Appetite suppression

‘Taste and see the Lord is good……’ Psalm 34:8a

Carrying on from last weeks blog regarding New Year’s resolutions I was reminded how many of our resolutions are about finding a resolution for our appetites.  Keeping fit allows us to eat more, we eat more so we exercise more.  Or we eat less so we don’t have to keep fit or we eat less and exercise more because our bodies seem to scream that this is the only way we can keep ourselves under control.

There are many appetites that bring us shame and guilt, deep down we know giving into these appetites are wrong but somehow, they overtake us, somehow, they control how we think, sleep, behave.  If only there was an appetite suppressant, if only we could have mastery over our appetites and make them go away.

In Psalm 34 King David was hiding in a cave after escaping the clutches of his enemies and he was proclaiming the heart of God to rescue his people.  David new what it was and is to live in fear but he speaks from experience of the deliverance of God from what harms us.

It is interesting that David reflected on God’s salvation and protection as he and his men were in hiding from their enemies, I wonder if the security of the cave was what prompted his thoughts of rescue. His place of fear, his place of knowing in and of himself he had nowhere else to go, it was this moment his reflection was to praise God.

David then implores his men to ‘taste and see the Lord is good, blessed is the man who trusts in him’.  It is no accident that these two verbs of taste and see don’t need to be explained to us but the direction of taste and see are turned away from the natural direction of self and is pointing into the opposite direction towards our LORD and Saviour.

I have many a time thought about how much easier it would be if I didn’t have any taste buds, if only I didn’t have a sweet tooth life would be so much easier.

I don’t know if David’s men were complaining they were hungry, or whether fear of death stopped them from thinking about unimportant things such as food, what we do know is that David was redirecting their thinking away from their fear and towards the goodness and grace of God.

There’s much more that can be said but for now, this coming week instead of trying to focus in on suppressing your appetite, try and turn your heart towards God and taste and see that He is good.

Taste and see that the Lord is good;
    blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
  Fear the Lord, you his holy people,
    for those who fear him lack nothing.
   The lions may grow weak and hungry,
    but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Psalm 34:8-10