“Taste and See that the Lord is good.” Psalm 34:8
Our physical senses help us navigate the world. The Lord has given us taste, sight, hearing, touch and smell that let us know what is going on around us.
Scripture teaches us truths through our senses. The verse “Taste and see that the Lord is good” encourages us to test by experience the goodness of the Lord. We love what we find tasteful.
A friend shared this story with me: A woman and her 5-year-old grand-daughter were in a large store with food sampling stations. A lady at one of the stations offered them a roasted seaweed sample.
The little girl took a bit, screwed up he face and said loudly, “EWWWW! This stuff tastes like fish food smells!”
The sample lady laughed hard. They figured she must have drawn the short straw, because as they were leaving, she jokingly offered to send the remainder of the seaweed home with them.
We trust our senses. The little girl did just that. Taste confirms knowledge of food, building trust and confidence in the selection of food. We love what we find tasteful. Through sight we identify objects and discover color. Babies relax when they touch a soft blanket before going to sleep. Sounds and smells also evoke memories. A crackling fire combined with the smell of baking bread on a cool fall night is comforting. Senses can also alert us to danger. A screeching siren coming form a vehicle warns us of an emergency. Our experience of the world would be vastly different without the senses.
Scripture teaches us truths using the senses. Many incidents in the Bible involve sensory perception. Here is a sampling:
- Taste–Eve tasted the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. (Genesis 3:1-24).
- Sight–Saul, blinded by the presence of the Lord, experienced new faith in a dramatic way (Acts 9).
- Hearing–Joshua led the Israelites around the city of Jericho with trumpet blasts. On the seventh day the blasts and shouts of the people brought down the walls (Joshua 6:1-27).
- Smell–When Isaac prepared to give the blessing, he depended on smell to identify the person in front of him. Jacob tricked him by wearing Esau’s clothes and therefore smelled like his brother (Genesis 27:27).
- Touch–A sick woman pressed through the crowds to find Jesus. She touched the hem of his garments and was healed (Mark 5:25-34).
The Lord is good. Through grace, the Bible encourages us to experience Him first hand to discover this truth. Instead of rushing through each day, why not take time pay attention to your senses? Observe the blessings around you.
The Lord has given us our senses to draw us to Him.
Go ahead–taste and see that the Lord is good.