Psalm 34:18 – Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
1 Chronicles 16:34 – Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.
Mark 10:18 – No one is good but One, that is, God.
Psalm 27:13 – I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Psalm 119:68 – You are good, and do good; teach me Your statutes.
Nahum 1:7 – The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him.
Psalm 36:7 – How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
Psalm 136:26 – Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever.
Romans 5:8 – God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
1 John 4:7-8 – Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
How important is it to know that God is good and that He loves us? Knowing that beyond anything else that we know will save us, will keep us in faith in Jesus, both now and eternally.
What does it mean that God is good? First of all we must understand that God is not good like some may call one of our own good. We use the word good to describe people who are nice, who are kind, who are considerate and who are concerned for and help out others. But they still sin and still could sin against us. We use the word good for people who have a ready smile for all of us. People who make us laugh and who help us not focus on the negative. But they are not sinless and so still may hurt us. Yet Jesus said that the only one who is good is God (Mark 10:18). The Apostle Paul said “As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one.” So all who love Him, all who know Him, would be quick to say that God is good all the time. Anyone who does not know this has a hole in their armor. Jesus said that only God is good. For God, only the sinless are good. None of us are sinless. Only Jesus lived a sinless life. Therefore, by God’s definition, none of us are good. Yet, as we see from the above verses (Psalm 34:18, 1 Chronicles 16:34, Mark 10:18, Psalm 27:13, Psalm 119:68, Nahum 1:7) and others, God is good. God is sinless and in fact, He isn’t even tempted by sin (James 1:13). God being sinless is important to know because we know that there are sins of omission and commission (Matthew 25:31-46). Failing to do good when we are able to do good is a sin. For instance an easy example is one of seeing a baby crawling toward a busy street and not saving the child from going into the street and being killed, that is wrong, it is sin. Murderous Cain said to the Lord “am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9). The answer to that is, in both practical and spiritual terms, we are our “brother’s keeper”, at least as much as it depends on us. The root reason behind this is love. If we don’t love each other, if we don’t have the love of God in us, then we do not belong to God (1 John 4:8). To belong to God we must have His love within us. When we have His love, then love expresses itself in wanting and doing good for others (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a). So true love, the love that comes from God, wants only good for others and in regards to us, it means we will do good for others when we are able. It certainly means we want only the best for others. So God being good all the time means that He always wants the best for us. God being omniscient and omnipotent means that He knows how to bring about good for us and that He has the power to bring the ultimate good to us. So God, in the essence of His being is good and cannot do bad (evil) to us. So, when the hard and evil times in this life happen that we all experience, since we firmly believe that God is good and there is nothing about Him that is not good, then we can trust that what happened has an ultimate good in propounding the Gospel of God. (Besides who are we to judge God?) Intimately knowing God brings faith that Jesus is good and He is good for all that receives (welcomes) it. If Jesus is glorified those who love Him are overjoyed. If we love God more than anyone else, and especially more than ourselves, then we are happy if the plan of God is furthered, even if it causes us to go through trials. Knowing that God is good, truly knowing that beyond even the smallest doubt, and loving God and wanting His glory to be spread, means that we can have peace through the trial…any trial. Because God is good, we can face today, and all the tomorrows.
As the above verses and many others attest to, God loves us (Psalm 36:7, 136:26, Romans 5:8, 1 John 4:7-8). Nothing more expresses the love of God than the suffering and death of Jesus. Since we understand that the true love of God only wants good for us, and only God knows what good in every situation truly is, then we are comforted by the fact that He loves us. Because He loves us and because He is good, He will only want good for us. Only He knows what is best for us and how to use us to glorify His name, and to further the Gospel and to save those who are yet to be saved. Family, the goodness of God and the fact that He loves us does not depend on any circumstance or understanding, or lack of understanding, that we have. We know He is good because scripture says so and because He has clearly made His goodness and love know to us in many ways. All who have eyes to see and hearts to understand, all who search and see Him, know that He daily and continuously expresses His love to us and His goodness to us. We have the inviolable testimony of God’s Word and person to keep our knowledge of His goodness and love firmly a part of us. Family, if we keep the true and firm knowledge that God is good and that He loves us our faith is invincible. Let us cling to that knowledge and thank Him daily that He is who He is. Praise God!
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown You, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.
Numbers 6:24-26 “The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.”