Sweeter Than Honey: Enjoying God in His WordНамуна

Discover the Sweetness of God’s Word

Every few months, I decide I’m going to become a tea drinker. I pull out all my tea supplies from the back of the cupboard: loose-leaf tea canisters, sieve, teacup, and most importantly, my prized local honey. The highlight of drinking tea, in my opinion, is the honey.

On a trip to Carmel Valley Ranch in California, my husband and I saw firsthand the intricate process of how honey is made. Dressed in white beekeeping suits complete with veiled hoods, we followed our instructor to a myriad of bustling beehive boxes where we witnessed the majestic wonder of the worker bees transforming nectar into honey.

Did you know that an average worker bee will only produce one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its short lifetime? In order for honeybees to make just one pound of honey, they must gather nectar from about two million flowers. And another mind-boggling fact: when properly preserved, honey never expires. The longest preserved pure honey is estimated to be about 5,500 years old.1

In Psalm 119, the psalmist likens the treasure of God’s Word to the delectable taste of honey: “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (verse 103). Honey delights our taste buds, but God’s Word delights our souls. The more you taste the goodness of God in his life-giving Word, the more you’ll crave it over the temporary pleasures of this world.

After seeing how honeybees make honey, my husband and I were so excited to buy a little jar of honey as a memento. Our excitement plummeted when we went to pay and realized it was $34 for a laughably tiny jar. Tight-grinned, we paid the exorbitant rate to have something to remember our experience (and maybe to avoid the awkwardness of putting it back). Whether you get your honey at a tourist experience, the farmers market, or Costco, honey is costly. Doing Bible study is costly too. It’ll sometimes cost you sleep or time on your phone or a lazy Saturday afternoon, but it’s always worth it. If you consistently and diligently dig into God’s Word, you’ll reap a harvest of fruit by being in the presence of your Savior.

God faithfully preserves every promise in his Word. May you discover, like the psalmist, that his words are sweeter than honey—a gift to you from your Creator to enjoy as you delight in him.

1. “World’s Oldest Honey,” Bee Mission (blog), September 12, 2019