Friday, August 16, 2024

Psalm 34:8

8          Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!

                        Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

            My wife and I love to watch old movies, TV sitcoms, and made for TV movies. One of our favorite TV movie series is Columbo. Remember him? I’m rather surprised, sort of, that so many in the generation after me don’t know who Columbo is! He’s the bumbling, wrinkly-coated homicide detective who comes off very absent-minded. But he’s really quite brilliant, especially when comes to solving crimes.

            I found a cookbook online called Cooking With Columbo. It features a favorite recipe from one of the stars appearing in each episode. Our date nights are selecting an episode to watch while preparing the corresponding recipe. A couple of the recipes were a little weird on paper. But after tasting them—hey, they’re really quite delish!

            Taste and see that the LORD is good! God wants a relationship with each and every person. He wants a relationship with you. God invites us to check Him out. The recipe for God is to trust in Him and Him alone. This trust is found only through faith in Jesus Christ, His only Son who died on the cross for the sins of each and every person. There’s no other way to the Father except through faith in His Son. There’s no other way to eternal life with God in the afterlife except through faith in Christ Jesus. Adding any other ingredient to God’s recipe will only flop because we can’t improve on God’s recipe.

            And yet, when faced with fears in our life, we go seeking after other ingredients to add to God’s already successful recipe. The ingredients we add simply spoil God’s meal.

            Augustine wrote:

Whoever does not trust in the Lord is in a wretched state. But who are they who do not trust in the Lord? Those who trust in themselves. Sometimes, brothers and sisters, there is an even worse condition: think now. There are some who do not even trust in themselves but put their trust in other people . . . . “I’m all right, I’m under the protection of So-and-So.” . . . How ready people are to talk like this, but not to say, “I trust in God, and he will not let you hurt me.” Nor do they say, “I trust in my God, because even if he does give you some license to harm my property, he will give you no power over my soul.” EXPOSITIONS OF THE PSALMS 34.13[1]

            Jerome, an ancient exegete and scholar in the Early Church wrote:

Just as the body dies unless it is given proper food, even so does the soul if it is not given spiritual food. Why am I making such a point of this? Because there are some who insist on saying, I have no need for sacred Scripture; the fear of God is enough for me. That is, therefore, precisely why we affirm that just as there are foods for the body, so there are, likewise, foods for the soul, namely, the sacred Scripture.[2]

            So, what’s on your menu this evening?

---

[1] Blaising, Craig A. and Carmen S. Hardin, eds., Psalms 1–50. ACCS 7. ICCS/Accordance electronic edition, version 2.6. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2008. Old Testament Vol. 7, 262.

[2] Ibid., 263.