Taste and See Psalm 34:1-8 1 I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. 2 My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad. 3 Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together! 4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. 5 Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. 6 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. 7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. 8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! The heading for this Psalm tells us that it s a Psalm of David, and that it refers to the time when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away. This is a reference to 1 Samuel 21(:10 22:1), where David, fleeing from the murderous King Saul, comes to Abimelech also known as Achish king of Gath. It may seem odd to us that David would enter enemy territory and go to a king of Philistia for sanctuary. But, his own king was trying to kill him, so, as the old saying goes: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Let s recall that this is the same David who had recently become the hero of Israel for slaying the mighty Philistine, Goliath. While the entire host of the Israelite army cowered in fear, David killed the giant by hitting him in the forehead with a stone from his sling and then cutting his head off with his own sword. Now, you d think that King Saul would have been pleased by this maybe even hold a feast in his honor, or at least congratulate him but you d be wrong. When Saul heard the women singing praises to David Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands he became jealous. The very next day he tried to kill David with a spear. Since that didn t work, Saul reasoned that if he made David a commander, he d be put at risk and the Philistines would kill him so he wouldn t have to. All this accomplished, though, was to give David more opportunity to be successful in battle, so that the people loved him even more. In due time Saul gave his daughter Michal to David, to be his wife, secretly thinking that this would weaken David and make him more susceptible to the Philistines. But David only became more victorious and even more popular. So the king sent men to David s house one night to watch him, so that he could kill him in the morning. But Michal, David s wife (and Saul s daughter) found out about it and helped him escape. Then she made it appear as though David were in bed, and when the men came to Page 1 of 5
take him, she told them he was sick. But Saul said, I don t care if you have to bring the whole bed with you, bring David to me that I may kill him! But David had already escaped. In his attempt to keep ahead of Saul, David came to Ahimelech the priest. He was hungry and asked the priest for some bread for himself and those who were with him. Ahimelech said that the only bread available was the holy bread reserved for the priests. After asking David if he were ceremonially clean, and receiving an answer in the affirmative, Ahimelech gave him some of the bread. A comforting moment during a difficult time for David. Holy bread for the servant of God when he desperately needed it. Holy rest for a young man who was running for his life. But there were threats at every turn. It was discovered that a servant of Saul was there that day, so David fled from there to Achish, a Philistine, seeking asylum. King Achish and his men, however, were suspicious of David. They said, Isn t this the guy they sing and dance about, saying, Saul has killed his thousands, David his ten thousands? So David, finding himself in another tight spot, and wanting to show that he was no threat to these Philistines, changed his demeanor before them, pretending to be insane, even allowing his spittle to run down into his beard. Achish then asked his men, Look, you don t think we have enough crazies in the city that you have to bring this guy in here? So they let him go and David escaped to the Cave of Adullam. Upon leaving the city of Gath, David under the guidance of the Holy Spirit wrote Psalm 34. As we can see right from the beginning, he s pretty happy about how things turned out. In the first three verses, he uses five different words to express his adoration to God for delivering him. The first word bless is built on a Hebrew root meaning to kneel. To bless God in this way is to emphasize His majesty by comparing it to our humility. Kneeling is a sign of submission. Kneeling is to lower yourself before one who is greater than you. Kneeling, in medieval England, was to offer the monarch an opportunity to remove your head, effectively giving your life into their hands. When we offer our blessings to God, we re giving our lives into His hands, entrusting our very existence to Him. David had given his life into the hands of the Lord. Praise comes from a Hebrew word meaning to sound clearly, as one might sing with a clear voice. True praise usually involves singing. Singing is the language of praise. Why does the church chant? Because singing is more beautiful than speaking. How are the angels portrayed in heaven? Singing! How do we picture them before the shepherds on the night of Jesus birth? Singing! Singing is the language of praise. The word boast is the root word from which the word praise is derived. It can mean to shine, or to flash forth light. Whose light does David want to shine forth? His own? Or the Lord s? Clearly, he s saying that it s the Lord who gets the bragging rights for his deliverance. And here again, we see the idea that, for the Lord to truly shine, we must humble ourselves, but in this case, we re not singing; we re silent, listening intently to what the Lord has to say to us. Page 2 of 5
