The Goodness of God Toward His People

The Goodness of God Towards His People

Psalm 119:65-72

This morning I want us to consider what I have titled The Goodness of God Towards His People. I will try to explain the title, point out how the goodness of God towards his people is present in the text and also discuss how God’s people are to respond to God’s goodness.

When I last spoke, we looked at the title The Lord Is My Portion. So when the Psalmist opens this stanza with the word “You”, he is obviously referring to God whom he has been addressing throughout Psalm 119. So far, we have dealt with eight Stanzas of the Psalm – Aleph, Beth, Gimel, Daleth, He, Waw, Zayin, Heth. Remember all these stanzas are arranged according to the Hebrew Alphabet. There are 22 alphabets in all. But 2 alphabets have been joined together as one stanza ( Sin & Shin verses 161 -168). We therefore have 21 stanzas, comprising 176 verses. And so far, we have done 64verses. Do the Maths, we have 112 more verses to go. But I don’t plan doing everything. We will take a break after Mem, which is verse 97 – 104). We will either go back to John or Leviticus. 

Today, we come to Teth, the ninth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This alphabet symbolically stands for the goodness of God. And as we proceed in this sermon, we will come to see how the whole Stanza vv 65-72 is about the goodness of God. Let me at this point attempt to explain God’s goodness in the text.

God’s Goodness

“You have dealt well with your servant…” 

What does that mean? All the Psalmist is saying is “You have been good to me, you have treated me well” Another translation, the NLT brings out the idea of good in it’s rendering of the verse

You have done many good things for me, LORD, just as you promised (NLT v.65)

Isn’t this true for all of us? In all circumstances, regardless of whatever your experience in life, we can all testify of the goodness of God in our lives. Has God been good to you? I want to believe your answer is a resounding yes! You should be able to answer heartily, “Yes, God has been good to me” There is a famous Christian greeting out there: “God is good” then the response, “All the time God is good”

Now the word translated “well” in the text has various ways we can look at it. It can also be used as “beautiful”, “best”, “graciously”, “kindly”, “loving”. With these words we can paint a picture of what the Psalmist meant. Look at verse 17 “Deal bountifully with your servant…” The word bountifully is another word that can be used for well. It means that the Psalmist prayed to be dealt well with, then in verse 65 he did acknowledge that God has dealt well with him. 

How does the Psalmist point out God’s goodness in the text? 

Declaration of God’s Character

The Psalmist shows us that goodness is God’s Character. It is who he is. A good God. The shorter Catechism asks in Question 4, What or Who is God?

God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth

These are just descriptions, but they tell us of who God is. 

Now the understanding of God’s goodness as his character can be seen in v.68 “You are good and do good…” This points us to goodness as a Character of God. Because he is good, he cannot and will not do anything contrary to his character. All he does is good: “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5),  “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17). 

God is good, therefore he does good. Maybe, you may have had some bad experiences in life or presently having some bad experiences and therefore you may question the goodness of God. But brethren, whatever our situation is as believers, one things is true. God is good in the midst of all of our experiences. You have received the most goodness from him if you are in Christ: He saved you. He redeemed you from sin. He has forgiven and pardoned you of all of your sins. He has adopted you into his family that you are called a child of God. You belong to him. He is your Father. He has blessed you with all spiritual blessings in Christ. He watches over you. He keeps and protects you. There’s nothing good that surpasses God’s salvation.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's (Psalm 103:1-5).

Pause and ponder over what we have just read. This is the goodness of God at display: forget not all his benefits.  What are the benefits? Forgiveness of sin and all it’s benefits to his people. Look at how the Psalmist expressed it: “You have dealt well with your servant.” The Psalmist is God’s servant. He is a subject of God and the Master’s duty is to deal well with his subjects. You and I are God’s servants, and his goodness has been extended to us. 

In Christ, God has expressed his goodness towards his people. Jesus came to die to save sinners so he will reconcile them to the Father. You and I deserve nothing good from God because of sin. Yet, God in his goodness extended a hand of goodness to us in Christ: “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Demonstration of God’s Faithfulness

In God’s goodness is also his faithfulness. He is good, because he keeps his word and is faithful to his promises. What he promises in his word, he fulfills and keeps. 

God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind.

Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? (Numbers 23:19).

God’s goodness is linked to his faithfulness. Look at how the text expresses it: “O LORD, according to your word” This simply means that, God has done for the Psalmist according to what he has promised in his word. The faithfulness of God means that God will fulfill every promise in his word. 2 Corinthians 1:20 speaks of the faithfulness of God displayed in Christ: “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.” This means that every promise is firstly found in Christ and secondly that God will fulfill all his promises. Promises of eternal life, promises of God’s provision and protection. Matthew 7:11 paints for us a good picture of God’s faithfulness to his children

 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him

You see that? Even we, have a sense of providing for our children, how much more will God not take care of us. I believe none of us can ever say God has not been faithful to them. Whatever you are experiencing in life, God has been faithful. Listen to Matthew Henry in his commentary

David makes a thankful acknowledgment of God's gracious dealings with him all along: Thou hast dealt well with thy servant. However God has dealt with us, we must own he has dealt well with us, better than we deserve, and all in love and with design to work for our good. In many instances God has done well for us beyond our expectations. He has done well for all his servants; never any of them complained that he had used them hardly.

