This past weekend, like many Americans, we went to the lake.  While we were there, we went into the small town of Warsaw, Missouri for some lunch and goodies.  We stopped at a small shop that resembled an Amish bakery and the proprietor invited us to try some samples.  Of course, the samples were so good we had to buy some of the products!  Tasting the food pleased our senses; and experiencing the food brought us joy—which leads me to our scripture verse…

Psalm 34:8 “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!” (NKJV).

Notice the very visceral dimension to the verse. We are not invited to simply hear about the Lord, or study the truth about the Lord in some cold intellectual way.   No, we are challenged to sink our teeth into and “taste and see that the Lord is good.”

On the same trip, my son’s girlfriend admitted that she had never eaten any fresh cherries before.  My son want her to try some, but she wasn’t sure.  He kept on insisting… even trying to force one particularly plump and juicy cherry to her lips.  She finally relented and ate the cherry.  She found out she loved them and nearly ate the whole bag.

The point is, in order for her to taste the cherry, she had to commit.  She had to let pass through her lips in order for it to reach her taste buds and please her pallet.  Essentially, the Lord is saying to us, “don’t just sniff around the edges—taste, commit, experience what it is to have me in you, living in your heart."
    

Ben Patterson is the Campus Pastor at Westmont College and a contributing editor of Christianity Today magazine.  He tells about how he was dusting his furniture, moving to some music he had playing. He started revving it up, dancing more and more vigorously and flamboyantly.

Gradually, he became aware that his four-year-old son watching—and beaming with delight. Patterson invited his son to join in, and they danced. They got even more carried away and leaped over chairs, ran across the coffee table, jumped on the sofa, shouted, and giggled. Ben writes, "I wish you could have seen the look of unabashed pleasure and joy on my son's face as he danced.”

Patterson sums it up this way: “Any exploration of joy is incomplete if we do not understand that at its deepest, joy is delight for God and with God--not unlike my dance with my son."

Speaking of delight, Psalm 37:4 tells us that when we delight ourselves in the Lord, he will give us the desires of our hearts. There’s an obvious cycle of cause and effect that leaps out from that verse. If we're delighted in the Lord, we will be delighted with what delights him. Naturally, if we're delighted in what brings joy to the Lord, he gives us the desires of our hearts because they're in harmony with his desires and plans.

Since this is true, the question becomes, “what delights God and gives him joy?” Psalm 104:31 exclaims, "May the glory of the Lord continue forever! The LORD takes pleasure in all he has made!" (NLT).  Throughout the Psalms we see how God delights in his creation—and nothing more so than “the Firstborn of His creation,” the Lord Jesus Christ.

At Jesus' baptism, the Father said he was delighted in his Son. God so loved the world (you and me) that he sent his Son into the world that we might be redeemed--and so he could rejoice in our rescue.

When we find our delight in God, we share in his delights. And, incredibly, he delights in us, the same as Ben Patterson did in his son, and his son in him, and the joy of the dance.

So here’s the deal… are you nibbling around the edges of this life of faith in Jesus Christ, or are you sinking your teeth into the thing?  The real joy comes when we “taste and see that Lord, he is good.”

Join me in making this a prayer to live by… “Lord, I take refuge in you. Draw me into your delights! Give me a heart that genuinely rejoices in what brings joy to you, instead of what lures me to the shortcuts and "pleasures that last only for a season."  Remind me daily that when I choose to “taste and see that the LORD--you are good,” then “the joys of those who take refuge in You” will be mine. Amen.