Taste and See

But the problem is that life doesn’t always give us the good we desire.  Marriages fail. Vacations fall flat.  Dinners out disappoint. Not only that, but life is often filled with unforeseen circumstances, unwanted prognosis, and unimaginable tragedies.  And whenever you’re confronted with one of these, it can be hard hold onto the good.

Now, if you’ve spent much time following the life of David or have read many of the Psalms he wrote, you will notice right away that he often struggled to hold onto the good. But somehow, he always managed to keep his faith and his joy in the midst of his darkest hours.  This is why David may be one of the best examples of how we can keep our joy and hold onto the good what life is hard.  So, if you’d like to know how you can hold onto the good when life goes bad, then let me encourage you to open your Bible to Psalm 34 this morning – where we’re going to see how experiencing the goodness of God helped David hold onto the good, and how you can too.

Now, before we dig into this Psalm, we need to understand what was going on in David’s life just prior to him writing it. If you’ve found Psalm 34, you will notice that this is one of 14 Psalms that give us the historical setting. The NIV says this: Of David. When he pretended to be insane before Abimelek, who drove him away, and he left.”

If we read the chapters in 1 Samuel leading up to this Psalm, we learn that life had taken a cruel turn for David. In 1 Samuel 20, David had had to part ways with his friend, Jonathan, after Jonathan told him that his father, King Saul, wanted to kill him. So, David fled.  He was alone. He had no bodyguard. He had no armor or weapons. In fact, he was even without food. So, we find him chapter 21 as he came to the priests at Nob to get food.  While he was there, Ahimelech, the chief priest, gave him consecrated bread. Then he gave him Goliath’s sword. Then David left and headed to the city of Gath, the hometown of Goliath.

Now, this may not have been the best move for David, for once he arrived in Gath, everyone recognized him, and they weren’t too keen on welcoming him.  In fact, everyone wanted to him dead; and soon, they let the king know that David was in Gath.  So, David was trapped. But he had an idea. A pretty bizarre idea. David decided he would act like a crazy man. He let saliva run down his beard and he began to scratch at a doorpost of house.  Then, when the king of Gath saw him, he said, “Look, You can see the man is crazy!” So, David was able to escape without harm. And now, fresh on the heels of his strange deliverance, David writes this psalm.

And as he does, he begins this Psalm with remarkable outpouring of praise and delight in God.  And my first take on these verses is that David is Captured by God’s Goodness  He’s so blessed by God’s goodness, that he cannot contain himself.  He must praise God and he wants us to praise Him too. Listen to this expression of his heart in these first three verses:  I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the afflicted hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together!

Remember, David had been at one of the lowest points in his life. He’d lost his friend. Saul wanted to kill him. He was a fugitive on the run and all of Gath wanted him dead.  He was between a rock and a hard place with no way of escape. But God delivered him.  Now, he’s ecstatic.  His enthusiasm for God’s goodness can’t be contained.

So, the first thing he says is, “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.”  Think about what David is declaring here. David proclaims he will bless the LORD at all times. He will bless the Lord when life is good.  He will bless the LORD when circumstances don’t make sense. He will bless the LORD when things aren’t going his way. He will bless the LORD even in the face of death.  He will praise God NOT just when life is good, but even when bad things happen. He will bless the Lord at all times.  This is quite an example for us.

Think about it. We are good at blessing the Lord when life is good: “My children are following the Lord.”  “My investments are killing it.” “I got a great deal on a new car!”  In fact, it’s easy to praise God when life is going your way. But can you bless the Lord when things don’t go your way?  Think what’s involved in praising God.  The word praise comes from the Hebrew word “halal.”  Which means to boast, to shine, to be clamorous, to rave, to make a show, to celebrate.  It is an extemporaneous, unsolicited response to a favorable and joyful situation.  What that means is this: It’s being so thrilled with how good God has been to you, that you can’t help but tell others about Him.  You can’t contain your joy about the Lord.  It’s got to come out. Praise is an enthusiastic response to God for who He is and for what He has done for you.

