{"id":636,"date":"2013-10-18T21:16:45","date_gmt":"2013-10-18T21:16:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ibrnb.com\/meditations\/?p=636"},"modified":"2013-10-18T21:19:37","modified_gmt":"2013-10-18T21:19:37","slug":"what-is-sweeter-than-honey-psa-119-103","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/meditations\/?p=636","title":{"rendered":"What Is Sweeter than Honey? (Psa 119.103)"},"content":{"rendered":"

How sweet are thy words unto my taste!
\nYea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!(Psa 119.101-102).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Samson\u2019s enemies answered his riddle with questions, and one of them was, \u201cWhat is sweeter than honey?\u201d (Judg 14.18). This question is posed in a rhetorically negative form\u2014i.e., nothing is sweeter than honey, at least not in the physical realm.<\/p>\n

The fact that honey was renowned for sweetness in ancient times led the psalmist to make a comparison with something even more sweet\u2014the very words of the sacred Scriptures.
\n
\nTHE SWEETNESS OF GOD\u2019S WORD<\/strong><\/p>\n

The exclamatory form is emphatic, \u201cHow sweet are thy words unto my taste!\u201d \u201cYour words, O Lord, are so very sweet, inexpressibly sweet,\u201d is the meaning.<\/p>\n

We now know that we can experience four basic taste sensations\u2014bitter, salt, sour, and sweet\u2014and the pleasant sensation of sweetness is usually induced by disaccarides and mediated especially by receptors in taste buds at the front of the tongue.1<\/SUP> This explains why it tastes so good to lick the ice cream in a cone with the tip of your tongue.<\/p>\n

We know from the verse\u2019s second line that the psalmist had in mind what we mean by \u201csweet\u201d in English, but the original Hebrew actually has a slightly different connotation, for it means \u201cpalatable, very eatable, i.e., something that is smooth tasting and so pleasant to eat,\u201d2<\/SUP> even \u201cto be smooth, slippery.\u201d3<\/SUP> In the OT it occurs only in this verse, and could be rendered most precisely as, \u201chow smooth (i.e., pleasant) are your words to my palate.\u201d4<\/SUP> Not only the tongue but the palate, that is, the roof of the mouth, is associated with taste.<\/p>\n

It must be obvious to all that the psalmist speaks figuratively. He expresses his strong approval of and delight in God\u2019s Word. By the grace of God, the psalmist found the inspired, prophetic words eminently agreeable to his renewed spirit. He is describing not only an intellectual response of consent, but an emotional response of joy, and the nearest physical sensation which came to mind was the pleasure he knew in eating the most enjoyable, tasty food. Especially for people who take great pleasure in eating, this is a powerfully suggestive analogy.<\/p>\n

We would make two more very important points from the first line. First, note that the godly soul delights in the very words of holy Scripture, as together they convey a message. A certain mindset called \u201cneoorthodoxy\u201d has prevailed in twentieth century Christendom which disdains the words of Scripture per se, and seeks a religious experience in an encounter with Scripture, \u201cthe Christ event,\u201d as it has been called.5<\/SUP> This deep skepticism toward verbal inspiration has made inroads into the minds of many professing Christians, not to mention the unconverted, that works against appreciating Scripture as objective, divine, propositional statement of truth, and posits a supposed dichotomy between spiritual experience and knowledge and study of biblical content, with meditation. A favorite text such misguided souls love to abuse is 2 Cor 3.6, \u201cthe letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.\u201d Pardon this extended quotation, but Calvin commented so helpfully:<\/p>\n

This passage was mistakingly perverted, first by Origen, and afterwards by others, to a spurious signification. From this arose a very pernicious error\u2014that of imagining that the perusal of Scripture would be not merely useless, but even injurious, unless it were drawn out into allegories. This error was the source of many evils. For there was not merely a liberty allowed of adulterating the genuine meaning of Scripture, but the more of audacity any one had in this manner of acting, so much the more eminent an interpreter of Scripture was he accounted. Thus many of the ancients recklessly played with the sacred word of God, as if it had been a ball to be tossed to and fro. In consequence of this, too, heretics had it more in their power to trouble the church; for as it had become general practice to make any passage whatever mean anything that one might choose, there was no frenzy so absurd or monstrous, as not to admit of being brought forward under some pretext of allegory. Even good men themselves were carried headlong, so as to contrive very many mistaken opinions, led astray through a fondness for allegory.<\/p>\n

Brethren, is not the common disdain for what we might call \u201cplain preaching\u201d\u2014a simple, straightforward, exposition of texts in the pulpit with conscience-pinching application, due in part to a skepticism about the sweetness of God\u2019s Word written? We see people flocking in droves to hear the preachers offering their own opinions in the pulpit about everything under the sun, and irresponsibly wrenching biblical passages out of their context and twisting them into every error imaginable. He is counted the most \u201cdynamic\u201d preacher who can see things in a particular text invisible to all other readers! Meanwhile, essentially sound, expository ministries often have trouble gathering more than a couple dozen people.<\/p>\n

