I’m not a big fan of honey. My children love it and my wife says it’s
a more healthy sweetener than sugar. Of course, in my mind, sweet and
healthy have no real need to hang out together in the same sentence…or
food. So, its slightly harder for me to appreciate David’s heart in
Psalm 19:10 when he says that God’s Word is “sweeter also than honey,
and drippings of the honeycomb.” I have to go back in time and imagine
life in David’s world—no flavored coffee, ice-cream, Oreos, Skittles, or
Snickers. Just, honey.
Honey represented the sweetener of life. The
sweetest food to be imagined. Back then honey must have seemed like a
gift directly from heaven to transform the diet of a fallen world. From a
food standpoint, honey was experiencing the joy of heaven on earth. And
that, I think, is what David is getting at when he says that to him
God’s Word is sweeter than honey. So, now, I ask, is it that sweet to
me?
Of course most of us believe in the authority of God’s Word; we know
it should be part of our regular spiritual diet. But too often we feel
towards it a bit more like…eating our vegetables than…enjoying honey.
When we talk about transferring the value of God’s Word, of course we
mean upholding its authority, sufficiency, clarity, and inerrancy. Of
course we want to trace the storyline of redemption and obey biblical
commands. But in all of these disciplines, we want to transfer and
receive something else. We want an uninhibited, emotional, passionate
joy in God’s Word. We want it to be more than nourishing, more than only
truth. We want it to be delightful and joy-inspiring. Like honey for
our souls.
*originally posted at thetransfer.org
