“All the time God is good and God is good all the time”
‘God’s not dead’- The movie
As believers we can appreciate the goodness of God in two aspects, although not limited to, the giving of His Son, and the forgiveness of our sin.
God is not sometimes merciful and sometimes just, but God is constant, He is always merciful, always just, and always good.
“And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.”
Matthew 19:16-17
When approached by a rich young ruler, He was asked the question about inheriting eternal life, He addressed Him as “Good Master”. He was given the unexpected answer; there is none good but God.
What did he learn here- did he learn that the Good Master was in fact God? It is not a question of best, better, or comparably good. It is that God who is infinitely great, is also incomparably good.
The whole bible speaks of the goodness of God. When faced with this pandemic, isolation, difficulties, loneliness, stress and uncertainly- I want us all to be reminded that- all the time God is good, and God is good all the time.
A perfection of his character which he exercises towards his creatures according to their various circumstances and relations- Psa 145:8 KJV – 8 The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.
Easton’s Bible Dictionary
In the bible there are many mentions of good and evil, many references to God’s goodness in relation to such good and evil, and many references to doing good to others. The first reference of good and evil in the bible is Genesis 2: 9, making mention of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The last reference to good and evil in the bible is 3 John 1: 11, this encourages us to follow that which is good, for he that doest good is of God.
When we look at Psalm 119: 68 we can see goodness displayed in two ways;
“Thou art good, and doest good; teach me they statutes.”
Psalm 119: 68
“Thou art good”- This means naturally good, it is God’s nature to be good. (adjective, feminine noun, masculine noun)
“Doest good”- as a result of all that God does, beneficially it is good. (verb- to be good, be pleasing, be joyful, be beneficial)
God is good in creation
“To the chief Musician, Maschil, A Psalm of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech. Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? the goodness of God endureth continually.”
Psalm 52:1
When God saw the creation that He had made, seven times He said “it is good”, on one occasion He even said “it is very good”. God saw that it was not good for man to be alone, so He provided for Him a partner completely compatible for him, emotionally, physically, and mentally.
Good is good to us
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
James 1: 17
We see from this verse the ways that God gives to us as believers, we see that God only gives good gifts, even if we don’t see them straight away. Paul’s thorn in the flesh was given to him by God and it seemed to be a strange gift; yet it became a tremendous blessing to him. (2 Cor 12.1-10).
The way that God gives is good, the Greek words for gift emphasise the perfection and inclusiveness of God’s graciousness. God gives constantly, “cometh down” is a present principle meaning that God’s gifts to us are continuous.
Good is good in Christ Jesus our Lord
The Lord Jesus called Himself the ‘Good Shepherd’ John 10:11. This was His character- He did good continually, the scriptures say that “He went about doing good, healing all that were oppressed by the devil”. He is our Good Shepherd, He found us in our sins, having compassion and love for us, that being obedient to the will of His Father, bore our sins.
How good is the God we adore! He sent His Son to die for us, so that we might be saved. How amazing and incomparable is the goodness of our God. His naturally good character and the benefit of His goodness to us can be seen in our lives everyday, if we just look for it.
“O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.”
Psalm 136: 1
How good is our God! Psalm 136 finds 26 reasons to give thanks unto God for His goodness. May we be reminded of this at this difficult time, that despite our struggles, we may have cause to give thanks unto the LORD, for He is good.
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