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With myrrh, and aloes, and cassia they used to perfume their garments: see Gen_27:27. This may denote those glorious and sweet-smelling virtues, which as they were treasured up inwardly in Christ’s heart, so did they manifest themselves outwardly and visibly, and give forth a grateful smell in the whole course of his life and actions; his doctrine also was a sweet savour unto God and men, 2Co_2:14,15.
Out of the ivory palaces; which may be referred, either,
1. To the garments, which were usually kept in, and now upon this extraordinary solemnity were brought out of, palaces, or houses, or wardrobes of ivory; so called here, as also Amo_3:15, not because they were wholly made of ivory, but because they were adorned or covered here and there with it. Or rather,
2. To the king himself, who is here supposed to reside in his ivory palaces; and his garments are so fragrant, that they do not only perfume the whole palaces in which he is, but the sweet savour thereof is perceived by those that pass by them, or are at some distance from them; all which is poetically said, and with a manifest allusion to Solomon’s glorious garments and palaces. By these ivory palaces he may mean either,
1. His human nature, in which Christ dwelt, as in a tabernacle, as the Greek word signifies, Joh_1:14; in which all these fragrant virtues were, and from whence they were diffused every where. Indeed the body is called a temple, Joh_2:19, and a house or tabernacle, 2Co_5:1,2, and so it might be called a palace. But why it should be called palaces, and that of ivory, seems not so plain. Or rather,
2. Those glorious and heavenly mansions, Joh_14:2, which may not unfitly be called ivory palaces, as elsewhere in the same figurative manner they are said to be made of or adorned with gold and precious stones, Rev_21:1 8,19; from which mansions Christ came into the world, Joh_3:13, and into which Christ went, and where he settled his abode, after he went out of the world, Joh_13:1 Act_1:11, and from whence Christ poured forth all the fragrant gifts and graces of his Spirit into the world and church, Act_2:33. Although there is no necessity to strain every particular circumstance in such poetical descriptions, nor to find out some particular thing in Christ to which it agrees; for some expressions may be used only as ornaments in such cases, as they are in parables; and it may suffice to know and say, that the glories and excellencies of the King Christ are described by such things in which earthly potentates do place their glory.
Whereby; or, from which; either,
1. From which place or palaces. Or rather,
2. From which thing, i.e. from the sweet smell of thy garments out of those ivory palaces, or from the effusion of the gifts and graces of thy Spirit from thy Father’s right hand in heaven; which as it is a great blessing and comfort to those who receive them, so doth it rejoice the heart of Christ, both as it is a demonstration of his own power and glory, and as it is the happy instrument of doing much good in the world, and of bringing souls to God, which is Christ’s great work and delight.
They have made thee glad, i.e. thou art made glad; such phrases being oft used indefinitely and impersonally, as Luk_15:32, and in many other places.