For He is Good

Praise the LORD! Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.

Psalm 106:1 NLT

The Greek philosopher Plato imagined that there was an ultimate which he called The Good. This is the Ideal that all things have declined from, and to which all things aspire. But it is entirely impersonal.

How different it is with us who know the Lord. As the verse above tells us, he is a Person who loves us forever. So what does it mean that he is good? Does it mean that he is nice, or kindly, or something like that? It is really much more profound than that. When we look at “good” in Genesis 1, we see something interesting. God keeps saying that the things he has created are good. Obviously, that doesn’t have anything to do with kindness or niceness. What is God saying? These are the words of an artist. He or she has imagined something, and now they have created it in stone or on canvas, and stepping back, he or she says, “That’s good.” What do they mean? They mean the thing conforms to what they had imagined.  And what had God imagined? He had imagined a place where human persons could flourish and achieve their greatest possibilities in fellowship with him.

So what does it mean that God is good? It means that unlike the gods, he will not sometimes turn on his human creatures and do them harm. He is always for us. He is always working for our flourishing. He is always relating to his creatures with self-giving, self-denying love. So, good is not merely an impersonal ideal which we strive to achieve. No, good is our heavenly Father who  welcomes us into his arms. Live in that confidence, and do not listen to the age-old lies of our Enemy. When life is hard and there are no easy answers, don’t forget, God is good.