Proverbs 16:24 Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.
The promise is that pleasant words will bring sweetness to the soul and health to the bones. This promise would be both for the speaker and the hearer of those pleasant words. Good words are good for both body and soul, the whole man. Pleasant words are like honey: it tastes good and it’s good for you.
Honey and the honeycomb in the Bible is considered to be good and good for you. Look at the “land flowing with milk and honey.” Jonathan found renewed strength and brightened eyes when he dipped his staff into a honeycomb. Psalm 19 says: The Word of God is “sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.”
Pleasant, gracious words have a way of making everybody, including ourselves, feel better. Positive, edifying, encouraging, uplifting words lift the spirit, which affect the soul, which affects the body. Flattery is not necessary, but even that is helpful. Gossip, pessimism, negativity, complaints, mean and harsh words deflate the spirit. Good news beats bad news every day.
But the real good news with pleasant words is The Good News, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is always refreshing and life-giving, energizing and invigorating, sweet and healthful. We can never hear it enough, for the gospel is like honey, sweet to the soul and health to the bones. Words have power, words give blessing, words heal and make alive, words lift up. So use and listen to “pleasant words.”