That’s what we see here with David.  He’s so captured with God’s goodness to him, that he wants the world to know.  But he wants others to know as well.  “Let the afflicted hear and be glad.” He wants his praise to let anyone who’s ever had bad things happen – know that God does good to the afflicted. David had been afflicted, but had God set him free.  The afflicted need to hear this, so they too can be glad.

But he doesn’t stop there.  In the midst of his enthusiasm, he wants others to join him in bringing praise to God.  So, he gives a command: Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together! This is a call to worship! A call to celebrate, to shine the light on God for how good He is to everyone!  David is captured by God’s goodness, and he wants everyone to know.

I began this message by saying that “Everyone wants good in their lives.”  What do we do when experience something really good?  We want others to know.  That’s what David is doing here.  He’s praising the Lord.  He’s shining the spotlight on God, so the afflicted might hear and be glad. And he wants others to join him in making God’s goodness known too. He wants us to worship God. Why?  Well, he’s about to tell us:

Because He has been Changed by His Goodness:  That’s what we’re going to see now as David shares his story.  This is David’s testimony of God’s goodness to him.  First, he says, I sought the LORD, and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears. When we read 1 Samuel 21, we see that all David could do was pretend to be crazy. But what we didn’t see is that he did something else. He sought the Lord. It wasn’t David’s clever ruse that saved him.  David knew who saved him.  It was the Lord.  And he wants us to know this. He wants us to know that it was the Lord who delivered him from all His fears. 

Then he says something quite profound: Those who look to Him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. Psalm 34:6  What does it mean to “look to Him?”  David knew where to look when he was in trouble. He looked to God.

Is that what you do?  When unpredictable circumstances disrupt your life; when the bottom falls out or tragedy hits, what’s the first thing you do?  Do you look to God, or do you look somewhere else?  If we’re honest, the first thing we do is look to ourselves.  Or at least that’s what I do. I try to figure out the best course of action. I try to fix things myself.  However, I’m learning that when I do that, rather than look to God, I often end up frustrated or anxious. I fret or fume. Do you ever do this?  David didn’t.  Instead, he looked to God. Now he can say, “Those who look to Him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.” 

This is a great picture of confidence in God. Listen to how Derek Kidner describes this word “radiant.”To “radiate” is a word found in Isaiah 60:5; where it describes a mother’s face lighting up at the sight of her children, long given up for lost. It’s used in Exodus 34:29 of Moses’ shining face as he came down the mountain after meeting with God and in 2 Corinthians 3:18 where God’s Word explains how we are being transformed by God from the inside out to look more like Christ – to radiate Christ.

So, “to radiate” describes your countenance – your face.  And if you are looking to God whenever you’re facing trouble, your face will radiate your faith – whether that be joy or satisfaction, hope or confidence.

So what David is telling us here is this: If you look to God in the midst of your trials, then your face will show it. Looking to God will radiate your confidence or your hope or your joy. It will say you are trusting in the God who is good.  That’s David wants us to know: Those who look to Him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.

And then he adds: This poor man cried, and the Lord heard Him and saved Him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them.  Psalm 34:6-7

This is a powerful and important testimony.  For there may come a time where you come to the end of your rope.  There may come a time where you’ve exhausted your resources, where you’ve got nowhere to turn, but to cry out to God. And David wants you to know that God will be there.  He wants you to know that God specializes in rescuing the poor, those who seem to have everything going against you.  He even testifies to this later in this Psalm saying: The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. Ps 34:18-19

 So, let me ask you: Are you afflicted today? Are you worried sick about a loved one?  Are you nearing the end of your rope?  Have you run out of options? If so, remember this promise: Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. Psalm 34:18-19  This is the point David is trying to make here: He’s pointing us to the God who is always good. HE delivers the poor. HE’s near to the brokenhearted. HE saves the crushed in spirit. HE hears the cry of your heart.  Cry out to HIM, and HE will deliver you. For He is good.

