“Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good!” Psalm 107:1
“God is good” is a phrase that all of us have used to acknowledge that the good we are experiencing and rejoicing in, comes from God Himself! It is a very appropriate phrase! In fact, the Psalms alone contain this phrase at least 16 times! God is good! The 2014 movie entitled “God’s Not Dead” sought to make the simple statement more exhaustive, by lengthening it to: “God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good!”
A wonderful family was blessed with a healthy baby girl? God is good! A dear brother responded well to cancer treatments? God is good! Surgery was successful, and the patient is recovering well, and has been released from the hospital? God is good!
On March 24, 2015 German-wings Flight 9525 crashed into the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board. Amidst the horrifying reports of a plane dropping altitude over the Alps and then crashing into the mountain with 150 people on board, there was the story of a soccer team who changed their travel plans the last minute, and as a result, the entire team was spared! “God is good, isn’t He?!” We tend to say that to one another when things turn out well, or even post it on social media.
But what about when things don’t go well? What about still-born births? What about cancer treatments that are not successful? What about surgeries from which the patient never recovers? Is God not good in those situations? The soccer team in Germany had their lives spared because of a change in travel plans, but what about the 150 who died in that terrible crash? Was God not good to them?
Yes, Scripture says that God is good! He doesn’t just do good things. He IS good, and who He is never changes! Charles Spurgeon has said, “God is good – not because he causes things that seem or feel “good” to happen in our lives, but because in the midst of the storm, God comes closer to us than the storm could ever be.” May God enable us to praise Him through the storm, even in those terribly difficult circumstances, knowing that His eternal goodness has been manifested most clearly in that single event which has accomplished the greatest good this world has ever seen – the cross of Calvary!