Willingly I will sacrifice to Thee. I will give thanks to Thy name, O Lord, for it is good.
For He has delivered me from all my trouble, and my eye has looked with satisfaction upon my enemies. (Vs. 6-7)
I'm ready now to worship, so ready. I thank you, God - you're so good. You got me out of every scrape, and I saw my enemies get it. (same verses from The Message Bible)
Good. We overuse the word for lack of a more explicit term. A good marriage. A good dinner. A good friend. A good time. You get the drift. So when we say God is so good, what do we mean? I am thinking of the time when Moses was on Mount Sinai to meet with God. Moses has asked to see His glory. The Lord's response is: "I, Myself, will make all My goodness pass before you." That is His glory.....His goodness. Towb. It describes that which is appealing and pleasant to the senses, abundant and plentiful, kind and benevolent, and good as opposed to evil.
Jesus had just blessed a group of small children and was walking away when a young rich man approached Him. He seemed to sincerely want to know how to get into heaven, so the man asked Jesus, "What good deed must I do to have eternal life?"
"Why do you ask me what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One Who is good. But if you would enter life, keep the commandments."
"Which ones?" queried the man.
Jesus gives him a list - don't murder, don't commit adultery, steal or bear false witness. The man hadn't done any of these things - ever.
"If you would be perfect, go sell everything you have, give it to the poor and come follow Me." All out for God. Loving Him with all your heart, mind, strength and soul. The first commandment. Left out of the earlier list. It was too much, for the young man was very rich. Wealth had become the young man's idol and Jesus was challenging him to examine his heart. The ultimate answer to "What good deed must I do to inherit eternal life?" was "Follow Me." Wholeheartedly. No other gods. That is "good."
Apart from understanding the benevolence, kindness, rightness and abundance of God, there is no understanding of good. His goodness flows from His very nature seen even in a creation He pronounces good because He made it so. In our trying to be good, we might just miss it if we don't know that He is the very essence of it. Our good deeds might be nugatory at best, harmful at worst. Only God is good. Only He can impart it. The rich young man was, on paper, pretty darn righteous! He had kept the law in an outward show of his desire to be right enough to get into heaven. I am sure he tithed, gave to the poor and kept himself ceremonially clean. All outward. What Jesus knew was the young man was hiding an idol in his inmost being. Not carved from wood or stone. No. Not that obvious. But the goodness of God wasn't what motivated his life. Money was.
To trust in the goodness of God is to know Him personally. It is the one word He chose to describe His glory. Glorious that He is good, benevolent, kind, right, pure, appealing and pleasant to the senses, abundant and overflowing in mercy and grace. Who is like our God? That is why Jesus said only One is good. Pure of motive, abounding in love, infinite in beauty, just in all things, longsuffering and kind, prescient and gracious, and eternally merciful. Taste and see that the Lord is good!
For He has delivered me from all my trouble, and my eye has looked with satisfaction upon my enemies. (Vs. 6-7)
I'm ready now to worship, so ready. I thank you, God - you're so good. You got me out of every scrape, and I saw my enemies get it. (same verses from The Message Bible)
Good. We overuse the word for lack of a more explicit term. A good marriage. A good dinner. A good friend. A good time. You get the drift. So when we say God is so good, what do we mean? I am thinking of the time when Moses was on Mount Sinai to meet with God. Moses has asked to see His glory. The Lord's response is: "I, Myself, will make all My goodness pass before you." That is His glory.....His goodness. Towb. It describes that which is appealing and pleasant to the senses, abundant and plentiful, kind and benevolent, and good as opposed to evil.
Jesus had just blessed a group of small children and was walking away when a young rich man approached Him. He seemed to sincerely want to know how to get into heaven, so the man asked Jesus, "What good deed must I do to have eternal life?"
"Why do you ask me what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One Who is good. But if you would enter life, keep the commandments."
"Which ones?" queried the man.
Jesus gives him a list - don't murder, don't commit adultery, steal or bear false witness. The man hadn't done any of these things - ever.
"If you would be perfect, go sell everything you have, give it to the poor and come follow Me." All out for God. Loving Him with all your heart, mind, strength and soul. The first commandment. Left out of the earlier list. It was too much, for the young man was very rich. Wealth had become the young man's idol and Jesus was challenging him to examine his heart. The ultimate answer to "What good deed must I do to inherit eternal life?" was "Follow Me." Wholeheartedly. No other gods. That is "good."
Apart from understanding the benevolence, kindness, rightness and abundance of God, there is no understanding of good. His goodness flows from His very nature seen even in a creation He pronounces good because He made it so. In our trying to be good, we might just miss it if we don't know that He is the very essence of it. Our good deeds might be nugatory at best, harmful at worst. Only God is good. Only He can impart it. The rich young man was, on paper, pretty darn righteous! He had kept the law in an outward show of his desire to be right enough to get into heaven. I am sure he tithed, gave to the poor and kept himself ceremonially clean. All outward. What Jesus knew was the young man was hiding an idol in his inmost being. Not carved from wood or stone. No. Not that obvious. But the goodness of God wasn't what motivated his life. Money was.
To trust in the goodness of God is to know Him personally. It is the one word He chose to describe His glory. Glorious that He is good, benevolent, kind, right, pure, appealing and pleasant to the senses, abundant and overflowing in mercy and grace. Who is like our God? That is why Jesus said only One is good. Pure of motive, abounding in love, infinite in beauty, just in all things, longsuffering and kind, prescient and gracious, and eternally merciful. Taste and see that the Lord is good!
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