What does it mean to think of the Bible as sweet? One place we might start in trying to get some understanding is by noting that what the psalmist says is sweet are the “promises” or “sayings” of God.
Yet there is a sense in which the psalmist says that is exactly what he finds when he studies Scripture. It takes him back to Eden, not in an unfallen state to be sure, but to a place where he is himself personally taught of God. And what this means for us is that, although we have forfeited Eden, we have a taste of Eden or, better yet, of heaven, when we come to the Bible and find that God himself speaks to us.
The second reason why the psalmist has come to love God's law is that it has kept him on the path of righteousness. That is, it has kept him on the right path and off the wrong one. Earlier in the psalm the writer asked pointedly, “How can a young man keep his way pure?" (v. 9). He answered, “By living according to your word.” He is saying the same thing now (in verse 101), only he is stating it the other way around: “I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your laws.” In other words, it is what one of the older evangelists wrote on the flyleaf of his Bible: “This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book.”
The first of the psalmist's reasons why he had learned to love God's law is the one most emphasized, since it is repeated in parallel fashion three times in verses 98-100. It is that God's Word is the source of true wisdom. This is repeated so often that many scholars regard wisdom, rather than love of God's law, as the stanza's actual theme.
What an uplifting stanza this is, the mem stanza! It is filled with joy and with love for God's law, so much so that there is not even a single petition in it. Can this be the same poet who was sunk in near despair just two stanzas earlier? We know the answer, of course. It is the same person exactly, and the reason for the change is precisely that for which the poet is now praising God, namely, the Bible or God's law.
