Why did David use this phrasing in the Psalm?

Many years ago, my friend and I giggled at hearing the minister quote the following Psalm,

Taste and see that the Lord is good. (Psalm 34:8, NIV)

We laughed at the thought of “eating” God and mimicked the action of chewing and rubbing our bellies.

I cringe at this memory. How immature and silly (and dare I say blasphemous) we were.

Many phrases in the Bible are poetic in nature. The expression “taste and see that the LORD is good” is such a verse. David wrote this Psalm after being delivered from his enemies. He praised God for all He had done for him and wanted others to experience God’s unfailing love.

Taste

To “taste” means that we need to test God’s goodness. It reminds me of a taste test in a grocery store. The shopper is given a small sample of the food to taste and hopefully, they’ll like it enough to buy the product.

Similarly, the Psalmist is inviting us to take notice of God’s goodness. To do this, we need to absorb it. We need to ingest God’s Word as if we are eating it. The best way to savor God’s Word is to spend time reading it, meditating on it, and studying it. We will get the flavor of Who God is by spending time with Him.

Then hopefully through making a trial of God’s goodness, we will discover for ourselves the blessings of God.

See

Once we experience God’s goodness we take notice of it. This reminds me of The Santa Clause, where Judy Elf states, “Seeing isn’t believing. Believing is seeing.”

To “see” means to look to God instead of looking to the world for our strength and our peace. When we look to Jesus for our comfort we will discover God’s goodness. We will see that He is indeed good.

The LORD is good

The goodness of God speaks to His nature. He does not treat us as our sins deserve but rather is gracious and merciful. God is good because He continues to treat us with love, patience, and generosity even when we least deserve it.

Especially when we least deserve it — as I did when I openly mocked Him.

Through the personal experiences of tasting and seeing we come to know the goodness of God and be blessed by it. Like David, I invite you to taste and see that God is good.