That’s why David shares the good God has done for Him.

That’s why David wants us to magnify His name together.

Because he wants us to know that God is good.  And all that is good comes from Him.  So, it’s at this point in this Psalm, He points us to God and says:

3.  Come and Taste that He is Good   Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!  Psalm 34:8 In Psalm 16 we learned that God is the source of all goodness. David said, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.” Psalm 16:2  From there we learned that from His goodness comes a spiritual family we get to belong to.  From God’s goodness comes a relationship with Him. He is both our portion and our inheritance. From His goodness comes wisdom for life.  And from God’s goodness comes the joy of His presence. And as a result, we can experience joy and pleasures forevermore. For He is the source of all that is good.

 Then as we dug into Psalm 23, we were reminded that it is God’s nature to constantly pursues us with His goodness.  He chases after us to do good to us.  He always seeks to do us good. And now in this psalm, David makes this bold promise.  If you will taste, you will see that the Lord is good.  He’s saying, “Don’t take my word for it.  Experience the goodness of God yourself.”  Taste and see that the Lord is good.

What does it mean to “Taste and see?” This is a command to feast on God, to consume God for yourself.  To find your satisfaction in life from the God who is life.

So how do we do this? David gives us a clue on how to taste and see when he follows up this command by saying: Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! Psalm 38:8b  In other words, the way to taste the goodness of God is to put your life under His care.  To take refuge in God is to put your trust in Him.  To trust that He will do for you what He says He will do. To trust that He will always do what is best for you. And the way to put your trust in Him is to turn from trusting in yourself and put your trust in Jesus.  Follow Him. Learn from Him and obey His commands.  That’s how you will begin to experience God’s goodness.  Taste and see that God is good. 

Yet, this is a command that takes action. Just like a mother can’t force her child to eat, God will not force you to follow. You’ve got to trust that He will do good to you. 

 Remember, “Everyone wants what is good in our lives.” And God promises to give us what is good.  But we’ve got to trust in Him to deliver.  So, here’s the catch: The devil, “the deceiver” knows this too. He knows your longing for good.  So, his greatest scheme is to undermine the goodness of God.  And his scheme is to get you to believe that God doesn’t really want good for you.  And his scheme prevails when he can get you to believe, that God’s holding out on you. It’s a scheme that he has worked on humans from the very beginning. Listen again to how he tries to undermine the goodness of God:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” Genesis 3:1-3 The first tactic the devil uses is to have us question God’s Word. If he can get you to question God’s Word, then he may persuade you to believe God is withholding good from you. And that’s what we see next: But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  Genesis 3:4-5

Here he undermines God’s truth. First, he lies, saying “You will not surely die.” Then he twists God’s truth, basically saying that God is holding out on them. “For when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  He’s wants them to believe that God doesn’t really have their best interests at heart.  “He’s holding out on you.  You’re missing out on the good thing of being just like God.  Don’t listen to God. Be your own god.  Call your own shots.  You’ll know good and evil.  You won’t ever have to be dependent on God again.”

So, his scheme was to purposely undermine God’s goodness by convincing her that being dependent on God is not a good thing. So, what does Eve do? Verse 6, So when the woman saw that the tree was goodfor food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.  Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. Genesis 3:6-7

The devil still promotes this lie today.  He works overtime to get you to believe that God is holding out on you.  Don’t trust in Him for what is good.  Trust yourself.

But David’s message is the opposite. He says, Taste and see that the Lord is good. How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. Psalm 34:8

So, this message comes down to this:

Will you trust that God will do good to you? 

Do you believe He is good?

Do you believe He hears your cries?

Do you believe He can deliver you from all your fears?

Do you believe He will always be there for you?

Do you believe He helps the afflicted?

Do you believe He is close to the brokenhearted?

Do you believe He saves the crushed in spirit?

Do you believe He will always do what is best for you?

Or do you believe He’s holding out on you?