Back in the '70s there was a television commercial for Alka-Seltzer that enticed the hungry individual to "Try it; you'll like it!" Even though it turned out bad for that individual, at least until after the Alka-Seltzer, God sends us the same catch phrase: "O taste and see that the Lord is good!"

Human beings are brilliant creations. God has placed within us a chemoreception centered on the tongue, soft palate, and parts of the pharynx and epiglottis where our taste receptors abide. These taste receptors trigger brain reactions to salty, sour, sweet, bitter or umami, and tell us either "Yummmmmmmm!" or "Yuck!" In His word, God appeals to our spiritual receptors:

"Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on that which is not bread and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest fare" (Isaiah 55:1-2); "In that day the mountains will drip new wine, and the hills will flow with milk" ( Joel 3:18a); "I wisdom, dwell together with prudence; My fruit is better than fine gold; what I yield surpasses silver" (Prov. 8:12, 19); "Then Jesus declared, 'I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty'" (John 6:35); "How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth" (Psalm 119:103); "Eat honey, my son, for it is good; honey from the comb is sweet to your taste. Know also that wisdom is sweet to your soul; if you find it, there is a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off" (Prov. 24:13); "The ordinances of the Lord are pure and altogether righteous. They are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb" (Psalm 19:9b, 10b).

Peter encourages us, "Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk so that by it you may  grow up now that you have tasted that the Lord is good" (I Peter 2:2-3). Paul tells us that there is a "taste [to the] heavenly gift" and that "once we have been enlightened,"  [we have] "tasted the goodness of the word of God" (Heb. 6:4-5). We are then ready for the "Solid food [of] the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil" (Heb. 5:14).

"O taste and see that the Lord is good!" "Try it; you'll like it" (and you won't need the Alka-Seltzer afterward).

 YUMMMMMMMMMMMMM!