You are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees. (Ps. 119:68)
The author of Psalm 119 reminds us that the Lord is good because he is faithful to his word. Furthermore, we notice in this passage that the word good opens five of the eight sentences in this section. The author clearly emphasizes the goodness of the Lord.
C. S. Lewis once wrote that “God’s love, far from being caused by goodness in the object, causes all the goodness which the object has, loving it first into existence, and then into real, though derivative, lovability. God is Goodness. He can give good, but cannot need or get it. In that sense, His love is, as it were, bottomlessly selfless by very definition; it has everything to give, and nothing to receive.”
Even in our afflictions, God is good. When people lie to us and deceive us, God is good. No matter what we’ve been through, how far we’ve gone astray, or how offensive our sinful ways, God is still good. God is not only all-knowing, all-powerful, all-present, but God is also all-good!
Through it all, we can have unwavering confidence that if we truly believe and obey God’s Word and are in a relationship with him, we can experience his everlasting goodness.
Know that God is good, all the time!
Jeremy Summers is an ordained Wesleyan pastor with a doctorate in spiritual formation. He is passionate about discipleship and church multiplication, and probably drinks too much coffee.
© 2022 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
