Psalm 34:8, Psalm 119:97-104, Ezekiel 3:1-3

Liz Dumain on chewing the cud of scripture

Liz Dumain

This month is a busy time for me - I'm moving from the South West to the Midlands. It's a bittersweet time because I love Wiltshire. One of things I love about the beautiful place where I live is that I can look out over rolling fields at sheep and cows and wander to my local farm shop, where there are chickens and sheep and cows - and then I can.....eat them.

Sorry to any vegetarians reading, but I love a good burger - it's one of my 'happy place' food experiences.

I wonder what your 'happy food place' is. Maybe it's a cream cake, or chocolate, or a good BBQ? Maybe it's a roast dinner with all the trimmings, or ice cream, or chips?

In Psalm 34:8 the writer invites us to 'taste and see that the Lord is good'. What does it mean to really taste and see?

When you taste something - (gustatory perception if you want to be clever) your taste buds go wild - 10,000 of them all waiting to taste salty, sweet, sour and bitter with a quivering mass of anticipation. When we taste something there's an explosion of action in our mouths: saliva gets ready, stomach gets ready to react, brain gets ready and neurones fire. All kinds of actions follow one single taste experience and our body is ready for action as a result.

The Bible talks about tasting a lot:

'Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands are always with me and make me wiser than my enemies. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts. I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word. I have not departed from your laws, for you yourself have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path' Psalm 119:97-104

Sweet words bring understanding that guides our lives. The invitation is to taste and see that the Lord is good - but how hungry are we?

In Ezekiel 3:1-3 God says this:

'And he said to me, "Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the people of Israel." So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. Then he said to me, "Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it." So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth'.

God wanted Ezekiel to fully take on his word: to taste it, experience it and fully digest it as preparation for what God was about to ask of him next. He didn't say 'read it a bit', or look at it, or imagine what it would be like - he said EAT it.

There is a fundamental difference between eating in a wonderful restaurant and grabbing a take away. One is the complete package: ambience, company, soul enhancing, memorable and maybe even life changing. The other is quick fuelling, generally unsatisfying and soulless - and might quite possibly give you a sour stomach.

What do we do with God's word? Do we savour it, share it with company, love it, live it and enter into a life changing experience? Or are we so distracted by everything around us that tasting and seeing is all a bit fleeting. Do we grab it, chew it as fast as possible (if at all) and then rush off to our next ministry moment: fuelled for a moment, but unsatisfied, soulless and very quickly empty?

I will miss the countryside of Wiltshire and fields full of cows. Do you know how cows taste the food they eat? Endlessly. Cows chew cud, which basically means they munch something, then sort of swallow it (they've got more than one stomach) and then without going into too much detail, they chew it again; they regurgitate it and have another chewing session. They actually do this several times - chewing, digesting, re-chewing and digesting a bit more.

Remember the Psalm about meditating all day long? I think God wants us to 'cud' scripture: chewing, munching, chewing and munching over and over again.

Maybe rather than us thinking we are consuming it - it needs to consume us!

If we really want to see more of the Lord, then we really need to taste more of him too. You might even say when it comes to scripture - we need to 'BE MORE COW'.