The Sweetness of God’s Word

Oh how I love Your law!  
It is my meditation all the day.  
Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,  
for it is ever with me.  
I have more understanding than all my teachers,  
for Your testimonies are my meditation.  
I understand more than the aged,   
for I keep Your precepts.  
I hold back my feet from every evil way,  
in order to keep Your Word.  
I do not turn aside from Your rules,  
for You have taught me.  
How sweet are Your Words to my taste,  
sweeter than honey to my mouth!  
Through Your precepts I get understanding;  
therefore I hate every false way.  

Psalm 119:97-104

Have you felt the heartbreak of unmet potential? Those moments in life when you feel the pain of what could have been met with the reality of what is. I love sports, and I love the global moment of the world stopping to watch the Olympics. I am not a regular follower of track and field, gymnastics, swimming, or fencing, but the thrill of global competition draws me in. If you are a regular follower of the U.S. Men’s 4x100 meter relay on the track, you know exactly what I am talking about in unmet potential. The U.S. is a dominant force on the track, regularly producing a new class of the fastest sprinters in the world, and regularly the U.S. Men have some of the top times in the 100-meter sprint. With amazing raw talent, the individuals are able to run their separate races as the best in the world. But then they come together as a team and try to string together four 100-m segments connected by three baton passes to claim the title of fastest sprinting country, and for the past 20 years, we have not been able to do it. The team has been riddled with baton drops, missed cues, poor communication, and the bang-your-head-against-the-wall type of frustration of not being able to live up to their potential (and those watching from our couches feel it for them too!).

As we conclude our summer study of Psalm 119, I can’t help but make a similar parallel to my own life and the Word of God. Perhaps what stops us from seeing God’s Word as sweeter than honey is that we are more familiar with the bitter taste of regret of not seeing the full potential of God’s Word. The twelfth and last stanza of our study shows us the full potential of those who love God’s Word. The Psalmist beautifully declares to us that God’s Word…

• Is meant to be “our meditation all the day” (97), or the thing that is meant to fill our minds every day. What are the things your mind is filled with all day?
• Gives us “more understanding than all our teachers” (99) and makes us “understand more than the aged” (100). It is the thing that makes the rest of our life make the most sense. What do you cling to in order to make your life make sense?
• Keeps us “from every evil way” (101) and makes us to “hate every false way” (104). It is the contrast and anchor we need to choose the path that God knows will bring us life. What evil is God’s Word protecting you from?

God’s Word is sweeter than honey because, amidst our bitter moments of considering it less than the potential it was meant to have in our lives, God has sent the Word to dwell with us that we may see The Word’s faithfulness in our lives in spite of our unfaithfulness. The Word has come to make us sweeter than honey because of the bitterness Christ endured for us on the cross.

In keeping with the relay metaphor, we are meant to run the race God has set before us, having the baton of faith in God’s Word passed down through God’s church throughout all the generations of God’s people. Even as we have had moments of dropping the baton, we take confidence not in our own ability to carry it forward but in God’s faithfulness to carry His promises through our lives because of The Word which dwells in us. As we worship the One who is faithful, a watching world gets to see His faithfulness at work through us.