We Are The City Harmonic Sample

"All of This and More"

I was standing on a beach in South Padre Island, Texas at about midnight, simply overwhelmed by the stars as I stared out over the ocean.  I saw the natural, raw beauty of the night sky colliding against the unfettered vastness and power of the ocean waves and I was in awe.  I still vividly remember the smell of that place and the sensation of God’s presence that I experienced there.  It was the first time that I had really seen a glimpse of God in nature and just reveled in the beauty of it all.  And I remember thinking, “and that’s not all.”  Something about that moment, as brilliant as it was, told me that this was a mere shadow of God’s beauty.

The inspiration for this song came from a very short and often quoted line from 1 Peter 2.  Its found at the end of verse 2 and it simply reads, “now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”  Taste is such a visceral sensation; in fact, all of our senses are capable of invoking very powerful feelings in us.  The way that a smell can trigger so many forgotten memories or a song can remind us of a very specific time in our lives or the way a hand can accidentally graze against another and cause the heart to flutter.  The idea of tasting and seeing that the Lord is good inspired in us the thought that all the good things of life, the really good things we all universally recognize as beautiful or special in some way, come from God.  And even more than that, God is all of those things and still so much more.  It’s a really simple notion, but a profound one if you stop long enough to let it soak in.  So this song is meant to be just that, an opportunity to reflect on the beauty and goodness of God.

The interesting thing is that Peter is quoting a line from Psalm 34 that also tells its hearers to “taste and see that the Lord is good!”  Both Psalm 34 and 1 Peter 2 pair the observation and enjoyment of God’s goodness with a call to live a life of righteousness and goodness in response.  When we come face to face with such beauty, it can’t help but change us.  As we make the time to stop and enjoy God in an honest and open way, even in the smallest, seemingly insignificant things, we will be made into a more accurate reflection of His goodness and beauty.

-Eric Fusilier, The City Harmonic