Our God Reigns

Each day the Marianists celebrate the Liturgy of the Hours in common: Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer and Night Prayer.

Psalm 19 begins, "The heavens tell the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork . . . . "
 
Throughout this psalm, God extols for us the absolutely unimaginable value of his Word. The law of God, the Scripture, is a treasure, a glorious, life-changing, soul-reviving treasure. The disciple can't live without it. And God, by His choice, compares the Word to good food.

How is the Word like food? In one sense, there is a functional similarity. To the believer, reading the Word of God and taking it deep into the soul is a means of spiritual survival. We need God's Word to feed our souls or our souls will shrivel up and get sick and weak. If you don’t feed your soul with the Word of God, it is unquestionable that your Christian life will be unhealthy and lacking growth.

But there is more than mere functional survival in the Word of God. It is not just general food. There are lots of foods that are just general food, but not the Word. The words that David chooses to describe the Word of God are sweet words. The word of God is not a roast beef on stale rye bread; no, God’s words are sweet as honey.