May 2 Prayer

Give thanks to the LORD for He is good; His love endures forever. (1Chronicles 16:34, NIV)

It seems that King David had a fondness for this particular phrase; he used it multiple times throughout his Psalms as well as this place in 1 Chronicles. Most often he used it as the opening line of a Psalm, and then it was followed by a recitation of the many ways God had put His goodness on display through His protection and provision for the people of Israel.  What I love about David’s proclamation of God’s goodness is that it was anchored not in the ever-shifting human experience of David’s own life, but in the unchanging, eternaly enduring love that God has for humankind.

Too many times, I think we measure God’s goodness by how we perceive its benefits to ourselves. Did we get that thing we were praying for? Did God fix that situation we asked Him to fix? Certainly we should recognize that when we receive good things and have good experiences, those are gifts from God. But what about the times when life doesn’t work in our favor? What about those times when life is downright awful? Where is God’s goodness anchored then?

David sends us in the right direction: to the unending chesed love–mercy, lovingkindness–of our heavenly Father. The kind of love that says, “I promised I would be your God, and I won’t break that promise, no matter what.” The kind of love that sent Christ to be the culmination of the fullfillment of that promise. The kind of love that says, “I am yours and you are mine. Always.” 

If we’re not careful, even that verbiage can send our thoughts tumbling back to the ways we have benefited from God’s goodness and kindness as individuals. That pattern of thinking is so ingrained in us that we have to intentionally work to think outside of it. 

But what if we stopped thinking about God’s goodness in terms of what He does, and instead thought of it in terms of who He is. How does that shift our understanding of God’s goodness?

Maybe this will help.

Finish this sentence with an adjective:

God is ____________.

Now take a minute to make a list of ways that God has demonstrated that quality in your life, in the lives of the people you know, and in the history of the Church.

God is not good because of the things He has done. God has done the things He has done because He is good. Because He is faithful. And righteous. And patient. And whatever adjective you chose. The being came first; the doing was secondary.

God’s goodness has and always will extend far deeper than our own personal comfort and temporary benefit. There is so much more to God’s goodness than what we perceive that He does for us. His goodness resides in the fact that He is true and reliable, and in the reality that His love is deep and eternal. God’s goodness resides in His very character. Because of this truth, we can agree with David even when it doesn’t look like life is going our way, and we can lift our voices in praise to say, “Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever.”