By God is good.
God does good.
It is good for me.
Those three little lines are the key to successful living. Doubt any one of those three statements, and you have either a god who is evil, or a god who is out to get you, or a god who is of no use to you. Believe those three statements, and you will have a glorious perspective on all of life – yes, even the unpleasant times.
These three lines are taken straight from the self-counselling that we find with Mr. 119 – the unknown author of Psalm 119. The entire Psalm as about the God Who gave us His Word to live by. In the ninth stanza we see some intense insights about God and His goodness during the bad experiences of life.
In Psalm 119:68 Mr. 119 affirms the obvious truth evident all the way from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, namely that
You are good and do good.
Objective theological truth “God is good” is recognised in real life through the good deeds that God does. It is true that all the good in life is a gift of the good God, and all the bad in life is a direct result of sin’s role in life.
But Mr. 119 does not merely dwell on the obvious big-picture truth about God and His role in this life. He also dwells on how it relates to his personal experience of life.
It is good for me
Psalm 119:71 affirms that God’s goodness is not only an objective reality evident in the big-picture of life, but God’s goodness is also at play in the midst of our afflictions. As Joseph testified to in Genesis 50:20 already, the only-good God can accomplish good even from evil. So also, Mr. 119 had experienced how the only-good, and all-good-doing God had turned his personal affliction into good.
You are good and do good; teach me your statutes.
It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.
Psalm 119:68, 71