God is Good
Psalm 100.
“Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands!
Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.
Know that the LORD, He is God;
It is He who made us, and not we ourselves:
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him and bless His name.
For the LORD is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And his truth endures all generations.”
In my last post I talked about how good isn’t God. Now I want to share an even deeper, harder concept to grasp. The concept that despite all: God is good.
It’s a hard statement, because if you’ve lived life for even just a little bit, you know that your life isn’t always good. No matter what you do or how you plan, at some point in your life you will experience the bad.
The bad stuff, from the minor annoyances to the worst evils imaginable. The bad is often the excuse. It’s the excuse on why we can’t believe in God. If God was good, if He loved us, if He was all powerful, He wouldn’t have let this happen. He wouldn’t let this happen, especially to someone who didn’t deserve it.
I’ve asked those questions, too. God, if you are so good, then why?
Years ago, when I was still a nurse, I was a spectator to a situation that made me question harder than ever, Is God good?
I took care of a young mother. Only a few years older than I am now, she was dying. Cancer had riddled her body and there was nothing left to do. She was facing the reality of leaving behind six children. Babies she would never see grow up. Missed graduations, weddings, grandchildren. She would never grow old with the husband she loved dearly. She knew all this and she was scared.
She believed in God. Her room always had a scripture or two posted somewhere. There was always worship music playing. But when her family left for the day, the long nights lay ahead. Many nights I sat by her bed whenever I could spare a moment. She was terrified. This wasn’t the plan she had for her life. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be.
I prayed with her, I prayed over her. I prayed and prayed and prayed. Her family prayed and prayed and prayed. But, despite hundreds, if not thousands of prayers, one day she lost her fight. Her family held out hope until the very end, but she was not to receive her healing on this earth.
It’s something that's bothered me for years. She was the last person to “deserve” that end, but it happened. I continued to remind myself that God was good, but how was there any good in that situation?
Psalm 100.
“Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands!
Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.
Know that the LORD, He is God;
It is He who made us, and not we ourselves:
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him and bless His name.
For the LORD is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And his truth endures all generations.”
David, the mighty, emotional, humble man. The man after God’s own heart. The man who learned to worship in any scenario and be real with God. David learned that it is within God’s character that He is good, despite that evil is the world. David knew God was good when he was a wanted man, exiled from his homeland. He knew God was good when he lost his children. He knew God was good when he was punished for his decisions. He knew God was good, when everyone was against him. We actually don’t know for sure if David wrote the 100th psalm, but even if he didn’t he wrote lots of others about God’s goodness. I just happen to especially love this one.
There have been times in my life when things were falling apart, not working out how I planned. The bad stuff that was supposed to only happen to other people was happening to me. I knew how I thought things should be, but what I was missing was the plan God had instead.
We question God and proclaim him unjust, but it’s such a naive and ignorant view of God.
I realized I was getting tripped up with my own definitions of good and bad and forgot that God’s ways are higher and greater than my own. I make exclamations about God’s goodness when things go my way and I grumble about trials when they don’t.
Got bills paid? Food on the table? Found a tax break? “Thank you God, you are good!”
Can’t pay my bills this month? My daughter is screaming in the store? I didn’t get my way? “Why God, why?”
I’ve become more and more aware of my failure to see past my own definitions and ideas about how things should be. Isn’t God good… all the time? I mean I know a song about that. Our pastor makes us repeat that during church now and then. God is good. All the time.
God is good when things are going my way and when they are not. God is good when a long awaited baby is born and when the pregnancy test is negative once again. God is good when someone dies tragically young or a life is miraculously prolonged. God is good when my bank account is full and when it is empty. God is good all the time.
But all that knowledge, the ability to repeat a sentence even when I don’t feel it, does that answer my question? One of the hardest questions to ever answer. Why is there bad and evil in the world? Why did this happen?
I do understand that the world we live in is not perfect, if it were it would be heaven. I do understand that there is an enemy on the prowl, ready to trip us up. I do understand that bad things happen, but again, I don’t understand a lot. And that’s ok. It’s not my job to understand everything. What my job is, however, is in every situation have thanksgiving in my heart, praise on my lips, and forever be ready to declare:
God, you are good.
