“They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness. The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works” (Psalm 145:7–9).
Psalm 145 was a well-known song among the Israelites in Old Testament times. What do you think the people in the neighboring nations thought when they heard the words to this psalm? The neighbors were godless people: they didn’t believe in the God of the Bible. Some of them were idolaters who worshiped many gods. Some of them would not bow the knee to any kind of god at all.
Do you think these godless people were happy? Were their idols hearing or answering their prayers? Were these people able to get themselves through hard times on their own, without God? In our time, we can only imagine what people might have been thinking back then. But you can look around at people today. You can watch how godless people respond in a crisis and see how hopeless they are. You can read about them and see what they do and say. You can watch how it is for them to live life apart from belief in the God of the Bible. And you can see for yourself whether they really are happy or at peace.
Many people do not know God and do not really want to know Him. But if they could believe what Psalm 145 teaches about God’s character, maybe they would be able to trust Him and obey Him. If Israel’s neighbors had understood that their homemade idols could never be “good to all” like the Lord is, maybe they would have listened more carefully to the Israelite psalms.
Do your neighbors believe in the God of the Bible? Do they have any clue how great He is in His goodness and how that goodness extends to everybody? If they did, do you think we could watch their lives and see them happy and peaceful? Could we think of ways to show them the truth of God’s goodness, even in the way we live in front of them? The Israelites’ neighbors had heard of them and knew the stories about the Israelites’ God. Maybe we should be singing the goodness of our God a little louder here in the twenty-first century.
The Lord is good to all.
My response:
» Do I really believe that the Lord is good?
» If so, how does that change the way that I live?
» Can people around me tell what I believe about the Lord’s goodness?