At different points in our lives we meet people, even for just a short time, who bring new insight into our lives. Such was the case with a woman I encountered as a teenager. Her name was Nisha. Nisha was a recent immigrant to Canada. She had a warm and engaging personality. Her enthusiasm was infectious and I liked her as soon as I met her. Nisha and I met while working in the kitchen of the local Salvation Army Shelter. She was a cook. I was essentially her helper. Anything she needed sliced, diced, or chopped was my responsibility. I was basically a human food processor. For at least a year we worked together feeding the men who stayed at the shelter. Over time we got to know each other quite well and she invited me to her home for dinner. At this point in my life I had a fairly narrow definition of what good food was. For a meal to be satisfying for me it usually involved deep-frying. On this occasion I was to have my boundaries expanded. Nisha created a unique dining experience that night that included a combination of Jamaican and Middle Eastern cooking. I enjoyed it all quite a bit until it came to dessert. Nisha placed a bowl in front of me that seemed to be a combination of custard, cold pasta, and a variety of other spices. I was not sure what to make of it. I had never seen anything like it. I tentatively brought a forkful up to my lips and tasted it. It was sweet, starchy, and a brand new taste experience for me. To be honest…it did not become a instant favourite for me but the memory of trying something new…tasting and seeing what it was like…is rooted in my memory. It has made me a little more adventurous in my adult years. You could say I was a little bit like the boy in the old commercials years ago. You remember Mikey. His friends used him as a Guinea Pig. They got him to try a cereal they were not sure about eating. They said, “He won’t eat it. He hates everything.” They sat Mikey down and he tentatively ate the cereal. As he continued Mikey seemed to actually enjoy the cereal. The commercial ended with the words. “He likes it! Hey Mikey…”
A lot of the time we take a similar approach in our relationship with God as I did to Nisha’s dessert and Mikey did to his new taste experience. We are just not sure that we want to take the risk of moving deeper into our relationship with God. We may approach God hesitantly, with some uncertainty, unwilling to get a taste of what God is all about. This morning I want to zero in on what it takes to become completely trusting in our relationship to God. In Psalm 34:8 we are told to “taste and see the goodness of the Lord.” What will it take for each of us here to really do that? What will it take to fearlessly explore what God is like? Let’s explore that question together.
I think part of the answer to this question comes from defining what it means to taste something. In order to taste something three actions become necessary. First, we must have an attitude that says…” I am willing to experience this taste”. That’s attitude. Second, we must then take do something. We say…”Here it goes. We then open up and take in that which we are tasting.” That’s action. Finally, we must say “I am going to experiment with this new experience in different ways.” That’s application. Attitude. Action. Application. Three aspects of experiencing the goodness of God in our lives.
When it comes to God these three concepts help us experience who God is and what he wants to do in our life. They allow us to get a taste of his goodness.
Attitude: When you look at verse one of Psalm 34 you begin to get a sense of the attitude that David has toward experiencing God. You get a sense of his determination. He writes, “I will extol the Lord.” This represents his affirmation of faith. It becomes very clear to the reader that David has determined what his action will be. His attitude is this. “No matter what it takes…no matter what it means…I will extol the Lord.” It is a concrete and solid declaration that something will occur. It’s a declaration of David’s lifelong intent. We do the same thing every day of our lives. We assume an attitude of intent when we make promises to others. “I will wash the dishes. I will send the cheque for the amount I owe you. I will mow the lawn. I will do…whatever it is.” For David, and for us, connecting with God’s goodness and therefore with God himself means having a determined attitude. It means having an attitude that says, “ I am going to do this.” This is the same kind of attitude that you have to embrace when facing something challenging in life. It is the attitude of a mountain climber…looking way up and seeing the peak of the mountains hundreds of feet in the air. It is the attitude of a runner at the start of a marathon. It is the attitude of the Christian; saying, “ I will do this.” The thing is this though. It is important not only to be determined but for that determination to be focused. What did David intend to do? He said, “I will extol the Lord.” Now extol is not a word we use a lot. To extol means to celebrate, acclaim, exalt, glorify, or praise. Combine this word with the determined words “I will” and you have a great starting point for one who wants to taste of God’s goodness. You have a person saying I am determined to celebrate who God is in every corner of my life. In good times and bad times. I will remind myself and others of who God is and in the process I will be changed. This attitude is not just short term. It is one that is meant to last. It is meant to carry a person through life. David reminds us of that when he writes, “his praise will always be on my lips.” In other words, I will constantly be talking about and reminding myself and others of what kind of God our God is. This is an attitude that poises for action the person who embraces it. It means adopting an attitude that looks for opportunities to talk about, experience, and share the goodness of God. It means choosing to look at life with the goodness of God always in mind. You have probably met people who cannot stop talking about something that they really believe in. You cannot leave a conversation with them without knowing what is important to them. Their attitude is clear. You must try this product or service, or food item…whatever it is…and your life will be changed. Sometimes these claims prove to be false. Why? Because the substance of what they are claiming cannot be proved by experience. But when it comes to God, things are different. David is able to praise God constantly because he has an attitude informed by personal experience. More than that really he has the experience of a nation and the entire world to draw on. He has seen God at work and that has changed his attitude. And therefore it has made him determined. He will celebrate the Lord, constantly and vocally. That is his attitude, and it can be ours.
