Tag Archives: God is good

Posted on

You Can Trust Him

God Is Good, God is Great, God Does As He Pleases!

No one stands in God’s way. Just ask Pharaoh, or Nebuchadnezzar, or Pilate, or Caesar, or Satan! No president or judge or politician; not the wealthy or powerful or famous can thwart his will. God will accomplish his purposes. He does what he pleases—thank God!

Read: Psalm 135 // Focus: Psalm 135:3,5,6

“Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good…I know that the LORD is great…The LORD does whatever pleases him…”

God is all-powerful. He does what he pleases. He blesses; he punishes. He sets up; he tears down. He rewards; he judges. He is the great God, the Creator and Sustainer of all, and he will accomplish his purposes for all that he has created.

No one stands in his way. Just ask Pharaoh, or Nebuchadnezzar, or Pilate, or Caesar, or Satan! No president or judge or politician; not the wealthy or powerful or famous can thwart his will. God will accomplish his purposes. No human being will get his or her own way—including you and me. God will get what God wants!

That can be a little frightening—and it should promote the fear of the Lord in our hearts—but keep in mind the first line of this selected psalm: God is good. He will never do anything that is not saturated in his love for mankind and his perfect plan for the eternal ages. No matter what, whether he is blessing or punishing, setting up or tearing down, rewarding or judging, God is always good, and therefore we can trust him.

As someone has profoundly observed,

God is too wise to make a mistake,
Too kind to be cruel,
But too wise to explain himself.

And keep also in mind the second line of the selected psalm. The Lord is great. At the end of the day, every human being, friend and foe of the Almighty, will bow before him and declare, “You are great, O God! Impeccable are you in all your ways.

We may not always understand what God is doing, or why he is doing it, or how good can come out of difficult and hurtful experiences, but based on his Word and his track record of goodness, we can trust him. He is good! He is great! So go ahead God, please do as you please!

Yes, God is good—all the time!

Making Life Work:The assignment for today is pretty simple: Lift your hands to God and offer him yourself—and of course, you praise.

Posted on

Thanks!

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the LORD say this! (Psalm 107:1-2)      

_______________________________

I like the way The Message version of the Bible renders the psalmist’s call to gratitude: “Oh, thank God—he’s so good! His love never runs out. All of you set free by God, tell the world!”

God is good—all the time!  That truly is the testimony of my life—and I have a feeling it is true of your life as well.  Certainly, I ought to be proclaiming God’s goodness to anyone who will listen—and even to those who won’t—much more than I do.  Add to that the fact that I am, on my best day, not so good, and on my worst day, frankly, pretty bad, only adds to the brilliance of God’s overwhelming goodness.

The New King James translation of the psalmist’s words are even more meaningful to me: “Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.” Mercy—I can really relate to that.  Now don’t misunderstand what I’m saying:  I’ll take either enduring love or enduring mercy—I can’t live without either one.  Love and mercy are simply different facets of the same diamond we understand as the goodness of God.

But God’s mercy really speaks to me, and I’ll bet if you thought about, it, you would say the same.  Someone said that mercy is not getting what you deserve.  The truth is, you and I depend upon God’s mercy every single moment just to draw in the next breath, since the holy and righteous God has had every reason and right to annihilate us from the planet because of our sinfulness.  Jeremiah said it well in Lamentations 3:22-23,

Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

The entirety of Psalm 107 is simply giving one example after another of how God in his faithful love and enduring mercy has freed his people from what they deserve.  And at the end of each example, the psalmist expresses the call to gratitude:

Oh, thank God, he is so good!  He love never runs out!

I’ll bet you could write your own Psalm 107.  In fact, that might be a good assignment for you on this Thanksgiving Day.  And then, like the psalmist suggested, we should go tell the world.  Now that’s a pretty tall order, so how about starting with the people with whom you will enjoy the holiday meal today?  Write your psalm and share it with your spouse, your family, and your friends.

I am not sure how they will feel about it, but you will certainly feel pretty good.  That’s what heartfelt gratitude to God for his faithful love and enduring mercy does.

________________________

“We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is good, because it is good; if bad, because it works in us patience, humility, contempt of this world and the hope of our eternal country.” (C.S. Lewis)

Posted on

You Can Trust Him

Read Psalm 135

Featured Verse: Psalm 135:3,5,6

“Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good…I know that the LORD is great… The LORD does whatever pleases him…”

God is all-powerful. He does what he pleases. He blesses; he punishes. He sets up; he tears down. He rewards; he judges. He is the great God, the Creator and Sustainer of all, and he will accomplish his purposes for all that he has created.

No one stands in his way. Just ask Pharaoh, or Nebuchadnezzar, or Pilate, or Caesar, or Satan! No president or judge or politician; not the wealthy or powerful or famous can thwart his will. God will accomplish his purposes. No one will get their way—including you and me. God will get what God wants!

That can be a little frightening—and it should promote the fear of the Lord in our hearts—but keep in mind the first line of this selected psalm: God is good. He will never do anything that is not saturated in his love for mankind and his perfect plan for the eternal ages. No matter what, whether he is blessing or punishing, setting up or tearing down, rewarding or judging, God is always good, and therefore we can trust him.

As someone once rightly said,

God is too wise to make a mistake,
Too kind to be cruel,
But too wise to explain himself.

We may not always understand what God is doing, or why he is doing it, or how good can come out of difficult and hurtful experiences, but based on his Word and his track record of goodness, we can trust him.

Yes, God is good—all the time!

“God makes no mistakes.”
~Karl Barth

Posted on

Psalm 135: You Can Trust Him

One Year Bible: I Kings 18:1-46, Acts 11:1-30; Psalm 135:1-21; Proverbs 17:12-13

You Can Trust Him

Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good…
I know that the LORD is great…
The LORD does whatever pleases him…
(Psalm 135:3,5,6)

God is all-powerful. He does what he pleases. He blesses; he punishes. He sets up; he tears down. He rewards; he judges. He is the great God, the Creator and Sustainer of all, and he will accomplish his purposes for all that he has created.

No one stands in his way. Just ask Pharaoh, or Nebuchadnezzar, or Pilate, or Caesar, or Satan! No president or judge or politician; not the wealthy or powerful or famous can thwart his will. God will accomplish his purposes. No one will get their way—including you and me. God will get what God wants!

That can be a little frightening—and it should promote the fear of the Lord in our hearts—but keep in mind the first line of this selected psalm: God is good. He will never do anything that is not saturated in his love for mankind and his perfect plan for the eternal ages. No matter what, whether he is blessing or punishing, setting up or tearing down, rewarding or judging, God is always good, and therefore we can trust him.

As someone once rightly said,

God is too wise to make a mistake,
Too kind to be cruel,
But too wise to explain himself.

We may not always understand what God is doing, or why he is doing it, or how good can come out of difficult and hurtful experiences, but based on his Word and his track record of goodness, we can trust him.

Yes, God is good—all the time!

“God makes no mistakes.”
~Karl Barth