One of the joys of working at our local Food Closet is that many of the people we work with are retired. They are "experienced" followers of Jesus and have been through good times and bad times. We love the good times, don't we? We love to praise God when things turn out "right" but we can also meet God in the bad times, too. There's a big difference between somebody telling you to rejoice in God, regardless of your circumstances, and somebody who has lived through hard times and still rejoices. There's a difference between knowing about something, and actually knowing it by living through it. Today's two passages remind us of that truth, so let's listen in:

I will extol the Lord at all times… Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him! …The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed. The righteous person faces many troubles, but the Lord comes to the rescue each time. (Psa. 34:1, 8, 18-19)

Psalm 34 begins with a commentator’s note that David, fleeing from Saul, decided to run to the Philistine city of Gath. When the king didn't give him a warm welcome, David pretended to be insane with spit running down his beard until he was driven away. It's from that place of humiliation that he writes verse 1 of Psalm 34: "I will extol the Lord at all times." Then in verse 8, he invites us to "taste and see that the Lord is good." And later, in verses 18 and 19, he says "the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit" and that "the righteous person faces many troubles." That's often where we experience God's Presence. Tasting and seeing God's goodness isn't just for the easy days when all is well, but it's for the brokenhearted days, too. Today, you may be brokenhearted. You may be hurting. You may have lost hope that things will come out right. Let me encourage you to taste and see the goodness of God. You can find Him in that broken place this morning...and that is very Good News!