O Taste and See that the Lord Is Good
(Ps.34:8 / Ps.37:4)
It can happen on your birthday or after a doctor’s visit but more likely it happens now at the start of a new year. The “it” I refer to is the desire, the willingness to change or as we say – to make a new year’s resolution:
- to quit smoking… to lose weight…. to find a better job… to read the Bible…
Everyone of us here at one time or another has wanted to change or tried to change- we have made resolutions in the past and most likely ended up with
mixed results or outright failure. We lost some weight but gained it back; we tried reading through the Bible but it just got too boring and tedious
so we gave it up. Even when the doctor told me if I didn’t quit smoking,
I could have another attack and die, trying to quit was impossible.
So we begin another year together, listening to the preacher but satisfied
to remain the way I am without making any changes or resolutions. It is said that the older we get, the more set in our ways we become,
so the idea of me changing for the better faces an uphill battle.
But we do know that people older people change and often; older people move to Florida to live- that’s change. I see older people using a TV
remote changer- why don’t they get up out of their chair to change the channel like they used to.
I see older people using cell phones- why don’t they just use the old dial phones- no it’s the push button phones and now the cell phones. Older people like younger people can still change and do change- sometimes willingly or unwillingly.
So, if you are sitting out there thinking, I like things just the way they are; I don’t need or want to make any new year’s resolutions – they don’t work for me anyway; I am here to remind you – that you can change and most likel will change.
Ask those people in Asia who survived the tsunami that struck 11 of their countries if they have changed – the way they think about life; the way they live now afterwards.
You’re in the wrong pew if you come here thinking another day another dollar,
another year like the one before. Have you and I forgotten that God is in the life-changing business? That, if He has called and chosen you and me, there
is no way that you and I will remain the same. Paul was very clear about that with the Corinthian Christians: II. Cor. 3:18 / 5:17
And we all….are being changed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another….
…if anyone is in Christ, he (she) is a new creation; the old has passed away behold, the new has come….
Now I should qualify what I have said by noting that you and I are in Christ and not simply in ourselves or in Satan. I am assuming that because you and I are
here in the house of God that God and not me or Satan in me is the one in charge of my life. It’s unfortunate that so much of the change we see not just in the world but in our families is Satan driven -- Adam and Eve saw change in their life all right thanks to Satan’s lies and Israel as a nation suffered terribly as king after king chose to follow the ways of Satan worshipping false idols
and engaging in all manner of sexual immorality—not that different from so much downward change we see today.
So the first point I want to make is don’t think you are going to get through this new year of 2005 without change. There will be change in your life and mine whether we are ready or not; whether we set any goals or resolutions or just try
to live out our days the way we always have.
And if change is going to come why not make it for Jesus Christ and His kingdom and not for the powers of evil.
Centuries ago the Christian Church spelled out for its members the purpose for their existence – a purpose that for any new year should be our resolution.
The statement came in the form of a catechism question:
What is the chief end or purpose of Man?
answer: To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
It is the latter half of that answer- to enjoy Him forever- that I want us to grasp this morning.
The idea of “enjoying” God may sound strange and unfamiliar to us. We know about “fearing” God or “loving” God or “serving” God; at times we may be angry at God or confused about God. Much of the time it may seem that God is absent.
So what does it mean to enjoy God? Do you know someone who enjoys God?
King David was such a person; if you recall the text this morning: Ps. 34:8
“O taste and see that the Lord is good…” Not to be crass but it sounds like
enjoying God is like eating one of your favorite foods- the taste is so good
and pleasant to you that you really enjoy it.
And then David says something similar in Ps. 37:4
Delight yourself in the Lord….
Here again is this idea of enjoying God. And we see how David does this enjoying of God in real life in II. Samuel 5:14 where David dances before the Ark of the Covenant as it was brought into the Tabernacle in Jerusalem. David was so happy and excited in the Lord about what was happening that
verse 14 says: and David danced before the Lord with all his might.
It wasn’t a rock star and a rock concert but it was the Almighty and Living God to
whom David danced before in joy and delight.
Notice too that God was not there physically to touch and see other than the ark which represented God.
Many of you are familiar as well with the story of Jesus having dinner in a Pharisee’s house when a woman brought an alabaster flask of ointment and standing behind Jesus at His feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed His feet, and anointed them with the ointment. (Lk.7:37ff)
You don’t carry out such an expression of love without a deep sense of joy and delight- this time in the physical presence of the living Lord.
Grandparents take delight and enjoy having the grandchildren for a visit; we go out to celebrate our birthday or anniversary at a favorite restaurant where we enjoy, take delight in a delicious meal.
Where is such joy and delight in our Lord Jesus Christ -- that is what I am after this morning in thinking about change and resolutions.
You see Satan tries to fool us into believing “that money and cocaine and chocolate and a fully equipped SUV can do what God’s can’t.” (p.15, One Thing,
by Sam Storms). That our pleasure and delight can only come from the things
of the world rather than from the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But time and again we see examples and in our own lives have moments when as Robert Loveless wrote: Everyday with Jesus is sweeter than the day before,
everyday with Jesus I love Him more and more. Jesus saves and keeps me
and He’s the one I’m waiting for. Everyday with Jesus is sweeter than the
day before.
We can say we believe in God or we try to follow Jesus Christ but let this be the year when we delight in and enjoy our Savior who lives and reigns yesterday, today and forever.
Daily reading the Word of God; daily prayer and worship; consistently exposing our hearts and minds to the will of the Holy Spirit compared to will of our fleshly desires are the practical ways that enable us to enjoy our Savior. Sam Storms writes:
"If we don’t know who God is and how He thinks and what He feel and why He does what He does, we have no grounds for joy, no reason to celebrate, no basis for finding satisfaction in Him.” (One Thing, p.81)
So we read the Bible and prayer, so we worship this morning and tomorrow morning in our time of private devotion, so we become a little more attuned,
a little sharper at recognizing God answering this or that prayer, of God
healing here and there, and most of all how He, my Savior and Lord, lead me away from this danger yesterday and how He sent help to me in that time of
need last month. More and more I am awake to aware of not just the work of God but of God Himself. And there was and will be in me for the moment and in the
future for all eternity that joy and delight in the Lord.
