HOW DOES HE TASTE?

“Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.”
Psalm 34:8

As this year has been progressing, I have felt myself becoming a little more hungry. Now perhaps this hunger I feel could be suppressed by eating an extra snack or two during the day, but something about this hunger seems a little deeper. The food I am eating doesn’t seem to feel me up. Sure, the chocolate is still rich, the chips still salty, and the Mexican food still spicy. But something is missing. I am still craving something.
Being a bit of a bookworm and also a fan of research, I often find myself digging in Scripture for what the Bible really says. When I read the Bible, I normally read it with the intention of looking up words in the Hebrew or Greek so as to get a solid understanding of that word. It was recently that I once more came across Psalm 34:8, which reads, “Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.” With a desire to see just what David was saying, I decided to study the words ‘taste’ and ‘see’.
Taste – TA’AM – to taste, eat, perceive
See – RA’AH – to see, look at, inspect, consider
In looking at just these first two words we see David encouraging us to eat of the Lord, and inspect the Lord. Why? Because as the phrase continues, he wants us to perceive just how good, how pleasant, how excellent (TOWB in the Hebrew) the Lord really is.
When I decided to go to college I chose a school in Oklahoma. I wasn’t trying to get away from my family, it just so happened that this school is where I felt God calling me to attend. But beings that my family was not abundant in finances, I was not able to attend a college weekend and explore the campus. Instead, the knowledge I had of the school was based on what I read in pamphlets, heard from current and past students, and saw on the school’s daily prayer show. When I finally arrived at the school, there was so much more to be experienced. The buildings were bigger than I had pictured in my mind. The campus itself was bigger. The student life was abundant with clubs and organizations I had not even fathomed. And as I walked the sidewalks between the classes, dorms, cafeteria, chapel, and library, I began to take in for myself the fullness of this place. I began to see then how both my imagination and the reports of others failed in comparison. In this case, what I saw was becoming my knowledge of the school instead of the knowledge of someone else.
I can attest this same concept in some ways to the birth of my children. While my children were both in the womb, I did not know them fully. I knew I was having a child, but with both we did not know the gender till the actual delivery. With both there was that feeling of excitement in the air. But the details were not known. Would the baby be a boy or girl? Would the baby have brown hair, blonde hair, or no hair? Would the child be colic, or would the child be one to rarely fuss? As long as the child was in the womb, these questions could not be answered. I could only wonder. However, once the birth happened I was then able to begin to know the child for myself. And this is what God is wanting of us – to know Him for ourselves.
I am reminded of Moses also. Moses became the channel of communication between God and the people. But this was never supposed to have been. In Exodus 20:18-19 we read, “When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, ‘Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.’” God wanted a relationship with His people, to talk directly with them, but they refused a relationship with Him. Instead, their whole experience in the desert was based on Moses’ relationship with God as opposed to their own personal relationship. While they may have been hungry and thirsty to get out of Egypt, they did not appear to be hungry and thirsty enough to seek God for themselves.
I am pretty sure that this hunger that I have been puzzled with isn’t as related to food as I may have first thought. In fact, I do not think it is food related at all. What I have been craving is not chocolate, chips, or Mexican food, but rather God. My spirit has been craving something deeper, something that last more than just a few minutes on the lips and a lifetime on the hips. And perhaps this is the same craving you have been having. It is easy to fill our bodies with food because we know we need to. Yet we must not neglect our spirits. Our spirits too are hungry, craving the flavors of God. So then we must ask of ourselves, are we desirous to taste and see just how good God really is?