I’m not sure if I like it because of what it says about the Word of God or because of the pleasant memory it brings to my mind, but Psalm 19 is a favorite of mine.

Every time I read Psalm 19, or fix a piece of toast, I think of my Great Aunt Fern. I remember her as a lady who was full of love; gave me big smiles; and, one who wrapped her short arms around me and embraced with warm sticky hugs—Aunt Fern was a bee keeper.

I think her bee keeping is one reason I grew up eating toast slathered in peanut butter and drenched in honey. Whenever I walked into her house, I would look to the left, and her shelves would be lined with jugs of pure raw honey. This was the real stuff—not an anemic imposter of colored water you see on store shelves labeled as honey.

The sweetness of honey is used in Psalm 19 as one of several descriptions of God’s Word. When you read this Psalm, you find the Word of God is:

• Perfect and will convert the soul
• Steadfast and sure
• Able to make the simple wise—boy do I need this!
• Full of God’s statutes and they are right, and they bring rejoicing to your heart
• So pure it will enlighten your eyes
• So precious you should desire its teaching more than gold
• Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb
• The means through which God warns us, and in keeping of them there is great reward

Now that you’ve read this summary of Psalm 19, compare it to the words of Solomon in Proverbs 28: “A discerning son keeps the law, but anyone who turns his ear away from hearing the law—even his prayer is detestable.” Quite a contrast between hearing and obeying on one hand, and neglecting it and refusing to hear it on the other.

Whenever I read Psalm 19, it reminds of Aunt Fern in two ways. It reminds me of her sweet honey, but I am also reminded that we need to be keepers of God’s Word.