Lord asks, “Can you pay the price? Can I touch you in your living?” Although you will need to pay such a price, the result will be glorious, for in your being you will be perfumed with myrrh….

We may think that the Spirit works in us freely, at no cost to us. However, at a certain point in our Christian life, when we say, “Lord, bless me,” He will answer, “I will bless you, but at a price.” In this stage, the way we live is by paying a price before God….

If we are willing to pay a price, God will make us one who is so fragrant before Him as well as before the saints.

We need to realize that our maturity is obtained by being perfumed with all the fragrant powders of the Merchant. In a sense, it is true that we do not deserve to possess these elements, but unless we pay the price to buy them from the Lord, who is the real “Merchant,” we cannot obtain maturity in this age. If we are unwilling to pay the price, we cannot be matured. When we pay the price, however, all the blessings in Christ become our reality. May the Lord have mercy upon us so we can tell Him, “Oh, Lord, grant me the grace that I may pay the necessary price. Grant that I could buy everything that You have for me.”

The Song of Songs:
A Divine Romance.
Chapter 3,
“Up from the Wilderness,”
pages 139-141.

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— 17 June 2025 —