But You, Sovereign Lord, help me for Your name’s sake; out of the goodness of Your love, deliver me. For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me…With my mouth I will greatly extol the Lord; in the great throng of worshipers I will praise Him. For He stands at the right hand of the needy, to save their lives from those who would condemn them. Psalm 109: 21-22, 30-31
“The goodness of God is that which disposes Him to be kind, cordial, benevolent, and full of good will toward men. He is tenderhearted and of quick sympathy, and His unfailing attitude toward all moral beings is open, frank, and friendly. By His nature He is inclined to bestow blessedness and He takes holy pleasure in the happiness of His people.
That God is good is taught or implied on every page of the Bible and must be received as an article of faith as impregnable as the throne of God. It is a foundation stone for all sound thought about God and is necessary to moral sanity. To allow that God could be other than good is to deny the validity of all thought and end ill the negation of every moral judgment. If God is not good, then there can be no distinction between kindness and cruelty, and heaven can be hell and hell, heaven.
The goodness of God is the drive behind all the blessings He daily bestows upon us. God created us because He felt good in His heart and He redeemed us for the same reason.”
A. W. Tozer (1897-1963) in his classic work, Knowledge of the Holy, excerpt from “The Goodness of God” section of chapter 16.
This week from home I have calls with many EFCA pastors, so my mind turns to friends like Randy Discher who has faithfully served his church for about three decades. Randy loves A.W. Tozer so I read an excerpt of Knowledge of the Holy as I think about and pray for him and his peers today.
The goodness of God is the bedrock of our lives and all local church ministry. Out of God’s goodness flows our redemption and our collective redemptive efforts. We, the Church, are here to make known His goodness to all around us. This is true everywhere: from Littleton, Colorado to Guatemala City, Guatemala.
Whether or not you are needy and hurting today, worship the Lord in His goodness and see what happens. Do it. Take five minutes to praise God for His goodness.
I believe you will not only experience a deeper understanding of the love of our great God in this daily exercise. You will be satisfied and blessed. This is not an end but so that you are a means of sharing His goodness and blessing.
This is what generosity is all about, because all goodness (the biblical term for “generosity”), flows from God. We extol You, Sovereign Lord!