Irresistible food

How sweet are your words to my taste,

sweeter than honey to my mouth!

Psalm 119:103

Have you ever made a dessert that you just couldn't stay away from?  The two desserts in my house that I can't stop eating have to be brownies or cheesecake.  There they are, fresh on the counter or in the fridge, waiting.  Just sitting there, tempting me to eat them.  It's horrifying to admit, but there's times when those brownies disappear in one sitting.  There's cheesecakes that have had more gone in one sitting than I'd like to tell you here.  Those sweet desserts are hard to resist.

The Psalmist here describes God's Word as one of those sweet desserts--sweeter than honey, which was one of the sweetest things known to him in at the time of writing this Psalm.  God's Word is something that we should want to devour like fresh brownies--not that we're going to lift it page by page to our mouths, but tasting it as we read, listen or hear God's Word at church or at home.

Not that God's Word always tastes good to us.  Sometimes it is like something that we cannot stand to eat--how I feel about raw celery or cooked lima beans.  The law makes my stomach turn as God's commands point out how often I've done what I shouldn't and haven't done what I should.  But I need those nasty vegetables--the law--or else the gospel wouldn't taste sweet like the brownies I so love.  The gospel with the good news of Jesus' payment for my sins--how sweet it tastes to my hungry soul!  It makes me want to dig in deeper to the Bible, to devour every word of forgiveness and love that it contains.  

We need to think of God's Word more as a favorite dessert--something that we just can't stay away from--than like vegetables--something we have to endure.  The blessings that God's Word contains are the sweetest food that we'll ever have in our lives.  It's dessert that will last until eternity.

We pray:  Dear Heavenly Father, you know my love for all things sweet.  Help me to have that same good appetite for Your Word, so that I can be healthy in my faith in Jesus.  Give me the desire to taste the sweet blessings and forgiveness that Your Word contains.  In Your name we pray, Amen.