My dear paternal grandmother, a professing Christian in the Particular Baptist tradition, once told me, \u201cI like those on the radio who just preach the Bible,\u201d and I was glad to assure her that was exactly what kind of preacher I was striving to be. Nothing is more enjoyable to the soul of a true Christian than the plain old Word of God.<\/p>\n

Second, note that the psalmist delights in the words that are God\u2019s, because they are God\u2019s. \u201cHow sweet are thy words to my taste.\u201d The psalmist is not merely a literary fellow, loving dictionaries and vocabularies and poetry and prose, but since he loves God supremely, and Scripture words are a revelation of God himself, the psalmist found them most agreeable. The husband-lover reveled in his wife\u2019s speech similarly: \u201cThy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue\u201d (Song of Solomon 4.11). Even when she said the very same thing which another might say, her words were counted superlatively excellent, on account of the overwhelming adoration in his breast for everything about her.<\/p>\n

Friends, if the Bible is uninteresting to us and leaves us cold, should we not condemn ourselves? Objectively, it is the very word of God, but if we despise its great Author, and are without any passionate craving for his nearness, we should not be amazed by our indifference or irritation with Scripture. The same principle applies to our attitude respecting plain, biblical preaching. Oh, let each one examine himself and repent!<\/p>\n

ITS SURPASSING SWEETNESS<\/strong><\/p>\n

The second line of our text is meant as an intensification of the first. \u201cYea, sweeter than honey to my mouth.\u201d The psalmist is saying that he found more pleasure in God\u2019s words than in any earthly experience whatsoever (cf. Psa 19.10; Prov 16.24 [not only pleasant but spiritually healing], Ezek 16.13 [the finest of all food]).<\/p>\n

Jonathan Edwards believed that this exalted sense and appreciation for God\u2019s truth was an important element of divine illumination, a blessing only experienced by real Christians.<\/p>\n

There is given to those that are regenerated, a new supernatural sense, that is as it were a certain divine spiritual taste, which is, in its whole nature, diverse from any former kinds of sensation of the mind, . . . as the sweet taste of honey is diverse from the ideas men get of honey by looking on it or feeling it. . . . I know of no part of the Holy Scriptures, where the nature and evidences of true and sincere godliness are so much of set purpose and so fully and largely insisted on and delineated, as the 119th Psalm; . . . in this Psalm the excellency of holiness is represented as the immediate object of a spiritual taste, relish, appetite, and delight of God\u2019s law; that grand expression and emanation of the holiness of God\u2019s nature and prescription of holiness to the creature, is all along represented as the food and entertainment, and as the great object of the love, the appetite, the complacence and rejoicing of the gracious nature, which prizes God\u2019s commandments above gold, yea, the finest gold, and to which they are sweeter than the honey and honey comb; and that upon account of their holiness.6<\/SUP><\/p>\n

Now, each of you true Christians has experienced this delight in God\u2019s Word at least in some measure, but no small part of spiritual maturity is to gain steadily an ever-increasing appetite and pleasure in it, comparable to the degree expressed by the Spirit-led testimony of the psalmist. Clearly this ardent love for Scripture is possible in this life, even while it remains something short of perfection.<\/p>\n

The question that arises in a pious heart is, \u201cHow can I grow in my relish of God\u2019s Word?\u201d First, give diligence to make your calling and election sure (2 Pet 1.10), because unless and until you are really born again, such delight is impossible to you. Second, be diligent in using the means of grace, especially those involving Scripture intake (i.e., Bible reading, studying, meditating, and biblical preaching). Third, pray diligently that God will bless your principled spiritual efforts. Fourth, run obediently in the way of his commandments, for then the Word will come not as a curse on you, but as a comforting benediction. Grace be with you. Amen.<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1 Merriam Webster\u2019s Collegiate Dictionary, in loc.<\/p>\n

2 DBLWSD #4914.<\/p>\n

3 TWOT #1205.<\/p>\n

4 Ibid.<\/p>\n

5 Robert Reymond, A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith, p. 12.<\/p>\n

6 Religious Affections, Part 3, Section III.<\/p>\n

All rights reserved.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How sweet are thy words unto my taste! Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!(Psa 119.101-102). Samson\u2019s enemies answered his riddle with questions, and one of them was, \u201cWhat is sweeter than honey?\u201d (Judg 14.18). This question is posed in a rhetorically negative form\u2014i.e., nothing is sweeter than honey, at least not in the physical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-worship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/meditations\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/meditations\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/meditations\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/meditations\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/meditations\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=636"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/meditations\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":639,"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/meditations\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636\/revisions\/639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/meditations\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/meditations\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/meditations\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}