God is So Good!
Today’s Verse:
It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes. ~Psalm 119:71
One of my favorite hymns is “God is So Good.” It is a simple hymn with a sublime message. God is good to me personally. God is good to me publicly. God is good to me powerfully. God is good to me perpetually. However, for some people, God is only good when everything appears to be going well materially. When the challenge or crisis of a health decline, monetary setback, or relationship breakdown occurs, God is not so good to them. They ask, “Why is all of this happening to me?” Psalm 119:65-72 is a powerful reminder and lesson on the fact that God is good all the time, even when things are not going the way we would like them to go.
We see a wandering sinner.
“Before I was afflicted I went astray.” The psalmist started to slip in his walk with God. He neglected his time in the Word of God. He became too busy to pray. He skipped worship services because of schedule conflicts. Soon, he compromised what he once believed about God’s Word. His service for the Lord was half-hearted and on a decline. He was going astray. I think we can identify with what was happening to the psalmist. Many of us have been there or might even be there now. Are you going astray?
We see a wounded servant.
He describes his plight as being afflicted. He was going through a difficult trial. The nature of his trial appears to be discrediting, innuendos, and misrepresentation by people who despised him. He felt the weight of being rejected. He was wounded in his spirit and, perhaps, in his body. God was chastening the psalmist for his spiritually negligent behavior. He felt pain. He experienced stress and worry. He did not have a solution for what he was going through, and he was stressed out that God was not giving him an immediate answer. The trial that God put him through caused him to get his eyes back on the Lord.
We see a watchful son.
His affliction changed his heart and outlook. “Teach me good judgment and knowledge: for I have believed thy commandments. Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word." "It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.” His affliction got him back in the Word and back on the Lord! He realized that he had neglected God’s Word and instruction for his life. He got back a teachable spirit for the Word of God. He developed a newfound appreciation and appetite for God’s Word. We must be in our Bibles as if we are in an affliction, or God might send us an affliction to teach us the Bible. His eyes were diligently upon the Lord!
We see a wonderful Sovereign.
Through his eventful situation, he was restored in right fellowship with God. He returned to the realization that God is good! “Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O LORD, according unto thy word." "Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes." "It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.” Three times, he publicly states that God is good to him! Even though he was being chastened, he awakened to the fact that he fell away and that now it was time to get back with God. His testimony was that God is so good!
God is good to us all the time, and all the time God is good! Even when things are tough, never lose sight or think that God is not good. God is so good to us! Be challenged to live in the sunshine of God’s goodness!
Have a good God Morning!
Bible Reading Schedule: Acts 27-28