Action: Attitude is important. But it is not enough. Attitude is crucial because it shapes our action. It shapes our willingness to take in and internalize the truth. It also shapes our ability to share that truth with others. Action flows out of our attitude. When David says, in verse two, “my soul will boast in the Lord;” he indicates that the truth about God’s goodness is not just some abstract idea. It has become part of his inner being because of action that he has taken. For David his innermost being, his soul, has experienced the goodness of God and cannot help but express it. Over and over again David has observed and experienced the love and goodness of God. But David refused to let his knowledge stay in his head alone. He allowed it to penetrate his heart. He allowed it to shape the response of his soul. Do you get the difference? Perhaps this will help. Imagine yourself being invited to your favourite restaurant by a close friend. They tell you to order whatever you want. Cost is no object and so you order your favourite dish with all the fixings. It arrives hot and steaming at the table. It smells wonderful. Now imagine this scenario. Imagine smelling the food. Lifting it to your nose…inhaling deeply. And then you put the fork down. You let the food get cold. And you leave the restaurant after an hour without ever having touched your food. What good has the food done you? Smelling it is not enough. You will leave hungry and unsatisfied. This is because food is meant to be taken in…to be internalized. Then and only then can it satisfy you. For David to be able to say, “My soul will boast in the Lord” he has to have willingly taken in all that God has offered him. Our souls can only be changed by a intimate encounter with God. And for that to happen God must be allowed to move inside of our lives. To inhabit all that we are. Then and only then can the soul…the deepest part of our inner being…celebrate God’s goodness. This is because God’s love has reached the inside. And as a result of this deep, inner experience, action can flow out of our lives. David made it clear that action flows out of attitude when he said “let the afflicted hear and rejoice.” Let those who are struggling hear. Let them really become convinced of the love of God. Let them get the message that God is both whispering in their ear and shouting to the world to hear. And as a result let them rejoice in the goodness of God to them. Hear. Understand. Act. That is the progression. Hear clearly the message of God. Embrace and reflect on what that message means. Act in a way that is appropriate. One way that we are to act in response to the message of God’s goodness is made clear in verse 3. David writes, “Glorify the Lord with me. Let us exult his name together.” The person who has moved beyond attitude into action is called to share this experience with others. He or she is to have a desire to give to others the experience of God’s goodness. They are called to affirm together who God is. The purpose of praise is not to make God’s people feel good but to have people acknowledge that God is good. That is really a big part of why churches gather together. It is about community affirming who God is. Church is a community that has a shared belief in the goodness of God and a common experience of his love for them. But it is not enough to come to church in order to share that experience with others. Think about it. When you discover something really wonderful…like a new restaurant. What do you want to do? You want to share that with someone else. You grab someone and you take them to the restaurant and you say, “You have to try this.” Attitude leads to action. Action that is concerned with becoming convinced ourselves about God’s goodness and then doing all that we can to help convince others about it.
Application: Once we have embraced an attitude that has God at the centre and once our actions begin to line up with that internalized truth then we have a great opportunity to experiment with this new reality in our every day living. This is called Application. And simply put, this means doing all that we can to trust God every day. And David talks about that in verses 4-7. What does it mean to live life fully convinced of the goodness of God? On one level it means trusting him with everything in life. In verse 4 we see David’s testimony about this experience. He writes, “I sought the Lord.” David took the time out to see what God was saying to him. He reached out to God in order to receive an answer from Him. This means asking the tough questions inside of us. It means bringing all that we are experiencing to God and saying, ”what is this all about?” It means moving from a desire to know God into concrete actions. Looking, searching, pleading for God to make it all clear to us. It means relenting and giving up self-sufficiency and saying to God…”Help me out.” What happened as a result of David’s action? Did God ignore David? No he answered David. God’s response to our appeal to him is to answer us. How he does that is varied. Sometimes it is circumstance. Our lives take a turn and we see God in that. He always speaks to us through his word. And many times he uses friends and other Christians to make clear his response. We ask and God answers. But not only that, David affirms that in the middle of asking God takes action to deliver him from the fears that could have overwhelmed him. God does not necessarily deliver from the circumstances we face. Sometimes our lives do not change. They are often hard. But God can deliver us from fear. And freedom from fear is a wonderful thing. Fear influences all our relationships, attitudes, and actions. To be free from fear is to be able to make choices that reflect our trust in God. It is liberating to act with the knowledge that God is with you no matter what happens. We are called to “look to” God as verse 5 indicates in the middle of our lives. And as we do we can experience God helping us through the inner turmoil of the heart. Think of this experience as similiar to that of a young child who wants to climb up somewhere high so he or she may see. But they are too afraid to do so. The parent comes along and says “look at me. Look in my eyes. Don’t look down.” When the child does that they can stand high without fear. Why because they can see the face of the one they trust. The one who will not allow anything to happen to them that will harm them. It’s the same with God. When we look into his face we can be convinced of the love and protection of our father. The result of looking to God daily is what David calls radiance. Brilliance, splendour, brightness. Faces that are not covered with shame but with confidence. Confidence that comes from knowing that God will not let us down. We all know the look on a face that is associated with a letdown….the look of one who expected something and got something totally different. I had a dessert like that once. It looked great on the outside. Icing and all kinds of good things. But I bit into it and it was stale, dry, and flavourless. This will not happen with God. We will look to him and not be disssapointed. Like David in verse 6 we call out to him, fully aware of our limits. We are poor and cannot solve our own deepest problems. So we call out. And God hears us. He saves us from our troubles. He surrounds us with his love and presence. He surrounds those who are afraid. He places a ring of protection around our soul that cannot be broken no matter what happens to our bodies. And he delivers us from fear. We are truly free.
We find ourselves back at verse 8…the place we started. It reads “taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.” God wants to bless the lives of those who willingly experience who He is. He wants to be a place of safety, a refuge, for you today.
But it does require action on our part. This is what it is to taste of the goodness of God.
Let’s pray about these questions. Let’s pray for the strength to experience the transforming goodness of God in all areas of our lives.