The Goodness of God

Psalm 27: 13 - 14: "I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.  Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; yes wait for the Lord."  Psalm 119: 68: "You are good and do good; teach me Your statues."  Yesterday morning at church I met with some women for the start of a summer Bible Study.  I asked the ladies to share a promise of God, an aspect of His character, a recent answer to prayer or something else that might encourage them or even a burden on their heart.  Much was said about the goodness of the Lord. Some referred to His goodness as recent recipients. Others focused on it as those who awaited and trusted that He would be good in times of trouble.  Regardless it is wonderful to focus on the goodness of the Lord.

Tim Chester in his book "You Can Change" mentions four aspects of God's character that all begin with g: "great, good, glorious and gracious".  He is all of those and more.  He is always good and He does not change. He extends much grace for He can do nothing else.  He is great in that He is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. He is glorious in that He alone is God and there is no other.  Focusing upon Him is the answer to despair and discouragement.  My former BSF Teaching Leader, Esther Farhat, told us often "Don't live on Avenue D." She explained that to mean don't go the the place of doubt, discouragement, despair or depression. Our flesh and the enemy of the souls entices us to move there. However we need to stay firmly at home on what I call Avenue E. Here we find encouragement, edification, excellence and at time even an ecstasy of the Holy Spirit.

This evening I was reading out of Psalm 37 to one of the widows I visit at Sunrise Assisted living. I was struck by the number of references to the Lord delivering His people out of trouble.  Psalm 37: 39 to 40: "But the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; He is their strength in time of trouble. The Lord helps them and delivers them; He delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in Him."  While the Lord promises to sustain the righteous, the wicked have no such guarantee. Rather the Lord speaks very clearly that their end is destruction with their posterity cut off.  They will not receive the inheritance of the land for that belongs to the godly ones alone.

God is good. Regardless of how difficult, unkind, hard or even cruel seem our circumstances, He is good.  His love endures forever for all those who call Him Father.  He rescues and delivers His own.  He watches over them with His eye on them continually. In Zephaniah 3:17 God says He is a victorious warrior in our midst.  He will quiet His own with His love and rejoice over them with shouts of joy.  In fact He exults over us with joy!  What a blessed reminder during times of hard places. God is indeed good.  He is good all the time.