Good God

I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living. (Psalm 27:13 NASB)

I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. (Psalm 27:13 NIV) 

          Are you looking forward to a good 2017? Then today is a good day to meditate on God's goodness. Today's passage is one that I need to think about more. Sometimes it seems as if life is one long struggle. Some people are looking at 2016 as a horrible year, and it has been a year with great struggles. 

          When I am struggling, I tend to see that struggle as extending into the future indefinitely, or perhaps infinitely. Nothing is going to change, ever. Sometimes, I get a little more realistic and understand that heaven is not going to be like here, but I still have the rest of my life to face the same struggles. Whine, whine, whine and moan. 

          The psalmist seems to have faced the same struggle. I included the passage in two translations because it expresses the same idea two ways, negatively (I would have despaired unless ...) and positively (I am still confident of this ....) The point of the passage is that God's goodness will be revealed in our lifetimes.

          So what does God's goodness look like? For some, it looks like everything being just the way they want it to be. I submit that such would not actually be God's goodness. A good car is a car that does what a car is supposed to do, but not necessarily a car that does everything we want a car to do. It is a car that has "car-ness." A good cup of coffee tastes like coffee, not turpentine or water. It has "coffee-ness." A good God then would be a God who does what it is in His nature. A good God has "God-ness."

          We tend to limit the goodness of God to things that we want, or to what we decide to call "justice." God is good when He gives us a new job, or healing form an illness, or victory over our enemies. God is not so good when He allows us to be fired, or someone dies, or we are defeated. That's not really a fair assessment of God. God is good when God does what God does, which means always. We may not understand or approve, but that doesn't mean God isn't good, it means we aren't God (and that's a good thing.) 

          That doesn't really lead us to a lack of despair or to confidence if we then reduce God to just this, or just that. God is good in that He has all the attributes that we're considering all the time. God is good in that He is “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,  maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”  (Exodus 34:6-7)

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New Year's Day

Kwanza ends