Taste and see...

I wanted to talk about this meme I found that calls to mind Psalm 34:8, but I dislike pulling out any small bit of a psalm as a general principle, so I thought I would start with the whole thing.  Read and savor it for a moment.

I will bless the LORD at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul shall make its boast in the LORD;
The humble shall hear it and rejoice.
O magnify the LORD with me,
And let us exalt His name together.

I sought the LORD, and He answered me,
And delivered me from all my fears.
They looked to Him and were radiant,
And their faces shall never be ashamed.
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 rescues them.

O taste and see that the LORD is good;
How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!
O fear the LORD, you His saints;
For to those who fear Him, there is no want.
The young lions do lack and suffer hunger;
But they who seek the LORD shall not be in want of any good thing.
Come, you children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
Who is the man who desires life,
And loves length of days that he may see good?
Keep your tongue from evil,
And your lips from speaking deceit.
Depart from evil, and do good;
Seek peace, and pursue it.

The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous,
And His ears are open to their cry.
The face of the LORD is against evildoers,
To cut off the memory of them from the earth.
The righteous cry and the LORD hears,
And delivers them out of all their troubles.
The LORD is near to the brokenhearted,
And saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous;
But the LORD delivers him out of them all.
He keeps all his bones;
Not one of them is broken.
Evil shall slay the wicked;
And those who hate the righteous will be condemned.
The LORD redeems the soul of His servants;
And none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.

~Psalm 34 (NASB 1977)

Good stuff there.

Always in the Psalter.

Always.

So, the meme:

I love this.  

I love the way that it expresses the notion that it is important to consider the words that you are speaking before you speak them.  More and more and more, I am frankly appalled at what is written online, on Facebook, in new article comments, and on Twitter.  Vitriolic is the word that most often comes to mind.  

The way that hatred is spewed around and judgment passed, writing that is filled d with anger and accusations and criticism.  There is very little listening to understand and a whole lot of listening to respond (something I read on another meme).  

I think I would like to write about listening at a later point ... if I could gather my wits enough to do so.  But, for now, I wanted to focus on speaking.  There is much that I would like to say about speaking ... that I could say ... but I wanted to just capture a thought I had when I saw this meme:  Taste and see.

In the eighth verse of the 34th psalm are the words: "taste and see."  All throughout the Psalter, you have the imagery of speaking the Word of God.  Mouth.  Lips.  Tongue.  Or rather, I previously thought the imagery was of speaking.  But when I saw this meme, Psalm 34:8 suddenly popped into mind and all those verses suddenly shifted for me.

I mean, I am convinced that the reason that we need to be speaking the Word of God is so that it will fall upon our ears and enter our hearts.  For it is in hearing that we receive faith.  But perhaps ... well ... perhaps it is also in the tasting.

I know it sounds strange.  For how does one taste words?  I suppose it could mean to test them.  Is this word bitter or sweet?  What is its texture?  Would it be difficult to swallow? I think that is what the meme is conveying.  But what does it mean to taste and see that the Lord is good?

In the Psalms, you always have to at least look at both "halves" of the verse.  In this case, the conjoined thought is:  "How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!"  How odd!  How is refuge either an extension of or the other side of the coin of taste?  Mind boggling to me ... not being a biblical scholar or a student of Hebrew.

I think that refuge can be connected to the shelter of God's wings, which I have been told are the outstretched arms of Jesus on the cross.  That He is our refuge.  So, in this case, if you take "taste" and substitute in "test," then you have test and see that the Lord is good.  Try seeking refuge in Jesus and see the good that will follow.  Try ... trusting ... in the refuge God provides.

When I saw that meme, I suddenly thought of all the encounters of mouth and tongue and lips in the Scripture and there was this rather profound shift for me that I am, now, finding it difficult to explain. It is not that speaking became less important, because hearing the Word of God is probably the greatest gift you can bestow upon another.  You cannot know what that Word might do, but His Word is powerful and performative beyond our understanding and even our imagination.  And it will not return void.  That's a promise!

Instead, I suppose, I saw a duality in those verses, imploring us to speaking the Word of God and to taste it, to test it and see what good may follow.  To taste.  To test.  To trust ... for how else can we test the Word of God, to  consider its promises other than to trust in them?

Now, I will note that in the series that I adore and am reading over and over and over again, the idea of True Words and an original language has excited my mind and permeates pretty much every single thought I have about Scripture.

True Words have singular meaning.  You do not interpret them; your experience will not color the meaning of them.  If a thousand people listened to the same thing spoken in True Words, those thousand people would all hear the same message.  There would be no misunderstanding.  But, in the books, the language we have now is but a shadow of those words.  Even if ten people heard you speak, chances are at least half of them would repeat a message different, if only in part, from that which you spoke.

In the books, True Words give life because they are life.  They are powerful and performative.  The precision of meaning and the bringing of life, the creation that can take place with True Words, is what excites me about thinking about the Word of God.  For it is the Living Word.  It is powerful and it is performative.  It spoke this world into creation.  It is also something that I, personally, do not believe that we can grasp or understand or take in on this side of the veil.  

Don't take me wrong.  I am not saying that there is not truth in the words that we have in the Scriptures.  Just as God could cause His Word to be penned, I do believe that God caused (causes)  His word to be translated.  Man is flawed, but the Word of God is not.  

Only as precious is the translated Word of God (for me, my beloved NASB 1977), it is still something that resides on this side of the veil.  In a fallen and fractious world.  Therefore, we cannot really understand it.  I think the most perfect example of this is the word "good."  What God declares "good" is not always what we would think of as "good."  In a way, I think the word "good" might be the single most hidden word in our lives with Jesus.  And, therefore, it is incumbent upon us to be open to what good things God brings to us ... even if it is the good of suffering with Christ.

Oh, how I am fumbling what is ever so clear in my mind!  Maybe another key point I should make is that one of my most favorite descriptions in the New Testament is being "stewards of the mysteries of God."  You see, right there!  It is like Isaiah 55:8-9 crept in there.  God's ways are not our ways.  His thoughts are not our thoughts.  Therefore, we will always have mystery when it comes to the fullness of God, of this world, and of our life in Christ.  I find that rather comforting.  A relief, actually.  I don't always have to understand!!

In reading those books again and again, I have come to revel in the idea that God speaks in True Words.  Because we live in a fallen world, we cannot hear them clearly.  We cannot quite grasp them. We cannot fully understand.  We try.  I think that were theology goes wrong is when someone tries to create True Words for others.  Even with the best intentions, trying to write words that supersede the Word of God is what leads others astray, where the books written keep folk from reading the Book.  But we are human.  We are sinners.  And we like to save ourselves.  Temptation is great in the area of wanting to either be or sit at the feet of someone who knows.  Someone for whom there are no mysteries.  SIGH.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.  Take the Living Word and weigh its truth by swallowing it, by trusting in its promises, its goodness, and by taking it into your heart and mind and being so that you can see the good that will follow.  

And back to the meme:  Taste the Word of God before you spit it out, before you ridicule it or reject it.  Taste and see the good God has for His creation before declaring that Word null and void.

Anyway ... I really liked that meme.