God is Good

This morning I was reading from Psalm 31, and spent some time meditating on verses 14-15:

"But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, 'You are my God.' My times are in your hands; deliver me from my enemies and from those who pursue me."

I'm able to trust in the Lord, not just because he is God, but because I can say, "You are my God." My theology is not abstract, but personalised. In fact, there was a time a while back when I had a profound revelation of God - not as King, or Father, or Shepherd, or Friend, or Counsellor, or Deliverer - but, quite simply, as God.

This may sound elementary, and you're right: it is! Yet so often we miss this essential point. God is God. This One that I now relate to on a daily basis, who calls himself my Father and Friend, my Lord and my Saviour, is the God who created the universe! Simple, yet profound - and ultimately life-changing. For David, because he is able to say, "You are my God," he goes on to declare: "My times are in your hands."

This is very much the case for me. The doctors have given me only a limited lifespan - months, not years - but my times are not in their hands. My times are in God's hands! Cancer is not the Lord of my life; God is!

Psalm 31:19-24 goes on to describe David's own experience with God:

"How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you.

In the shelter of your presence you hide them from the intrigues of men; in your dwelling you keep them safe from accusing tongues.

Praise be to the LORD, for he showed his wonderful love to me when I was in a besieged city.

In my alarm I said, "I am cut off from your sight!" Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help.

Love the LORD, all his saints! The LORD preserves the faithful, but the proud he pays back in full.

Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD."

I was struck once again by the simple realisation that God is good. That may seem so obvious to you, but I realised that this is the foundation upon which every other revelation of God is built. Without this basic revelation of God's nature, we will have a skewed concept of God which will affect how we view God and respond to him.

So this morning I spent some time chewing on this elementary revelation. According to Psalm 31:19, not only is God described as good, he has also stored up his goodness for those who fear him! In other words, God does shows his goodness is practical ways, every day, but he also stores up goodness in a special reserve for special times. He then lavishes his goodness upon us! Because of this, there is an ongoing hope, even in the midst of difficult times, of God's goodness being shown in my life, and for this reason, I can say: "Be strong and take heart, because I hope in the Lord!"

This reminds me of another passage I was reading recently, which echoes the same concept. Psalm 27:13-14 says:

"I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD."

The concept of God's goodness is closely connected with my response of gratitude (see my previous post on "The Reflex of Gratitude"). When I recognise that God is good, and acknowledge God to be the God of my life, my response is automatically one of thanksgiving to the Lord, for even when I feel like I am "in a besieged city", I can see through the fog of adverse circumstances and recognise the goodness of God in the smallest of things.

I was reading from Exodus 33 and Exodus 34 later this morning, just seeking to learn more about the goodness of God. In Exodus 33:19, in response to Moses' request to see God's glory, the Lord said:

"...I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion."

Flipping over to Exodus 34:5-7, we read of how the Lord "cause[d] all [his] goodness to pass in front of [Moses]":

"Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, 'The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.'"

I don't believe that Exodus 34:5-7 was the full revelation of God's nature and character, since in Exodus 33:20 God had already declined Moses' request to see his face (the fullness of God's glory). Instead, God had hidden Moses in the cleft of a rock and shielded him from the passing of his full glory, allowing him only to see the train, or "trailing off", of God's glory. It was out of this "trailing off" of the glory of God that the revelation of Exodus 34:5-7 came.

I believe that Exodus 34:5-7 describes the essential revelation of God's nature, as required by the Old Covenant. In other words, there are greater depths of revelation of God's glory yet to come (read 2 Corinthians 3:7-11). Having said that, though, I see Exodus 34:5-7 as the foundational revelation of God's character and nature, and thus it is interesting to note that in this foundational revelation, one of the first things God establishes is his goodness.

But the Bible never describes God as good in simply the abstract, remote sense of the word. It always associates God's goodness with direct acts of goodness. In other words, because God is good, he exercises that goodness in our lives. For example, Psalm 13:6 says:

"I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me."

Likewise, Nahum 1:7 says:

"The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him."

And Psalm 23:6, which I examined in "The Lord Is My Shepherd - Part 2", gives this promise:

"Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever."

And because of the innate goodness of God, the Bible encourages us to experience that goodness for ourselves. Just take a look at these verses:

Psalm 34:8 - "Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him."

Psalm 34:10 - "The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing."

Romans 8:28 - "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

It's amazing how such an entry-level concept can completely change your life. It's like a tiny key that unlocks a big door. It's like a small hinge that swings open a massive gate. Even the smallest of fulcrums, when levered properly, can shift a large weight. In the same way, this tiny, almost simplistic, revelation can change the whole way a person views life.

One of my favourite passages is found in Jeremiah 9:23-24:

"This is what the LORD says: 'Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,' declares the LORD."

I want to boast about my God (Psalm 34:2; Psalm 44:8; 1 Corinthians 1:31). I guess, in part, this is what this post is all about: boasting about my God and the fact that he "is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him" (Lamentations 3:25).