How sweet are thy words unto my taste ... - Margin, as in Hebrew, "palate." The reference is to the taste, perhaps because the sense of taste was supposed to reside in the palate. The Hebrew word "may" include also the whole of the inside of the mouth. The word rendered "sweet" does not occur elsewhere. It properly means "to be smooth," and hence, is applied to kind or agreeable words. On the sentiment here, see the notes at Psalm 19:10.

Sweeter than honey to my mouth! - What deep communion must this man have had with his Maker! These expressions show a soul filled with God. O Christians, how vastly superior are our privileges! and alas! how vastly inferior in general, are our consolations, our communion with God, and our heavenly-mindedness!

How sweet are thy words unto my taste!.... Who had a spiritual one; and could discern perverse things, and could taste how good and gracious the Lord is: and so his words were sweet unto him; the doctrines of grace, the truths of the Gospel, were delightful and pleasant to him; like unadulterated milk, desirable by him: like good wine, that goes down sweetly; like good food, that is exceeding palatable; or like honey, and even sweeter than that, as follows. And that words "may be tasted and eaten", is not only agreeable to Scripture language, Jeremiah 15:16; but to classical writers (g);

yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth; not only had they the nourishing nature and the refreshing virtue of honey, but the sweetness of it; yea, exceeded it in sweetness; see Psalm 19:10.

(g) "Mea dicta devorato", Plauti Asinaria, Acts 3. Sc. 3. v. 59. "Edi sermonem tuum", ib. Aulularia, Acts 3. Sc. 6. v. 1. "Gustare ego ejus sermonem volo", ib. Mostellaria, Acts 5. Sc. 1. v. 15.

How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

taste: Heb. palate

119:97-104 What we love, we love to think of. All true wisdom is from God. A good man carries his Bible with him, if not in his hands, yet in his head and in his heart. By meditation on God's testimonies we understand more than our teachers, when we understand our own hearts. The written word is a more sure guide to heaven, than all the fathers, the teachers, and ancients of the church. We cannot, with any comfort or boldness, attend God in holy duties, while under guilt, or in any by-way. It was Divine grace in his heart, that enabled the psalmist to receive these instructions. The soul has its tastes as well as the body. Our relish for the word of God will be greatest, when that for the world and the flesh is least. The way of sin is a wrong way; and the more understanding we get by the precepts of God, the more rooted will be our hatred of sin; and the more ready we are in the Scriptures, the better furnished we are with answers to temptation.