Deliverance From Affliction

There is something I want us to take note of. God’s goodness and faithfulness is not only present in good times. Or God’s goodness and faithfulness doesn’t exempt us from life’s challenges. Notice how though David is acknowledging God’s goodness, he speaks about his afflictions and challenges in life (vv. 67, 71). 

So firstly, trouble is a part of  life, therefore we shouldn’t expect that God’s goodness will erase trouble from our lives. That is a wrong teaching. Notice how the Psalmist speaks about false accusations against him (v.69). Afflictions include people speaking ill about us, bearing false witness and facing false accussations.

 But however, sometimes, God brings troubles our way as a means of restoring our way wardness or disciplining us. 

God will never allow his children to go wayward into destruction. His goodness is displayed in disciplining and restoring us. Note the relationship between affliction and restoration (v.67, 71). He was afflicted because he had gone astray. Brethren, we can be sure that if we go wayward, God will discipline and bring us back. That is what makes him a good God (Hebrews 12:4-10). We persevere, because God preserves us.

Now after his affliction, the Psalmist saw the good in it (v.71). Whatever he went through, he sat back and realized it was good. Brethren, sometimes God allows us to experience challenges, difficulties and even sin in our life to bring us to our senses 

The Psalmist found that affliction brought him back from wandering away from God. God uses distress and suffering in our lives to bring us back to him (Study Notes, Reformation Study Bible)

The most wise, righteous, and gracious God doth oftentimes leave, for a season, His own children to manifold temptations, and the corruption of their own hearts, to chastise them for their former sins, or to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts, that they may be humbled; and, to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support upon Himself, and to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin, and for sundry other just and holy ends (WCF 5.5).

I believe that in all of our lives, we have had moments when we understood challenges we have experienced. It taught us lessons; it made us better people and made us watchful over sin. 

Now the greatest deliverance ever is redemption from sin. And all of us here who are in Christ, have indeed experienced this deliverance. We have been transferred from the Kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of light.

Having looked at these, let’s examine our response to God’s goodness. If God is good, what must we do?

Learn God’s Word (v.66) -- Study

If God is good, then we must know and learn his word. There must be a desire to know God properly. We are living in an environment where all kinds of teachings gets believers excited regardless of whether it is the truth. There is no discernment, an unbiblical teaching or practice just needs God attached to it and people will embrace it. The Psalmist desires to learn God’s word. He prays for God’s direction and tutuelagr (v.66,68). He prays for God to teach him. He expresses a desire to learn (v.71).

Lean On God’s Word (v.66) --- Faith

That is to say, have faith in God’s word. It is not enough for us to Learn God’s word. Knowledge must bring us to faith in God’s ways and God’s word. In the second part of the verse 66, the Psalmist expressed his faith in God’s word: “for I believe in your commandments” See, the Psalmist desires to learn God’s ways because he trusts in God’s ways. He knows his life is dependent on it. He knows the commands of his Master and Lord is trustworthy.

Friends, we don’t only study the word. We must believe what the word teaches. Lean on it. And the greatest commandment you and I will have to believe is the command to put our faith in Jesus for salvation:

And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us (1 John 3:23)

You see that? Faith in Jesus is not a suggestion. It is a command. You either believe in Jesus for the salvation of your soul or you will perish in hell. 

Live By God’s Word -- Obedience

I think that the core theme of Psalm 119 is obedience to God’s word. Almost every stanza you turn, you see the word “keep” where the Psalmist is expressing their desire to keep God’s word. See vv 67 & 69. The idea there is obedience. God’s word is given that we may obey him. Be doers of the word, not hearers only (James 1:22-25). Concerning obedience to God’s word, he himself gives us the ability and power to obey him. It’s he who works in us, both to will and do his word.

Love God’s Word --- Delight in God’s Word

I bring you again something you may have heard over and over again. Delight in God’s word Our response to God’s goodness is a delight in his word. Because in his word, we see what pleases God and displeases him (v.70). In his word we know his counsel and will for our lives. Believers must delight in the word of God. Look at how the Psalmist contrasts his delight in God’s word with apathy from the wicked (v.70). The wicked has no desire for God’s word. But the believer must indeed make God’s word their delight. The word must be precious to us, precious than all precious things imaginable (v.72)

God is good, all the time God is good. And he has clearly displayed his goodness to us through the coming of Jesus. He died, was buried and rose the 3rd day so anyone who will put their faith in him will be saved.