Is God Good?

“Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (Psalm 103:1-5).

In the Psalms, we listen in as fellow believers share their inner thoughts and pour out their hearts to God.

We hear as they offer up exultant praise, wrestle with doubts and fears, and remind themselves—and us—of the incredible goodness of the Lord our God. We echo their words when we sing, meditate on, and pray these psalms as well.

The psalmist King David actively and intentionally reminds himself in the verses above of the beautiful reason that he has to praise the Lord. And not just him, but all believers everywhere, including you and me! David encourages himself to praise the Lord not once but twice back-to-back and writes, “Forget not all his benefits,” because he didn’t want to lose sight of everything God had done, was doing, and would continue to do for him.

It’s so easy for us to forget the goodness of our God when we’re not actively and intentionally bringing it to mind. We can go without thinking about these benefits—and when we do, we often go without thanking God for them as well.

Take special notice of the order in which David puts these benefits:

• The Lord forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases.
• The Lord redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion.
• The Lord satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

So often, as a sinful person, I want to flip that order upside down. I want my earthly desires (not even the things I need) satisfied first, and my spiritual needs become an afterthought—things I sometimes forget to focus on. Those earthly desires aren’t always met. Because of that, I can sometimes question the goodness of God.

The order of benefits is important.

God has forgiven all of my sins and healed all of my spiritual diseases, my sin-sick soul, through his Son, Jesus. Later in this very psalm, David writes, “[God] does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:10-12).

Because of Jesus, I have peace with God—no longer am I his enemy, I’m his dearly loved child. He has redeemed my life from the pit—he has rescued me from sin, death, and the devil with his precious blood. He has crowned me with his amazing love and overwhelming compassion—even though I know I don’t deserve such things from a holy and righteous God.

God has done the same for you too, dear Christian.

And then grace upon grace, God in his love and mercy decides to satisfy our desires with good things in addition to our needs because he loves us and delights in blessing his children. The gifts he gives are good because he is good.

Do we always get everything we want? No, but we know that God gives us everything we need, starting with forgiveness, life, and salvation through our Savior, Jesus. With him, we have all that we need. And because of that amazing, grace-filled fact, we can joyfully echo the words of another psalm:

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever” (Psalm 136:1).

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