Daily Devotional For Saturday, June 14, 2025
Yeah, the weekend is here. It seems like yesterday that I was saying the same thing. Time flies when you’re serving the Lord and enjoying His presence. We are continuing to look at what it means to follow Jesus as a disciple. Yesterday, we left off with how salvation from beginning to end is all the work of God and our only role is to receive it or reject it.
We share in having a personal responsibility to make that choice. The only reason or way we can respond is because Jesus first takes the initiative to come to us and then He gives us the ability as spiritually dead people to respond. He doesn’t determine our response, we do. Do you understand what this really implies? The one and only God of this universe reaches out to us who are spiritually dead and whose heart is hardened and in His great love and grace, lubricates our hard hearts. Just like WD-40 lubricates mechanical and rusted parts, God’s love and grace lubricates our hearts to respond to His love and grace.
Think of it this way: you get an invitation from someone to join them at their home for dinner. All you have to do is say yes or no. They are doing everything else. They will cook and prepare all the food. They will clean their house. They will set the table and when you leave, they will clean up everything. All you had to do was accept, come and dine. Psalms 34:8 says, “O taste and see that the Lord is good” (NASB).
Taste! That is all you have to do. Open up your hungry soul and taste and you’ll see that the Lord is being good to you. The Hebrew word translated as “taste” is [טָעַם,taamu]. Interesting choice of words, don’t you think? David could have said, “Believe that the Lord is good” or “Trust that the Lord is good,” but he didn’t. “Taste!” “Taste!” Taste!” Why taste? I have a couple propositions for you.
- First, the psalmist probably had in mind the food left over from sacrifices and they would enjoy eating this after worship. We find God’s command for this in Deuteronomy 14:23-29, Leviticus 12:7-15, and in Numbers 15:2-5. Worship included thanking the Lord through a meal for His blessings, protection, liberation, and grace. The act of worship and eating the sacrificial meal was an expression to remind the worshiper of the goodness of God. Here, the poetry of the psalm invites people to experience God’s goodness sensually—by tasting, smelling, and consuming the gifts of creation.
- Second, how do we “taste” and see that the Lord is good? Let’s say you met someone who had never had watermelon. You can show them pictures on Google on your phone. You could take them to a grocery store and show them fresh cut up watermelons. You could even buy one, cut it up and let them watch your face light up as you eat a piece. They believe by watching you that watermelon is sweet and tasty to eat, BUT, they will never know themselves unless they take a piece and eat it for themselves. Anything else is second-hand.
Many Christians have a second-hand experience of God’s goodness. They have heard sermons about God’s goodness. Their parents have said that God is good. They truly believe that God is good. But they haven’t tasted and seen for themselves that God is good. Why not? Because when they are faced with their fears, they do not turn to God for refuge. They turn to a substance or a hobby to occupy their time. They may have trusted God with their minds, but they have not trusted him with their lives. They may have God in their hand by holding their Bible, but they do not hold Him in their hearts. They do not know for themselves what David knows, that God cares for us because of His grace. Therefore, they simply prefer to look at others who have tasted and discover that the Lord is good rather than do it themselves.
They will always be splashing in the shallows when they could dive deep in the oceans of God’s goodness and grace. David wants us to act on what we know of God’s goodness when we are in trouble. Only then will we taste for ourselves how good he really is. Part of following Jesus means that when life goes “south,” we go up. We turn to Him first before we turn to anything else or anyone else. This is what it means to “taste” and see that the Lord is good.
David says that God is good. The Hebrew word he uses is [טוֹב, tov]. It means more than just “good.” It also means beautiful, life-giving, morally good, or anything that is considered desirable or pleasing. God is pleasing. God is pleasant. God is life-giving. God is morally right in all His actions. Yet, so many people who claim to be a Christian never really experience His goodness.
Assignment: When you get bad news or something bad happens, is Jesus Christ your first go to in life to follow His word on how to deal with it? Or, do you go first and follow someone else’s word? To be a Christian means we are loved by God, pursued by God, and found by God. It also means that when bad things happen, out of love for God, we pursue Him first because He has enabled us to follow Jesus. To do anything else is to return to your spiritual darkness and commit spiritual adultery. Do you consistently follow Jesus this way? Why or why not?
Scripture To Meditate On: 1 Peter 2:2-3, “Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, (3) if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord” (NASB).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, I do not consistently follow You by coming to You first and experience how good you are when bad things happen. Please forgive me for going to other sources and tasting them. I do not want to be guilty of spiritual adultery. I want to follow You, be faithful to You and fulfill Your will for my life, especially through the dark times in life. I know You are the Light of the World. I ask You help me follow Your light. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly