God Is Great And Good! Series

Probably one of the first prayers we learned after “Now I lay me down to sleep” was “God is great! God is good! Let us thank Him for our food!” We may have even learned the longer version which included: “By His hand we all are fed, give us Lord our daily bread.” From this brief prayer, from our scripture reading and from the hymns we sing, we verbally acknowledge that God is great.

Psalm 145:3-13 –

Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; And His greatness is unsearchable.

One generation shall praise Your works to another, And shall declare Your mighty acts.

I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, And on Your wondrous works.

Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts, And I will declare Your greatness.

They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness,

And shall sing of Your righteousness.

The LORD is gracious and full of compassion, Slow to anger and great in mercy.

The LORD is good to all, And His tender mercies are over all His works.

All Your works shall praise You, O LORD, And Your saints shall bless You.

They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom, And talk of Your power,

To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts,

And the glorious majesty of His kingdom.

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,

And Your dominion endures throughout all generations.

This last phrase could be translated: “And His greatness is beyond our understanding” or “past finding out.” This same Hebrew phrase is found in Job 9:10 but we need to read verses 4-12 to better appreciate the impossibility of fully understanding God’s greatness –

God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has hardened himself against Him and prospered?

He removes the mountains, and they do not know When He overturns them in His anger;

He shakes the earth out of its place, And its pillars tremble; He commands the sun, and it does not rise;

He seals off the stars; He alone spreads out the heavens,

And treads on the waves of the sea; He made the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades,

And the chambers of the south; He does great things past finding out,

Yes, wonders without number. If He goes by me, I do not see Him;

If He moves past, I do not perceive Him; If He takes away, who can hinder Him?

Who can say to Him, ‘What are You doing?’ ”

The greatness of God is great in power, goodness, mercy, kindness, faithfulness and love. We have also focused on the benevolent or positive aspects of God’s greatness. We can be obedient to the good news of Christ and let His blood wash away our sins in the watery grave of baptism – faithfully serve our Lord and Savior – and inherit a home in heaven.

God is good, all the time! We readily affirm this to be true whenever good things happen to us, but what about when our circumstances aren’t so good? Is God still good? The answer is “yes.”

The significance of God’s goodness is that He is always good, even when what’s happening to me or those I love is NOT good at all.

And the proof of God’s goodness is not that everything in my life is rosy, but that despite the difficulties and challenges and troubles and griefs of this life, God is determined to use them for my greatest good.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” - Romans 8:28 (NIV)

“God is always trying to give good things to us, but our hands are too full to receive them.” - Augustine

But when our hearts are not focused on pleasing ourselves, but on knowing God more intimately and pleasing Him only, then we are in a position to recognize that He is indeed, a good God.

That our God is good is a fact. And Jesus tells us two things about this amazing fact concerning God’s goodness.

That our God is good means: We should be different in this world.

In is interesting how Jesus applies this truth that our God is good to our lives as His followers. He tells us that since our God is good toward us, we should be good toward others. In the last words Jesus uses here, we are reminded of what He said about the Greatest Commandment:

“Jesus replied, ‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” - Matthew 22:37-40 (NLT)