What is Sweeter Than Honey?
During my childhood I was allergic to honeybees and yellow jackets. At age eleven I was playing in a neighbor’s yard when I inadvertently stepped on a nest of yellow jackets that had built their colony in the ground. I was stung over fifty times and spent several days in the hospital. For the next twenty or so years I received regular allergy shots, called venom immunotherapy. Most kids outgrow that allergy, and I did as well. While I am still cautious around bees and all their relatives, I do enjoy what those pesky honeybees produce… honey.
The production of honey is fascinating. The process begins when bees extract nectar from flowering plants. They then store this nectar in their extra stomach while transporting it back to the beehive. When the honeybee returns to the hive it passes the nectar to another bee by vomiting the liquid into that bee’s mouth, who then does the same to another bee, one closer to honeycomb. This process is continued until the partially digested nectar is deposited into the honeycomb.
However, this nectar is still a liquid, so in order to remove the excess water from this nectar, the bees fan it with their wings to speed up the evaporation process. Once most of the water is gone, the bees secrete another liquid from their abdomen, which hardens into beeswax, safely sealing the honey inside the honeycomb for the bees, providing them with a food source to be consumed during the cold months. That is, unless Winnie the Pooh, honey badgers, raccoons, or humans get to it first.
Today we most often use sugar, or sugar substitutes, to sweeten our food and drink. But until the sixteenth century, when sugar became widely available, honey was the world’s primary sweetener. Since my prostate cancer diagnosis in 2017, I try to avoid as much sugar as possible, and honey is a good substitute. It is sweeter than sugar. While sugar only sweetens, honey on the other hand both helps to sweeten food and drink and has several health benefits as well. Not only do we consume and enjoy the sweetness of honey, we also oftentimes describe things good as “sweeter than honey.”
Psalm 19 reflects in three separate motifs the beauty of God’s Works and His Word. It begins like this: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” The first motif (vv.1-6) describes the glory and wisdom of God through His creation, the second motif (7-11) reveals God’s law, and the final motif (11-14) is a three-verse prayer asking for forgiveness and acceptance. We find these powerful closing words in v.14: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.”
In my opinion, the unrivaled beauty and transforming power of God’s Word is described in this psalm maybe better than any other place in Scripture. Let’s look at the second motif of Psalm 19: “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.”
Did you get that? God’s Word is sweeter than honey. So, I ask, are you taking time every day to ingest and digest His Word, allowing it to feed you, nourish you, and transform you?
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