Articles
God is Good...All the Time
Maybe you have heard someone say, or maybe you have seen the statement posted on social media or on a sticker or in a meme, “God is good…all the time.” We may react with a little smile because we like the sound of it, but do we believe it? And is that belief based on any clear evidence? I am not talking about a mere ‘feeling’ we think it is true; do we have some real evidence it is true?
Well, if we believe the Bible is indeed God’s inspired word, as it claims (cf. 2 Tim. 3:16), then we do have evidence. The psalmist was inspired by God to write, “Praise the Lord! Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever” (Psa. 106:1). And, again, in Psalm 107:1, he writes, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!” This same plea to give thanks to the Lord for His goodness is also seen in Psalm 118:1, Psalm 118:29, and Psalm 136:1. It is not coincidental that each time the psalmist writes of the goodness of God, he exhorts the hearer or reader to give thanks; he has seen it firsthand.
But it is one thing to say God is good and another to show reasons why we believe that to be true. The psalmist, throughout his numerous psalms, gives us reason after reason why he believes it to be true, and often because he has experienced the goodness of God firsthand. Let us consider just one psalm (Psalm 138) wherein he notes the goodness of God, and then consider that these things are still true for God’s faithful servants today.
His Mercy and Truth. (Psa. 138:2) The psalmist offered praise and worship to the Lord because of, as he wrote [speaking to Him], “Your lovingkindness and Your truth.” [The Hebrew word translated here as “lovingkindness” is elsewhere translated as mercy.] The mercy of God is, in fact, one of the characteristics of God noted most frequently — more than 100 times in the Psalms. Within one psalm (Psalm 136), he ends every verse with the statement, “For His mercy endures forever.” The psalmist certainly believed His mercy was worthy of noting, and a reason to praise and thank God without ceasing! But how is His mercy demonstrated? Why is it said to be so great?
When we consider the word translated as mercy in the Old Testament simply means kindness, and when we consider the interaction of God with man and the numerous times He showed kindness when He would have been justified in exacting punishment, we can then begin to see just how great His mercy is!
Think of the times the Israelites complained in the wilderness; think of the times they were unfaithful to Him and followed after the false gods of the surrounding nations. Think of the times He sent prophet after prophet to warn them punishment was coming if they did not repent. Think of the abundant blessings and protection He provided for them, only for them to show their ungratefulness and faithlessness. The fact they survived as long as they did testifies to the greatness of God’s mercy and longsuffering!
But we need to bring it forward to see how His mercy is still just as great as it ever was, and especially as it applies to us today. In the New Testament, Paul reminded the Gentile Christians that it was through the disobedience and rejection of God by the Jews that they were now recipients of God’s mercy, noting, “you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience” (Rom. 11:30). Paul also reminds us that we once were dead in our trespasses and sins, “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Eph. 2:1-5). He also reminds us, “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us” (Titus 3:5). Indeed, His mercy is still great!
As for His truth? I am tempted to say that the value of truth is self-evident, but I understand it may not be so evident to some, so let us consider the alternative: a lie. The fact that everything God says is truth (Titus 1:2; Heb. 6:18) means we can trust God wholeheartedly, and we do not have to wonder if it is true, or will be true [for the promises yet to come]. If God ever spoke anything but truth, we would have cause to doubt and cause to hesitate. But He does not speak anything but truth, and for that reason, it is great. Add to this the fact of what He has said — we have the possibility of forgiveness, the promise of a resurrection from the dead, and the promise of eternal life in heaven — and we see that God is indeed very good!
He Hears the Prayers of the Faithful. (Psa. 138:3) What a comfort it is to know that God hears us when we pray! The psalmist wrote of this in several psalms, and this great blessing is still true for the faithful servants of God today. John reminds us, “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him” (1 John 5:14, 15). He had qualified this earlier when he wrote, “And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight” (1 John 3:22). Prayer is not to be considered as a means to obtaining earthly riches or a endless source of material blessings for any and all who would practice it; this is a blessing exclusively for the faithful, and it is limited to asking “according to His will” — not my will or my desires.
But the greatness of God and the goodness of God lies in the fact we have a God who is not absent from us [though He is not visible to us], or a God who is unable to hear us [such as the idols men create], or a God who is unwilling to hear us. God’s promise to the faithful is still true: “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb. 13:5). With that being true, who could argue that God is good…all the time?
Though He Is So Great, He Considers the Lowly. (Psa. 138:6) This is a point the psalmist focused on for an entire psalm (Psalm 113), and it is there he asked, “Who is like the Lord our God, who dwells on high, who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and in the earth?” (Psa. 113:5, 6). Indeed! His mercy is so great and His love is so great, so the God who is so great is not too high to bend low to consider lowly man.
I know there are ardent unbelievers and some who are militantly opposed to God who see this as a reason to disbelieve, incredulous that a God such as is described within Scripture would even bother with us; it is incredible when we consider it. But it is true! What makes this so great is that God is so great and man is certainly not-so-great, yet “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Why? We certainly were not worthy of such love!
But that is what makes God so good — and ‘good’ really is not a strong enough word to describe just who God truly is, and how magnificent His character is. He has considered lowly man and his helpless and hopeless condition, and He has provided for us what we could not provide for ourselves. He didn’t do it because we earned it or because He was obligated to do so; He did it because He loved us!
God is good…all the time. — Steven Harper
