Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
Psalm 34:8 (NIV)
Taste It for Yourself
A board has a grain you can read with a thumb. Run it down the face and you’ll find where the plane chattered, and sight along the long edge with one eye shut and you’ll see whether it’s going to lie flat on the bench or rock on a corner. A shop can smell of sawdust and hot steel all day and tell you nothing about the board in your hands.
An old woman at a lumber yard has been told by three different people which pile to buy from, and she goes down the stack pulling boards out anyway. She tips one up, smells the cut end, sets it back. The man at the counter has watched her do this for years and rings up whatever she brings him.
Taste and see that the Lord is good. The psalm asks for a test a person runs with their own mouth, and it comes from someone who says he sought the Lord and was answered, and delivered from all his fears. Those who look to him are radiant. This poor man called, and the Lord heard him.
Blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. Taking refuge is done with the body, the way a man gets under a roof when it starts coming down. Calling is a small thing to manage on a morning when the goodness of God is a rumor you’ve picked up from other people, and the poor man who called got heard.
Plenty of people will tell you God is good. The old woman loads her own boards into the car and drives home to put a saw through one of them and find out what she bought.
A Prayer to Remember
I’ve repeated that you’re good more often than I’ve checked, God, and most of what I say about you I have on other people’s word. Give me one thing today that I know about you because it happened to me. Slow me down enough to catch it.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
