Psalms 119:103

Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the entire Bible — 176 verses, every one of them a reflection on God's word, law, and commands. The writer's identity is unknown, but they were clearly someone for whom scripture was central to daily life. In the ancient world, honey was the sweetest substance most people would ever taste — refined sugar didn't exist, and finding honey was a genuine, uncommon pleasure. When this poet reaches for the highest possible language to describe their experience of God's word, they land on that. Not useful. Not important. Sweet. This is someone describing something they genuinely delight in — not a spiritual discipline, but a joy.

Lord, I confess I don't always come to your word with much hunger. Renew my appetite — give me ears that actually hear what you're saying, not just what I already expect to find. Let your words be sweet again, something I reach for not out of habit but out of real longing. Amen.

Honey. Not medicine, not fuel, not a daily supplement. The psalmist isn't saying God's word is profitable or instructive or even necessary — though it may be all those things. They're saying it's wonderful. It's something you want more of. Which makes it worth sitting with a slightly uncomfortable question: when is the last time you read the Bible and something genuinely delighted you? Not instructed you, not troubled your conscience, not sent you down a research spiral about ancient context. Just lit something up inside you and made you want to keep reading. Somewhere along the way, for a lot of people, scripture quietly becomes an obligation — a box to check, a source of quotations for arguments, or a text to decode for the 'correct' interpretation. The psalmist knew none of that machinery. What they knew was that these words were alive in a way that nothing else in their experience matched. If that's not your experience right now, it's okay to say so honestly. But it might be worth asking what changed — and whether you've been approaching the text with any openness at all, or whether you've already decided in advance what you'll find. There's still honey there. The question is whether you're actually tasting it.