The next word is magnify. The Greek equivalent is used by Mary, the mother of Jesus, in her Magnificat. It means to twist or stretch a thing to make it larger. For those of you in the smartphone universe, it s like when you pinch a photo and stretch your fingers apart to zoom in. You make the image larger, bigger, more easy to see. This is what we do when we magnify the Lord. We zoom in, we make Him larger so that those around us may see Him more clearly. Finally, David uses the word exalt. Exalt means to lift up, to elevate, to hold high. Jesus said in His conversation with Nicodemus in John 3, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life (vs. 14-15). David here invites others to join him in lifting the Lord s name high, elevating Him before the people, so that they may see and believe in Him. So David is pretty exuberant in his expression of gratitude to the Lord. Now he tells us why. I sought the Lord, he says, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. And in verse 6: This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. Everybody has fears; some of us have more than others. Fears can be rational or irrational. For instance, fear of actual imminent danger is quite rational. Fear of merely imagined danger is irrational. Saul, for example, was afraid that David was going to try and usurp his throne, and was, therefore, experiencing an irrational fear. There was no indication that David ever had that in mind. All David wanted to do was honor the king and support him as the Lord enabled him. Now, the unreasonableness of some fears doesn t make them unreal; they feel just as real. David may have had both kinds of fear. But he says here that the Lord had delivered him from all his fears, which would include the rational ones and irrational ones. He also says that God had saved him out of all his troubles. Troubles are fears that have become realized. Like when you fear poor travel conditions and actually end up in a ditch. Your fears at that point have been realized and become a trouble from which you need delivered. (Don t ask me how I know this.) In David s case, he was afraid that Achish intended to do him harm and God led him to respond in such a way that he was able to escape uninjured. His very reasonable fear turned into a reallife problem situation and God delivered him from it, just as He had delivered him from numerous attempts of Saul to take his life. David also observes that Those who look to [the Lord] are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. Look who s shining now! We who lift the Lord high and allow Him to shine through us to the world are now the ones who become radiant. David will demonstrate this in a vivid way later when his son by Bathsheba becomes ill and dies. All during the illness, David, in traditional Hebrew fashion, fasted and prayed for his son. 2 Samuel 12(:30) tells us that when his son died, he arose, washed, anointed himself with oil, and changed his clothes, which means that he probably was practicing the Hebrew mourning ritual of sprinkling ashes on his forehead and wearing sackcloth. He commended this practice to others in 2 Samuel 3(:31), so Page 3 of 5
it s likely that he practiced it himself as his infant son fought for his life. But once the outcome of the situation was revealed, David s time of mourning ended and he cleaned himself up, changed his clothes, and put fresh oil on his face, so that it became shiny. This indicated health and joy for the Hebrew people. Their time of sorrow was over, for God had delivered them, one way or another. And what does David suggest is the solution for those who find themselves in trouble? The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. In 2 Kings 6(:15-17) we re told of the time that the king of Syria sent his army to kill Elisha, the prophet of God. Early in the morning, Elisha s servant went out and saw that the city was surrounded by soldiers with horses and chariots. Dismayed, he went to Elisha and said, What are we going to do? Elisha said, Don t be afraid, for those who are with us are greater than those who are with them. Then he prayed that the Lord would open the eyes of his servant. And when the Lord did so, the young man saw that, though the city was surrounded by the enemy, the enemy was surrounded by the army of the Lord, for the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire. Understand what this means, belovéd: you may feel as though the enemy has you pinned down and surrounded, but the angel of the Lord has encamped around you, so that you are safe. He will deliver you. Are you wondering if this is true? How will you know? There s an old often misquoted saying: The proof of the pudding is in the eating thereof. How do you know whether the pudding is good? You have to eat it! My mother used to make a chocolate pie, using the old-fashioned kind of chocolate pudding you know the kind you have to cook, not that instant stuff. It was so good that one year, my younger brother decided that that s what he wanted for his birthday instead of a cake. And that established a family tradition from then on. We all decided to have Mom s chocolate pie on our birthdays instead of cake. A number of years ago my wife and I bought a chocolate pie at the store. It looked amazing quite a lot, in fact, like what my mother s pies used to look like. I couldn t wait to get it home and have a piece. However... it tasted awful. I don t know what they did to it, but the eating of that pie proved that it wasn t good at all. How do you know if the Lord s promise to protect you is true? Taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Are you fearful? Are you troubled? Are you surrounded by danger and threat? Take refuge in the Lord. His angels are encamped around you and you are truly safe in Him. Finally, we could say much here about the bread which David and his men ate by the hand of Ahimelech the priest. Jesus makes reference to that in the Gospels to show that the Sabbath is intended to serve God s people, not the other way around. The bread was intended for God s holy people, and yet, how do God s people become holy? He makes them holy through faith in Page 4 of 5
His Anointed One for the Old Testament people, the Messiah to come, for His New Testament people, the Christ who has come the Christ who proclaimed Himself the Bread of Life. When we in faith partake of the Bread in Holy Communion, which is also His body, we receive the grace of God, which makes us holy before Him. In this way we really do taste and see in a very tangible way that the Lord is good, for there s no better way to take refuge in Him than to be in His house and receive His gifts of Word and Sacrament. God lead you, my friends, to return to His house often, so that you may taste and see His goodness. And may that eating strengthen and encourage you not only that you may endure your fears and troubles, but also that you may lift Him high before the world, that they, too, may see His glory shining in the face of His Son (2 Cor. 2:6). In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen Page 5 of 5