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“God is good all the time.” This popular phrase hangs on my wall at home as a reminder of the goodness of God. Sometimes I wonder if it is true. I mean, what about Job? How can a good God be complicit in the suffering of innocent people? Is God really good all the time? The belief in God’s goodness brings with it some difficult questions that theologians have attempted to work out for centuries. Perhaps what is needed is to first define what it means for God to be good.
The goodness of God is a foundational principle of faith throughout the Bible. God creates all things “good” in Genesis 1. In Exodus 33:19, the “goodness” of the Lord passes by as God proclaims his name to Moses. In 1 Kings 8:66, Solomon throws a party to celebrate “all the goodness that the Lord had shown to his servant David and to his people Israel.” Similarly, in 2 Chronicles 6-7 Solomon dedicates the Temple with an eloquent prayer that is bookended in 5:13 and 7:3 with the people singing, “He is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.” The Jerusalem Temple was a visible sign of God’s loyalty to Israel and his beneficent goodness. This same line appears at the beginning of Psalm 136, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.” If we take the rest of this psalm as a definition of God’s goodness, it is directly correlated with God’s ongoing work of creation and salvation in the world.
Some of the greatest confessions of God’s goodness come in the darkest hours. For example, the poet of Psalm 31 cries out in distress for God to save him from wicked scheming and loneliness. The hope that the Lord would make his face shine on the psalmist (31:16) is directly correlated with his trust in God’s goodness. Psalm 31:19 says, “O how abundant is your goodness that you have laid up for those who fear you.” The poet expresses faith that in spite of the wickedness in the world, God is overwhelmingly good and purposes good for the faithful. In particular, God is good because he is a refuge (v. 20). God’s presence is essential to the psalmist’s experience of God’s goodness. Psalm 73 is very similar. After wrestling with the injustices of the world, the psalmist concludes, “But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge” (Ps 73:28).
So what, according to these Scriptures, does it mean for God to be good? At least in part it means that God is present. God’s goodness does not entail the absence of suffering or evil in the world. But it does mean that God is with us when the world is cruel and lonely. God sees the wickedness in the world and knows innocent suffering. Indeed, God has experienced innocent suffering in the cross. Although wickedness appears to win so often, God is near to the brokenhearted.
A favorite psalm for so many is Psalm 23, which depicts God as the good shepherd (vv. 1 - 4) and the good host (v. 5). The final verse of this exquisite poem says, “Surely goodness and steadfast love shall pursue me all the days of my life” (v. 6a). I love this personified image of God’s goodness chasing us. God is not passively sitting by waiting for us, but he pursues us. Is this not the story of the incarnation and the sending of the Holy Spirit? This year’s theme at HST is “Embracing the Goodness of God.” Certainly, we are called to believe that “in everything God works good with those who love him” (Rom 8:28). But even more, embracing God’s goodness entails living with an expectation that God is pursuing us and will lead us into pleasant places. When we seek God’s kingdom above all else, we have assurance that God will be with us. The good life is with God alone. “Give thanks to the Lord for he his good. His steadfast love endures forever.”
Lance Hawley
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