By Nick Lica
W.E. Gladstone said about Psalms:
„All miracles of Greek civilization brought in one place
can not reach
the beauty of this simple book of Psalms“.
Psalms are the biggest book of the Bible and are situated in the middle. They are the heart of the Bible and a treasury of help encouragement and inspiration for ours spiritual lives. Majority of Psalms are songs written by good people in bad circumstances. One of these people who wrote most than half of the Psalms was David. In spite of the bad circumstances in which he was, one of his themes in the psalms is God’s goodness.
I. Goodness is a part of God‘s character
I found a theological deffinition of God's goodness that says that is "his benevolence to his creation" or "his kindness exhibited toward all he has made."
God's goodness is the answer to the question: Is this a friendly universe? The answer is yes; when we come to the end of our thinking we find that behind the vastness of this universe stands a God who cares about what he has made. He is not indifferent (as in stoicism) or undecided (as in dualism) or absent (as in atheism), but he is fully involved for the good of the universe because he himself is a good God.
Everything God does is good. There is nothing but goodness in his being!
Since God is good, he always has our best interests at heart. That must be true and if we are going to be happy, we must believe it. Because God is good, nothing happens to us that is not for our ultimate good. David experienced in His life God’s goodness in such a way that he wrote in Psalm 34:8: “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Many people today are questioning God’s goodness because of the evil things that are happening in this world. To them, God is believed to be good only when they are well and prospering in this world. When "good things" come in their way, then they say God is good. These people didn’t taste the Lord and that’s why they don’t believe that God is good. Only when we taste we can say about any food that is good or not. The question is how can we taste the Lord? We can taste the Lord only through the relationship with Jesus Christ. Only when we know Christ as our Redeemer (78:23-29) as our refuge (46:1), King (5:2), and Shepherd (23:1), we know that God is good. These are some of the images in the book of Psalms that shows in a tangible way God’s goodness to us. Jesus Christ is the proof of God’s goodness to this world. And David shown this by his messianic psalms like 2,8,16,22,45,72,110 and 132.
Goodness is not only a characteristic of God like patience is but it is a basic attribute of God. Louis Berkhof says "we speak of something as good, when it is ideal in all its parts" We could say that all good things come from God and that is true, but we must also say that all that comes from God is good - it cannot be otherwise. Even though hard to understand at times - it allows us to trust in Him all circumstances.
God's goodness is the sum total of all His attributes. To say it another way, there is nothing about God that is not good. Goodness may be appended to all his other attributes.
His wrath is good.
His mercy is good.
His justice is good.
His holiness is good.
His love is good.
It the exercise of God's goodness that He shows His character of love and His grace shows that how He treats us is not due to our deserving but out of His goodness. Both His tender mercies and longsuffering patience flow out of His goodness. In summary God's goodness is who He is and what He does. Psalm 119:68 says that: You are good, and what you do is good. This is the main reason for praising God in the book of Psalms: His character and His actions. Psalms 118:29 O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endures forever. One of the psalms that emphasize this aspect the most is Psalm136. In this psalm the author is praising God for what He is, for His creation, for His miraculous redemption of Israel from Egypt and the reason of all these things is the key phrase: His goodness endures forever.
II. Characteristics of God’s goodness
David must have been thought a lot of God’s goodness when He was surrounded by evil
people. It’s very hard not only to think about God’s goodness in bad circumstances but
is even harder to believe that God is good. Faith in God’s goodness was what kept
David from taking revenge, from hating His enemies, and form falling. He concentrated on God’s goodness in hard times of his life and discovered that is like an diamond that has many brilliant parts that gives strength, encouragement and hope in the dark days of life. Here are some of characteristics of God’s goodness:
Great. Goodness of God is not something small to be ignorant but is great to thouse who trust in the Lord. Psalms 31:19 Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!
Abundant. Ps 145:7 - They will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness.
Satisfying. Ps 65:4 - ”Blessed is the man you choose, and cause to approach you, that he may dwell in your courts, we shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, of your holy temple”.
Universal. Ps 145:9- “ The Lord is good to all and His tender mercies are over all His works.
III. The manifestation of God’s goodness
The acknowledgment of God as good is the foundation of all biblical thinking about moral goodness. ‘Good’ in Scripture is not an abstract quality, nor is it a secular human ideal; ‘good’ means first and foremost what God is (‘he is good’, Ps. 100:5, et al.), then what he does, creates, commands and gives, and finally what he approves in the lives of his creatures. God manifests His goodness in many ways.
To his people. Ps 31:19:How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you. 1. He manifests his goodness by protecting them and being their refuge in the times of troubles. The Lord revealed his goodness in His relation and treatment of Israel through the history.
In forgiving sins. Ps 86:5: You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you. 2 David experienced God’s goodness through forgiveness. Forgiveness and goodness goes together.
In His works: Ps. 104:24-31 The works of God are good: for they reveal his attributes of wisdom and power and goodness. When creation was done, ‘God saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good’ (Gn. 1:31, cf. vv. 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25). The whole material order, as such, being God’s handiwork, is good (1 Tim. 4:4; cf. Rom. 14:14).
In His commands. Ps. 119:39: The commands of God are good, for they express the moral perfection of his character and, by showing us how to please him, and walk in His ways. God’s word is a revelation of His goodness to us in Jesus Christ. Because only God alone is the only one good only His words can be filled with good reasons for man.
God’s goodness is a major theme in the psalms that reflect His character his actions, his relationship and actions to man and universe. Only because of this attribute of God the man can be saved. Goodness was what moved God’s heart to redeemed the human race. His goodness is a reason for our worship, hope, faith and ministry.
How can I repay the LORD
for all his goodness to me?
13 I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the LORD.
14 I will fulfill my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people. 3
Psalm 116.12