Just Tast It

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. (Psalm 34:8-10 ESV).

It’s always a challenge to get children to eat all of the veggies we want them to in the early stages. Actually, I can’t say that I blame them after I’ve smelled some of those jars of baby food. Our oldest grandchildren were always very particular about what they liked and didn’t like. Logan didn’t like pizza; and, even now, at 16, he doesn’t like spaghetti sauce. He’s more of a “meat and potatoes” kind of guy. Faith, on the other hand, doesn’t like any condiments (lettuce, tomato, pickles, mayonnaise, or mustard) on her hamburger. That’s almost a sacrilege in Texas where we have a Whataburger in ever town! I’ve often been heard saying, “Just try it. You might like it.” The first time I chicken-fried some venison, I never thought I get either of them to try it. They were hesitant, but once they tried it, they both loved it, coming back for seconds. This is the impact of the psalmist in our reading. He is entreating his audience to just try the Lord! The taste of the Lord is also indisputable. The psalmist invites us to “taste and see that the LORD is good.” I have tasted, and I agree. The Lord is good. He is very good. He is superlatively good. He is unfailingly and eternally good. I had cause to be repulsed from that taste recently when Mary had to have the emergency colon surgery as a result of what should have been a simple procedure. It was not until much later that I realized how much good God was giving us. Of course, the pain of recuperation and recovery is not easy to tolerate, but as it turned out had she not had the surgery when she did it could have been catastrophic. The song is right: “God is good — all the time.” Lent is a good time to “lift up the cup of salvation” and say, “The LORD is good.” Bible commentator Matthew Henry elaborates on this idea: “Let God’s goodness be rolled under the tongue as a sweet morsel.” When David says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good,” he is calling us to figuratively take a bite — to try for ourselves by our own experience — and find out exactly how satisfyingly good God is. The apostle Peter applies the same language in when he says, “You have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Peter 2:3). To taste and see that the Lord is good, we must trust God and seek Him as our sole source of protection and provision. The only way to genuinely taste and see that the Lord is good is to put the matter to the test, to try and experience His goodness for yourself.