WE MUST TRY GOD OUT JUST AS WE WOULD SOME GREAT TREAT OR DELICACY AND SEE THAT GOD IS GOOD!
“O taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him” (Psalm 34:8).
How does God become a part of you, a part of your thinking, of what you really are? It is by faith, and faith means believing God and acting upon that belief. This is what God is saying in this verse—He wants us to act on what we know of God and his goodness, for only then will we actually experience for ourselves how good God truly is. David found God to be very good and says, “He delivered me from all my fears and enemies, and provided for me too. I want you to experience his provision as I have.”
Have you heard the expression, “Try it you will like it?” The assumption here is that once you’ve tried the product, you’ll come back for more. King David assumed the same thing about one’s experience with the Lord when he said, “O, taste and see that Lord is good…” What does “TASTE” mean? According to the dictionary here are a few things: 1) to distinguish the flavor of something by taking it into the mouth; 2) to experience or partake, or sample especially for the first time. To appreciate; to enjoy; or 3) the sense that distinguishes the sweet, sour, salty, and the bitter qualities of dissolved substances in contact with the taste buds on the tongue.
To TASTE means to eat; discern; perceive; to evaluate. To TASTE in its verb form refers to the testing of goods by means of the sense of taste. From the primary act of tasting, it developed into the idea of evaluative sampling of a thing other than food. Tasting as a noun came to refer to “discernment,” that is to the capacity to appropriately choose and delight in good things. The great proverbial King Solomon speaks of a woman who lacks taste when it said in Proverbs 12:22, “As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snot, so is a fair woman which is without discretion.”
The Apostle Paul and David both spoke of having, “Tasted of the heavenly gift.” The sense of taste includes most of the other sense—sight, smell, and touch. And certainly this is also true in spiritual things. There are basically three different classes of Christians: 1) There are those who hear without seeing; 2) There are those who both hear and see without tasting; and 3) There are those in whom all three combine—to whom “Faith comes by hearing,” in whom faith grows by seeing, in whom faith is developed and consummated by tasting. Experience God first hand, taste and see that God is good. We are to taste before we see—there must be an appreciation for divine things before we can see and enjoy the Lord.
Enjoying God’s goodness involves trusting Him. Trusting Him will ensure us true blessedness. We must trust and follow the Lord, and forget the things in the past and things behind us and press on to the things that are before us. We must taste of God for ourselves and not lean and depend upon the testimonies of others. David tasted of the Lord and found His goodness was sweet. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord. It is good that we individually taste the goodness of the Lord. Let the Lord take your trials and show you His goodness. You can only know the sweetness of His taste through having a personal experience with Him. You will not know the trust meaning of the food at a banquet by looking only—you must taste the wine to know the sweetness of the grapes from which it was made. You cannot know the quality of a beef steak by looking at it only. You must first bite into it to taste and see if it is good.
Do you enjoy God? King David did—Psalm 34:8, “O taste and see that the Lord is good…” Not to be crass but it sounds like enjoying God is like eating one of your favorite foods—the taste is good and pleasant to you that you really enjoy it. Every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before. Sam Storms has said, “If we don’t know who God is and how He thinks and what He feels and why He does what He does, we have no grounds for joy, no reason to celebrate, no basis for finding satisfaction in Him” So we read and pray, we worship in our time of private devotion, and we become a little more attuned, a little sharper at recognizing God and how He answers our prayers.
To “TASTE” then is literally to perceive by experiencing. It involves a conscious decision to be involved. God expects us to take Him at His word. It’s a leap of faith. If “tasting” is to perceive by experience, “seeing” is knowing by that same experience. There is something that happens when you take that leap of faith—something on the inside that validates the closeness of God. There’s an old expression of doubt that goes: I’ll believe it when I see it. But with God it’s the other way around; you will actually never see until you believe! And what is it that we “see”? What we see, according to David, is that the LORD is good!
To take refuge is to trust. Happiness with the general direction and outcome see the future. But God can—and so trusting our lives and future to the One who holds that future is the only sane decision in the playbook! David knew what he was talking about—when he was tasting and seeing and trusting he was among the most blessed men. When he got away from God and trusted in his own ways, his own strength and desires he became the most miserable wretch on the planet.
Reread Psalm 34 and come to the decision that David did—“O taste and see that Lord is good…” for He surely is. God is always giving evidence of His goodness so that our faith will increase. Learn to trust God with open ears to hear and an obedient heart to respond.
I want to end with a story that will make you stop and honestly consider the goodness of God and the importance of knowing what your relationship with Jesus Christ really is:
“A couple from north Oklahoma decided to go to Florida for a long weekend to thaw out during one particularly icy winter. Because they both had jobs, they had difficulty coordinating their travel schedules. It was decided that the husband would fly to Florida on Thursday, and his wife would follow the next day. Upon arriving as planned, the husband checked into the motel. He decided to open his laptop and send his wife an email back home. However, he accidentally left off one letter in her address, and sent the email without realizing the error. In Houston, a widow had just returned from her husband’s funeral. He was a pastor of many years who had been called home to glory. The widow checked her email, expecting messages from relatives and friends. Upon reading the first message, she fainted and fell to the floor. The widow’s son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor, and saw the computer screen which read: TO: My loving wife FROM: You departed husband – SUBJECT: I’ve arrived! – MESSAGE: I’ve just arrived and have been checked in. I see that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow. I am looking forward to seeing you then! Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was. – P.S. Sure is hot down here.”
