Meditation on Psalm 16:2b
Continued
"I will say to the Lord... 'apart from you I have no good thing.'"
3) God is our greatest Good because he is good towards us,
especially to those who are his children.
In just a smattering of Psalms we see that God is good
towards those who fear, follow and take refuge in him: “Surely your goodness
and love will follow me all the days of my life” (Psalm 23:6). “How abundant
are the good things that you have stored up for those who fear you, that you
bestow in the sight of all, on those who take refuge in you” (31:19). “The
lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing”
(34:10). “For the Lord God is a sun and
shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from
those whose walk is blameless” (84:11).
“The Lord will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its
harvest” (85:12).
Even in the New Testament we read that God is the Giver of
good things: “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the
Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows”
(James 1:17).
There are three truths of God’s goodness towards us that are
scattered throughout the New Testament.
a) The first truth is that God gives good things to those
who ask for them. In Matthew
7:7-11 Jesus instructs his disciples to continue to ask, seek and knock in
prayer. An answer will come for those
who continue to do so. Then as the
master teacher, he draws an illustration from everyday life: If little Johnny
came up to you as a parent, rubbed his tummy and said, “Could I have a slice of
jelly bread?” Would you give him a rock
as a cruel joke? No! Of course you wouldn’t! Or if he sat at the dinner table and asked,
“Could you pass me some fish?” Would
you throw a poisonous snake at him? No! Of course you wouldn’t! Jesus draws his own conclusion: “If you,
then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how
much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
In the Magician’s Nephew, one of the Chronicles of
Narnia by C. S. Lewis, Digory and Polly are sent on a quest to find a
treasured fruit from a sacred tree in the middle of a garden. They take flight on a winged horse and land
in a valley mid evening. While the
horse, Fledge, munches on grass, the two children wonder what to eat and the
following conversation takes place:
“Well, I do think someone might have arranged about our
meals,” said Digory.
“I’m sure Aslan would have, if you’d asked him,” said
Fledge.
“Wouldn’t he know without being asked?” said Polly
“I’ve no doubt he would,” said the Horse… “But I’ve sort
of idea he likes to be asked.”
Have I? Have we
forgotten to ask our Father in heaven for good? Perhaps we think amiss.
Perhaps you have grown up with a father or mother who was always busy
and never had time to listen, really listen to your requests. You then think, “God is too busy with
galaxies and nebulae to listen to my pitiful request.” Or perhaps you have grown up with parents
who ignored you or criticized you for a good request and think God is like
that.
Child of God! Have you
not caught what Jesus said? “How much
more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask
him!” Perhaps we need to look at
God through a different lens: God delights in giving good gifts to his
children. He waits and waits for his
children to approach him and ask for strength to endure, food for the table,
understanding in his word, wisdom to train your children in his ways and the
list goes on.
But some of us will say, “I have asked him for good things
and he hasn’t answered.” Or has
he? Could it be that God has refused a
certain request of yours now only to give you something better later on or to
have you wait for it so that you appreciate the true value of it? Or could it be that God has our eternal good
in mind when he answers differently then we think?
Our Father in heaven knows what is best when we ask for what
is good.
b) The second truth is that God completes the ‘good
work’ that he began in us. Paul
wrote to the Philippians that he was ‘confident of this, that he who began a
good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus’
(Philippians 1:6). God begins things
and he ends things in his time. On
August 17, 1982 he began his good work in me.
He gave my mother wisdom to answer a simple question about the origin of
dinosaurs and then shared the gospel with me.
On that sunny afternoon God opened my heart to believe in Jesus. His good work began in me.
Every corporate church and every individual who loves and
follows Jesus Christ is a ‘good work’ of God.
He began this good work in them.
He molds it in them, breaks things up and builds things up or weeds evil
things out and plants good desires in us so that his good work becomes very
good. He is the Potter and we are the
clay (c.f. Isaiah 64:8; Jeremiah 18:6); he is the Craftsman and we are his
workmanship; he is the Artist and we are his masterpiece. The potter carves and molds deep crevices in
the clay to make it something beautiful.
The craftsman chisels rough edges to make it smooth. The artist blends colors on the canvas to
create a variety of shades that all reflect his desires. So it is with God. He began a good work in us and is molding us, shaping us and
weaving together colors in our lives so that on the day of Christ Jesus his
good work will be completed in us. This
process is sometimes painful on our part but the end result and reward will be
greater then what we can possibly imagine.
And we can rest assured that he will finish this work in
us. He is not like a potter who throws
the lump of clay back into the bin and leaves his profession. He is not like the craftsman who becomes
bored with his painting. No! He is ever working in us. He will never give up on us until that work
is completed in Christ Jesus!
c) This leads to the third truth of God’s goodness towards
us: he has the power to create good despite our circumstances. “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” (Romans 8:28). In all
things—accidents, heartbreaks, a cruel boss, a long day, hospital visits,
cancer and the list goes on—God weaves it together for our good and his
glory. In the midst of painful trials
and circumstances I am hard pressed to believe this verse. I cannot always see the immediate good that
comes from heartbreak or having a cruel boss or whatever else might trouble
me. But God takes it and begins to work
something so beautiful and so good in our lives that when he finally brings it
about, in this life or the next, the good outcome will be greater than the
trials and evils that befall us. And we
will wonder in that day how we ever doubted God’s goodness towards us! God’s intentions towards his children are
always good and he works towards that end.
Thus we can say with King David “I am still confident of this: that I
will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13).
Once when I worked at a childcare center, a little girl came
to me and said, “Look at what so and so did.”
When I looked at her little notebook that served as her diary of sorts I
saw where another student wrote: “You are stupid” or something like that. While I did talk to the other child about
this, the girl was still sad that this was in her diary. It was in pen and she could not erase
it. It was now part of her diary, her
life and written in ink. Then God gave
me a bright idea. I took another pen
and began to shade in some letters and put a circle on the ‘t’ and put pedals
on it. Then I did something with the other
letters so that it was a small picture of a sunshine and flower. It was not something ugly but something
beautiful that the little girl appreciated.
In a much, much more greater way God does this with all the sicknesses,
trials, difficulties, evils, heartaches, sin and whatever else that comes in
our lives. He takes it and makes a rose
blossom from ashes.
Never doubt God’s goodness towards us. He is our greatest Good! He is good, he is the ultimate standard for
good in our lives and he is good towards us!
Apart from our Lord, we have no good thing. Our greatest good is God himself. Ponder his goodness to you, even in the
midst of trials. Think of his goodness
when you pass by flowers and forests.
Thank him for his goodness towards you always.
"I will say to the Lord, 'You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.'"
God is good and he is our greatest Good!
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