Sunday, January 14
God Is Always Good
Psalm 119:65-72
TETH
65 You have dealt well with Your servant, O LORD, according to Your word.
66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge, For I believe Your commandments.
67 Before I was afflicted I went astray, But now I keep Your word.
68 You are good, and do good; Teach me Your statutes.
69 The proud have forged a lie against me, But I will keep Your precepts with my whole heart.
70 Their heart is as fat as grease, But I delight in Your law.
71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes.
72 The law of Your mouth is better to me Than thousands of coins of gold and silver..
Psalm 119:65-72 is the ninth stanza of this psalm, and every line or verse begins with the ninth letter of the Hebrew alphabet “TETH”, in the Hebrew Bible. The emphasis in these verses is on what is good in the life of the believer. The Hebrew word “tob” is used six times in these eight verses and can be translated good, pleasant, beneficial, precious, delightful, and right.
James reminds of this in James 1:17-18: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.” God does what is good because God is good and because what He does is "according to his word" (v. 65b), and His Word is good (v. 39). Neither His character nor His Word will ever change, so, "God is good all the time."
When things are going well for us is the time we tend to say, “God is so good”. But when bad things are happening in our lives, we seem to forget that even then God is still good, and we might wonder where His goodness is. So today we need to remember several things about the goodness of God.
First, God always does what is good (v. 65-66). The phrase "according to" is used frequently in Psalm 119 to relate a request or a fact to the Word of God. God acts according to the precepts, promises, and principles revealed in His Word, and we should pray and act accordingly. To ask God for something that is not according to His will and His Word is to ask ignorantly and selfishly (James 4:3), and if He gives the request to us, we will be sorry and wish we had not prayed. This happened to Israel when they asked God for flesh to eat (Psalm 106:15; Num. 11:31-35). Therefore, we should pray the prayer of verse 66, for the better we know God's Word, the better we can pray in God's will and obey God's will.
Second, God overrules evil and from it brings good (vv. 67-71). The psalmist had disobeyed the Word and gone astray. His sin was probably not a flagrant act of rebellion but of ignorance (Lev. 5:17-19; Num. 15:28), and God in His love sent affliction to discipline him (Heb. 12:1-11). At the time, this discipline was not pleasant, but it brought God's servant back to the place of obedience, so it was worth it (vv. 71, 75). However, there are times when we are obedient and we still experience suffering, but God uses that suffering to mature us and teach us His Word. Spurgeon said that the promises of God shine the brightest in the furnace of affliction. There are times when suffering comes from the enemies of God, whose hearts are insensible ("covered with fat"; 17:10; 73:7), but the Lord can even use godless opposition for our good and His glory (Rom. 8:28; 1 Peter 1:6-9 and 4:12-19). The most evil act ever performed on this earth was the crucifixion of the Lord of Glory on a cross, yet God used that to bring His salvation to the world.
Finally, God uses His Word to show us good (v. 72). The word "better" (sometimes translated "precious"), is “tob” in the Hebrew. This is the second time in the psalm that the writer has compared God's truth to treasure (v. 14), and he will use this image again in verses 127 and 162. David used it in Psalm 19:10. The person of faith does not live by the priorities and values of the world (Heb. 11:24-27) but puts the will of God ahead of everything else. When we find the good treasures of truth in the precious Word of God, we rejoice in the goodness of the Lord and have no desire to wallow in the things of this world.
Joseph told his brothers in Genesis 50:20, “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.” No matter what our situation may be, we can affirm from our hearts, "God is good—all the time!"
God bless!