Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep Your precepts. I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Your word. I have not departed from Your judgments, for You Yourself 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. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 119: 97-105, NKJV.
Holy God, we are so grateful to have You in our lives. Please help us to experience the sweetness of Your Word. This is our prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
No matter how well prepared, and delicious a meal may be, we will not be able to appreciate it if our sense of taste is not working well. Let us take a look at a couple of definitions of taste bud(s), to help us in analyzing part of our Scripture in today’s study:
“Oval-shaped clusters of cells located on the tongue and lining of the mouth that contain special nerve endings that help give rise to the sense of taste” (Online dictionary – Cultural Dictionary). This definition confirms that tasting, is a process. The cells need to receive a message from the brain in order for the tongue to experience the sense of taste.
“–[N]oun[:] one of numerous small, flask-shaped bodies, chiefly in the epithelium of the tongue, which are the end organs for the sense of taste” (Online dictionary). I believe that from today, we will have a greater regard for our sense of taste. It is not something that we can take for granted!
The psalmist declares that God’s words were “sweeter than honey” to him. Perhaps what he was actually saying, is that nothing was sweeter to him, than the Word of God! I believe that we can teach our taste buds to enjoy anything. Seeing that this is a process that is ordered by the brain, we should be able, by constant consumption, to get our taste buds acustomed to the taste of those things that are good for us. That is why it is so important, in infancy, to teach children to eat wholesome food. If we can get that part of the brain to accept the healthy, before it is exposed to the unhealthy, we would have won a major battle with the appetite!
I believe that we can do the same in spiritual things. Perhaps we can help our children to develop a “sweet” taste for the Word of God, by positively exposing them to the things of God, from a very early age! It will definitely require much more of our time, but oh, the dividends it could pay in terms of eternity, cannot be compared to anything of earthly worth! One of my favorite sayings, is by an anonymous author, “Celebrate more of what you want to see.” I sure wish I had said that! I have proven it to be true! Expose individuals to the good! Encourage the good! Reward the good! This is a fertilizer for growing good thoughts; which leads to good actions, which facilitates a good harvest, for the glory of God! You will notice the emphasis on facilitate. That is because the individual’s choice is always the definitive.
Thanks be to God, that He has made provision for a re-birth! When we come to Jesus Christ, and accept Him as our Savior, He gives us the power to become the children of God, “who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1: 13)! Hallelujah! Many of us are way beyond childhood, not to mention infancy. But in Christ Jesus, we can begin all over again, by receiving the kingdom of God, as little children! May God help us, as we begin this new month, to take advantage of this opportunity to develop new taste buds, new desires, new goals, for the rest of our life! In this way, I believe that, we too, will find God’s Words, “sweeter than honey to [our] mouth!”