Honey in the Rock…?
As a new Christian I used to sing a chorus about the blessings of God and the chorus went a little like, “like honey in the rock, o taste and see…the Lord is good..” Its actually taken from a promise in the Psalms, Psalm 86:16..is that He will satisfy us with ‘honey out of the rock..Sweetness coming out of hardness – “honey out of the rock”. Its a promise that we can claim as our own.
It’s when we are going through tough, difficult and hard times in our lives. The promise is for us not to be discouraged, God promises He can give us honey out of those tough rocky times, the hard experiences of life. I used to wonder why God didn’t remove the rocks from my life and its path. For certainty none of us enjoys going through the hard places, and if God really loved us, He would go ahead of us and remove the rocks. God indeed loves us but I had no idea of how He would mature us.
The life of David is a marvelous expression of this promise and its reality in our lives! He is anointed by Samuel as the true king of Israel, yet he was hunted like a common criminal. King Saul who was on the throne at the time of David’s anointing, hated David and tried to kill him. So David had to flee his home and live in caves. If ever a man went through hard rocky experiences surely David did.
I suppose more than once David had his own doubts and heard the enemy say like he does to us all, “Its not worth this pain and suffering to serve the Lord. Why don’t you give up?” But God had promised David a kingdom yet all he had thus far was rocks and caves and hiding.
David did not give up, and one day God gave David honey out of the rock. In fact, many of the psalms that encourage our hearts today were born out of David’s difficult experiences of life.
One of the tests of maturity is how a person gets his enjoyment in life. For some their pleasure is found in doing what is wrong, and, of course, this is the lowest possible way to live. For others, they get their pleasure by avoiding responsibilities and difficulties and being sheltered and protected. That approach to life can never make a person strong and mature. The mature Christian doesn’t deliberately look for difficulties, but neither does he run away from them. Rather he accepts them in the will of God and asks the Lord to give him, “honey out of the rock.”
Many of the psalms are divided in three divisions: tears, trust and triumph. The psalm begins with tears and trouble, and the psalmist cries out to God. Then he gets his eyes off himself and his difficulties and looks to God in faith. When he does a wonderful thing happens: his trials are replaced by triumph, and his sighing becomes singing. He has discovered honey out of the rock.
It was James who said, My brothers, count it all joy when you encounter various kinds of testings; knowing this, that the trial of your faith works patience ..Trials are not working against us; they are working for us!
James is saying don’t run around the rocks, or stand there and expect God to remove them. Instead, look for the honey that is sure to come from the rocks! Paul echoes this when he writes, And we KNOW that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to his purpose – Rom 8:28
Finally, as we look at our Lord’s life have you ever considered the difficulties He faced…..?
This week, with God’s strength and His grace, may you taste that beautiful sweet honey, in the rocks that lay ahead of you.