Psalm 119:68

Today’s verse deals with both the nature and work of God.  It is a simple, clear statement of one of the attributes of God, that being, His goodness.

Psalms 119:68  Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes.

God by His very nature is good.  He is necessarily good.  He cannot be not good.  Were He not good, He would not be Who and What He is.  Were He not good, He would deny Himself, which He cannot do.

2 Timothy 2:13  …he cannot deny himself.

God is eternally good.  He has never been not good and He will ever be good.

Psalms 52:1  ….the goodness of God endureth continually.

Stephen Charnock in his excellent book entitled The Existence and Attributes of God, wrote:

“Goodness is the brightness and loveliness of our majestical Creator.  To fancy a God without it, is to fancy a miserable, scanty, narrow-hearted, savage God, and so an unlovely and horrible being; for he is not a God that is not good, he is not a God that is not the highest good.” 

Any goodness we see in the universe or in ourselves is derived from God.  But God’s goodness is not derived from another.  God is good in and of Himself.  God is the supreme good.  All good originates and flows from Him as the Source.  Therefore, only God is good.  There is no goodness apart from Him.  Hence, our Saviour said:  “…there is none good but one, that is, God” (Mark 10:18).

Were God not good, there would be neither sufficiency of resources nor loveliness in the universe to satisfy and delight its creatures.  God’s bountiful provisions in the earth are a witness that He is good.

Acts 14:17  Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.

Were God not good, there would be no mercy, no relief, no grace, no forgiveness, and no salvation.  Were God not good, there would be no John 3:16, no gift of God’s only begotten Son, and no everlasting life.  There would only be misery and cruelty.  How could we find any comfort or peace in trusting a God who was not good?

Now because God is good, it follows that whatever God does is good, just as today’s verse affirms.  When God does something, He does it freely of His own will.  Nothing outside of God constrains Him to do anything.  But when God chooses to do something, what He does must be good, because God is good.  Being good, God can only do good.  There is no evil in God.  That is why nothing God does is ever wrong. 

One of the chief reasons we worship God and give Him thanks is because He is good and does good.

Psalms 100:4  Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

5  For the LORD is good….

Psalms 107:8  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

And one of the best ways to praise the Lord for His goodness is to do just what the psalmist does in today’s verse:  confess to Him that He is good and does good.  Charles Spurgeon expressed it well:

“Facts about God are the best praise of God.  All the glory we can give to God is to reflect his own glory upon himself.” 

Now in view of the fact that the Lord is good and does good, the psalmist asks this one thing of the Lord:  teach me thy statutes.  God teaches us His statutes because He is good. 

Psalms 25:8  Good and upright is the LORD:  therefore will he teach sinners in the way.

If the Lord is teaching you His word by the means He has ordained, He is being good, very good, to you!

It says a lot about a man that when he would ask something of the Lord’s goodness, he asks to know and understand the Lord’s statutes.  For when you know God’s statutes and you live by them, you are living the good life, the best life possible for a man to live.  There is no better way to experience God’s goodness than through His word, the Holy Scriptures.

In closing let me point out that this prayer to be taught God’s statutes is in the fourth verse of this octave entitled Teth.  Note that this identical prayer, teach me thy statutes, is also found in the fourth verse of the octave entitled Beth.  So leth you forgeth, this requeth is found in Beth and Teth.  I find that quite interethting.  Don’t you?  I know.  It’s a lame attempt at humour, but at least I try.