Psalm 34:8 NIV
Taste and see that
the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
How Does God Taste To You?
There are five different forms of taste. The first is the ability to taste sweets and
is associated with identifying simple carbohydrates. The second is a recently discovered taste
sense called Umami and is connected to savory foods produced by amino acids and
small peptides. Tomatoes, soy sauce,
meat broths and fermented products are recognized by this taste type. The salty taste receptors pick up on sodium
and other ions. Taste buds connected
with sour notice acids and bitter taste receptors cue us in on potential toxins
such as those in plant alkaloids. How
important do you think the ability to taste is?
Is its greatest benefit the pleasure it brings or its ability to help
protect you from foods and drinks you should not be taking into your body? Taste even helps you digest your food
properly as it prepares the body to receive what you put into it. There is
research that indicates that those who lose the ability to taste are less
likely to eat and more likely to suffer from malnutrition. Medications that have the side effect of
taking away some of your ability to taste may also limit your recovery by
diminishing the desire you have to fuel the body. Have you ever thought of “taste” as important
when it comes to your relationship to God?
It is and we will take a look at this today.
Perhaps the most famous verse found in the Bible on
taste is Psalm 34: 8. Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed
is the man who takes refuge in him. (NIV) It is odd to think of tasting the goodness of
the Lord. What does that mean? Quoting this verse, the Apostle Peter notes
the great value of living a holy and good life.
Therefore, rid yourselves of
all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual
milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted
that the Lord is good. (1 Peter 2:1-2 NIV) If you accept these two verses as indications
that taste is somehow related to our experience of God, then perhaps you could
spend a bit of time considering how that is so.
There are at least three different ways taste
impacts us. The first is that it allows
us to evaluate what we take into ourselves before we do so. There are questions we may have with regard
to God. Is He good enough? Can I count on Him? Do I matter to Him? How will He change my life if I invite Him to
be a part of it? The Hebrew people had
questions like this when Moses came to them with a stunning proposition. He told them that God had met him in the
desert and the Lord was going to take the entire nation of Israel out of its
Egyptian captivity. At first the leaders
were happy to hear of this; especially when Moses performed miracles that the
Lord enabled. And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen
their misery, they bowed down and worshiped. (Exodus 4:31 NIV) Encouraged by the response of the Israelites
Moses and his brother Aaron immediately left to meet with the king. Afterward
Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, "This is what the Lord, the God
of Israel, says: 'Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in
the desert.'" (Exodus 5:1 NIV) Unfortunately, the King of Egypt
was not too receptive to Moses’s presentation and did not care what Moses’s God
had to say. He made it worse on the
Israelites after Moses made his request or demand. That
same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and foremen in charge of the
people: "You are no longer to
supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their
own straw. But require them to make the
same number of bricks as before; don't reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is
why they are crying out, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.' Make the work harder for the men so that they
keep working and pay no attention to lies." (Exodus 5:6-9 NIV)
The Israelites weren’t anti-God after their lives
were made more miserable; they just were not ready to trust Him to get them out
of Egypt. They had a taste of God and He
left a bitter taste in their mouths. After
the Lord sent the ten plagues however, He tasted much sweeter and they found
Him worth following. What do we do
though if we cannot see anything supernatural in our lives yet? How does God taste when we are struggling
with depression or difficult circumstances?
Sometimes we take too small of a sample and don’t give God enough time
to reveal His kindness and mercy. A
second taste of God could make things much clearer for us.
Taste can also tell you what your body needs. Pregnant women are known for having strange
cravings and many believe that the taste for certain foods is a way the body
tells them of their nutritional needs.
Athletes have reported the same discovery. When you taste of the Lord you might discover
that what you thought was important to you isn’t or might even be harmful. In speaking of the Israelites and their
reaction to being in the desert, the Psalmist had this to say about them after
they had been freed of their slavery and their enemies destroyed. He (the
Lord) saved them from the hand of the foe; from the hand of the enemy he
redeemed them. The waters covered their adversaries; not one of them survived. Then
they believed his promises and sang his praise.
But they soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for his counsel. In the desert they gave in to their craving; in
the wasteland they put God to the test. (Psalm 106:10-14 NIV)
How many in the church mistake their cravings for
their needs? It is the great trap of
Satan to confuse our minds and create within us disappointment with God because
He won’t give in to our cravings when they don’t meet our needs. Our Lord’s work with us is defined and
unyielding. He is making us fit for
heaven. If you are God’s and you belong
to Him through our Lord’s work on the Cross, then He will not budge on
this. God will give you enough people
who don’t like you, who treat you badly, to work in you love for enemies. He will give you enough hardship and
difficulty until you are grateful for the smallest blessing and satisfied with
the most insignificant of gifts. Trials
will come from God that will challenge your faith so that you learn to trust
Him uncompromisingly. The Holy Spirit
will take your childish lust for entertainment and bore you to tears with what
once garnered your rapt attention. Just
look at your circumstances carefully and you will quickly discover what God
thinks you need to be prepared for heaven.
As long as our joy is based on what we have rather than being connected
to Christ in trust and love, our Lord will eliminate our sources of happiness that
don’t lead us to Him or that make us selfish or self-absorbed.
If that sounds discouraging to you, then consider
one more benefit of taste. Taste can
create an insatiable desire for more.
How many of us have kept eating because of the taste of our food rather
than our need for it! This may lead to
unhealthy weight gain but spiritually this is a gift we must treasure. The Psalmist describes this aspect of taste
perfectly. As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O
God. My soul thirsts for God, for the
living God. When can I go and meet with God? (Psalm 42:1-2 NIV) How often do we find Christians in this
state? It comes only through the
supernatural working of God! There are
moments when our interest in Christ becomes like an explosion of light. We are mesmerized by Him; captivated by
Him. There is an example of this that
illustrates the progression of desire for God.
In Acts 5 is the account of the arrest of the Apostles by the Jewish
authorities for preaching Christ at the Temple.
When commanded by the Sanhedrin to stop teaching publically about
Christ, Peter spoke for all of the Apostles, responding, "We must obey God rather than men!”
(Acts 5:29 NIV) In simple obedience the
Apostles refused to back down to the threats of the Sanhedrin. But then they were flogged which was a
horrific beating, a brutally sadistic beating and afterward we are told the
Apostles rejoiced. They were genuinely
happy. How could this have been? During that space in time, their soul panted
for God and nothing could keep them from that rapt attention to Him.
In moments that are so private and unpretentious we may
not believe they have occurred, God comes to us in the midst of some ordinary,
mundane and even boring time when we have perhaps decided Christianity is as
dull as a pile of gravel. The Lord will catch
you up in His arms and you will be enveloped by the goodness of God and His
love for you. He will flood your mind
and you will be brought to a state of joy that Satan is unable to mimic. You cannot and will never plan these moments
with God. All you can do is keep your
heart so ready and so pure that when He comes upon you, nothing will hinder the
supernatural pleasure you will have being with Him. Taste and see that the Lord is good…
No comments:
Post a Comment