“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” -Psalm 34:8
The view that reason stands over against faith as a more certain, even absolute, source of knowledge is a modern invention. The ancients (like David), the Apostles (like John and Peter), and the church fathers (like Augustine and Anselm) all recognized that faith and reason were complementary to one another, with faith leading out.
“Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”” -John 20:29
“if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.” -1 Peter 2:3
Anselm asserted, fides quareans intellectum (Faith seeks understanding)
Faith is not blind, but one must taste (perceive) the Lord first, before his goodness can be seen. We must take God at his word and receive him fully before we are able to know with the kind of empirical certainty we desire that what he said is true.
When our daughter was very young, she used to object to new foods say, “I don’t like that. I don’t want to eat it,” even though she had never tried it. After much persuasion, and sometimes some coercion, she would eat the bite and then want more. She would say, “I like it. It didn’t taste like I thought it would.” This is what the Lord wants of us. Taste and see because when you do, you will know that I am good.
But this is true of reason as well. When one argues his knowledge is based on reason alone—not faith—he is mistaken. In order to rely on reason, one must first trust (perceive) the faculty of his mind is in working order; only then can he can see it’s goodness—and that his perception was correct—by applying it to some subject.
Blessed is the man who not only tastes, but sees, for then he will put his refuge in the Lord and flourish.