The Goodness of God

      "The goodness of God is infinitely more wonderful than we will ever be able to comprehend."
                                                        Aiden Wilson Tozer




If we could visit heaven temporarily to interview its occupants today, I wonder how each one of them would define the word good. Would they limit the definition to only experiencing the pleasant things in life, or would there be a deeper consideration for the things that would ultimately yield an outcome and a fruit that is good? Exactly how would some of the heroes of our faith, like Isaiah, or Esther,  or Jeremiah, or Paul, or Mary ( the mother of Jesus) answer this question? Especially now that they have the advantage of only seeing things from an eternal perspective. Oh, how I wish we could conduct that interview today!

It has been said that hindsight has 20/20 vision. I believe that true clarity comes when we focus our gaze through the eyes of the One who created this world and its inhabitants. I honestly do not believe that even the heroes of our faith had complete understanding of the sheer goodness of God and the mysteries of His ways until they were nestled in eternity and could see firsthand both how good God is and how good the things He does really are.

This was the dilemma that plagued the life of Asaph, one of the authors of the Psalms. Asaph was a Levite and one of the chief musicians under King David. He composed Psalm 73, as well as eleven others. Psalm 73 tackles the age-old problem of why the righteous have to suffer while it seems as if the ungodly prosper. This nagging question created quite the conundrum for this worshipper who confesses that at one point he almost walked away from his faith.

Asaph's assumption was not unlike many believers in the U.S. today. He thought that if God was good then He would constantly pour out His blessings on the righteous and deliver all the trials and difficulties to the unbelievers. While there is an element of truth in this assumption, it is far from being complete.

Consider what the author of Deuteronomy tells us when he says, "And you shall [earnestly]  remember all the way which the Lord your God led you these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and to prove you, to know what was in you [mind and] heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. And He humbled you and allowed you to hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you recognize and personally know that man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord" (Deuteronomy 8:2-3).

The real problem that Asaph had was not the fact that he was grappling with hard truths. Rather, it was the fact that his perspective was distorted. Instead of hating the sin of the ungodly, he envied their success. He self-righteously believed that he deserved God's blessings and when they eluded him, he concluded that all his righteous living had been in vain. He erroneously assigned his suffering as emanating from God and he decided to throw one big pity party!

He over-generalized and he defined the goodness of God as meaning "health and wealth" for himself.  By the end of Psalm 73, however, he realizes that his definition of good was inherently wrong. For the first time, he begins to view it from the vantage of eternity rather than from the here and now.

His thinking was transformed and so was his definition of the word good. Originally he had believed that the word good meant the absence of pain, sorrow, difficulty, poverty, and poor health. After his heart and mind were transformed, he said, "But, as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all Thy works" (psalm 73:28).

If we could really have a revelation of the goodness of God, our lives would forever be transformed. Even if we understand that God is good, we must also understand that even the bad things that occur in our lives will be used for good. Paul's "thorn in the flesh" was delivered to him by a "messenger of Satan" (2 Corinthians 12:7) but God allowed this so that His strength could be witnessed through Paul's weakness. What Joseph's brothers intended for his "evil", God intended "for good" so that He could save the lives of many people in the time of a severe famine (Genesis 50:20).

God works all things for our good and for His glory. Many times we would write a different script when it comes to the story of our lives, but it is His script that ultimately is the best for us. Often, we just don't understand what the larger plan is. This is why we walk by faith, knowing in our minds and hearts that God's very essence is good and that that will be parlayed into the construct of our lives. 

A true life of gratitude will take the difficulties in our lives and use them to honor God. Our flesh may want us to run and scream, but the Holy Spirit gives us grace to bring God glory. Ann Voscamp says, "Giving thanks is that: making the canyon of pain into a megaphone to proclaim the ultimate goodness of God when Satan and all the world would sneer at us to recant."

Honesty and truth are required to truly praise and worship in the midst of a storm. So is maturity in Christ. We have to be willing to allow Jesus to show us where our perceptions are distorted and where are hearts have become hardened. Not one of us has a perfect heart, and the ones who think they do are the most deceived of all. They are the best at concealing what's really inside, even to themselves.

The wilderness is the place where God exposes our hearts. He also exposes the intentions buried deep within our hearts. It takes humility to understand that it is God's Word that we need even more than we need our daily bread.  It takes courage and faith to continue the course fully confident that even the wilderness will be used for our good. It takes wisdom from above to know that "all our righteousness (our best deeds of rightness and justice) are like filthy rags"  before the Lord (Isaiah 64:6).  It takes commitment and love to know that God is right by our side even as we traverse a dry land.

God always has been and always will be good. He is good in the good times and He is good in the difficult ones. His mercies and grace are poured over us as we grapple with the difficult questions we face. His greatest promise to us is that He will never leave us or forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6). He will forever be with us and for us. We can lift our voice of praise while we wield a two-edged sword in our hands (Psalm 149:6).

Asaph's perspective was changed when he quit looking at the circumstances around him and started looking at the destiny before him. We also need to do the same. Steven Furtick says, "What would happen if you stopped asking, 'God, why am I going through this?' and started asking, 'God, what are you preparing me for?'" The answer to this question changes everything.

Praise God for who He is. Praise God for His goodness. Praise God for working all things together for our good. Praise God for what He has done. Praise God for what He is doing. Praise God for what He will do. Praise God for your destiny.  Praise God that He gives and He forgives. Praise God because He is good!!!!


                "Sing praises to God, sing praises; Sing praises to our King, sing praises."
                                                            Psalm 47:6