Psalms 34:8 says, “O taste and see that the Lord is good…” The reality that God is good is a fact. But this reality does us no good unless we know and experience His goodness for ourselves. No one can adequately tell us of His goodness. Secondhand knowledge will always leave something lacking.
So, Psalms 34:8 uses an interesting phrase for personally experiencing the goodness of God. We must taste and see it. This implies that we must know and perceive God’s goodness as a connoisseur of fine food, first partakes of a dish; then with each bite realize that it is absolutely heavenly. It is exceedingly abundantly above all that he could ask or think (Eph. 3:20). Thus he relishes each bite.
God’s goodness is His nature. It is who He is. He can’t help Himself. He is morally good. All that He does is good. He is excellent, wonderful, beautiful, tenderhearted, and merciful. His goodness is attached to His glory. It is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance (Rom. 2:4). To encounter His goodness is to be overwhelmed by all that is right and lovely.
To taste God’s goodness means that we intimately appreciate, savor, and desire it. There is nothing that we can add to it, but we can receive it. A person can agree with the statement: “God is good.” But we cannot adequately appreciate those words until we taste and see for ourselves.