The Goodness of God

“You are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees.” - Psalm 119:68

A man named Aleph wrote the longest chapter in the Bible: Psalm 119. In this psalm, he makes a very bold statement about God. “You are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees” (Psalm 119:68). 

He said unequivocally, “God is good, and God does good.” So why should we believe him? I can tell you in one simple sentence. There is good because God is good.

On the other hand, let me put that negatively. If there is no God, there is no good. With that in mind, I want to give you some reasons why we should believe in Good God Almighty. I’ll give you two reasons today and then we’ll discuss two more tomorrow.

First, God is good because He can determine good from evil. If you eliminate God altogether or if you eliminate a good God, you run into a brick wall. Because once you admit the existence of evil, you have to admit the existence of good. What is evil but just the negative of good things? When you say somebody is immoral, unjust, unfair, or dishonest, it is because there are people who are moral, just, fair, and honest. You see both evil and good, but once you introduce good you have to introduce God.

Second, God is good because he can direct good and evil. God is in control of everything. He is all-powerful and therefore He knows that God could forbid evil from ever happening to anybody. If God is the Sovereign Lord, that means nothing happens to us unless God either causes it or God allows it. We know that no matter how good we are, bad things still happen to us.

Now, oftentimes, God does keep bad things from happening to good people. He kept the lions from eating Daniel. He kept the fire from frying Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He kept the giant Goliath from breaking David in half! So we know He can do it, but He doesn’t always do it. But just because He doesn’t always keep those bad things from happening doesn’t mean He isn’t good...which leads us to our next point, which we will discuss tomorrow. Join us then as we continue this important conversation around the goodness of God.

Dear Lord, thank you for your goodness. Thank you for being in control at all times, and for being a good, trustworthy God. Help me to reflect your goodness as I strive to become more like Jesus each day. In Jesus’ name, amen.