GIVE THANKS FOR HE IS GOOD Psalm 136:1-3 I have some friends who are music evangelists. They ve been here a couple of times over the years. Maybe you remember them: Bud and Barbara Lee. When Bud leads worship he likes to engage the congregation in a little talk back. Let s try that this morning. I know, it s sort of a stretch for reserved folks like us, but play along anyway. I ll pretend to be Bud and you be the congregation. If you re glad to be in the house of the Lord say, Amen! If you love Jesus with all your heart say, Praise the Lord! If you believe Jesus is coming soon say, Hallelujah! And Bud sort of gets people fired up and involved. He ll even make you do it twice if you don t do it good enough the first time. And sometimes Bud will do this other thing where he gets the church to repeat after him. He ll say, God is good! And the congregation will say, God is good! And then Bud will say, All the time. And the congregation will echo, All the time. And he ll do this several times. Now that we re in the spirit, let s try that one too. God is good! All the time. God is good! All the time. Do you really believe that? It s easy to believe when you get the scholarship or the job or when the test results say you re going to be fine. But what about when the baby dies or the house burns or the medical tests say Lou Gehrig s disease? Do you believe God is good all the time then? The psalmist does. I invite you to open your Bible to Psalm 136:1-3. This psalm was known in Israel as the Great Hallel the great praise the Lord. And it celebrates the goodness of God as evidenced in creation and in deliverance. The psalm was used as a responsive reading in worship. The leader focused on God s mighty acts and after each one the people responded, For his steadfast love endures forever. The first three verses give us a taste of the larger psalm. Hear the word of the Lord (read the text). God is good all the time seems to be another way of saying the same thing. And in a week where we take time to count our blessings, we need to remember to count this blessing too: God is good all the time. Give thanks to
the Lord, for he is good. For his steadfast love endures forever. That s the gist of the psalm; the rest of the verses count several ways in which God s goodness is on display. When the Bible speaks of God s goodness, it s referencing such attributes as God s holiness and mercy, God s faithfulness and grace. God s goodness is about how God relates to us. Because God is good, He is a God we can count on, a God who won t pull the rug out from under us, a God who won t lead us astray or bail on us when we need Him most. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. For his steadfast love endures forever. Because it s easy to take God s goodness for granted, the psalmist reminds us to pay attention to it and thank God for it. I And it might help us appreciate God s goodness even more if we imagined how different things would be if God were not good. Bible stories would be different. Consider the exodus story. On the basis of God s power and promises, Moses was able to convince the Israelites to leave their slavery in Egypt and go home to a land flowing with milk and honey. If God was not good, the story might have unfolded like this: With a panicking Israel caught between the Red Sea and Pharaoh s army, Moses raised his staff to split the sea. Have faith! Moses shouted to Israel, And you will see what the Lord your God will do for those He loves. But then, as Moses stood beside the sea, pleading with God to part the waters, the voice of God came softly in his ear: Forget it, Moses, I ve changed my mind. I can find a better people than Israel. And Pharaoh s army caught up with Israel at the water s edge, slaughtered many of them, and took the rest back to Egypt in slavery. That s not a very good story, is it? But if God is not good, it could have happened that way. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. For his steadfast love endures forever.
And what about this story: David approached the giant Goliath. The battle is the Lord s! shouted David. He whirled his sling and let the rock fly. He missed. He tried again. He missed. Five shots five misses. Goliath raced toward David, picked him up by the neck, ran him through with his sword, and dropped him in a heap on the battlefield dead. If God is not good, God might have changed His mind about David and that story could have happened that way. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. For his steadfast love endures forever. And the Old Testament prophets would read differently too. Where the prophets preached both judgment and hope, we could scratch out the hope verses because if God were not good there would be no hope. We might as well just cross our fingers and wish for the best. II And the New Testament would be different too. Take Jesus story of the prodigal son. A father lives on a farm with his two sons. The eldest is faithful, loyal, and hardworking. The youngest is not, and he is bold enough to ask his father for his inheritance in advance. The father gives it to the son, and the son promptly runs off to the city and squanders it on booze and prostitutes and wild parties. Once he runs out of money, the boy ends up slaving away slopping pigs in somebody s barnyard. That s when he comes to his senses and decides to go home. I ll say, Father, I have sinned against heaven and you and I m not worthy to be your son. Could you hire me on as a farmhand? So risking rejection, the boy heads home. The father who waits for his lost son to return is a metaphor for God. In Jesus story, the father forgives, welcomes, and celebrates his son s return: Let s have a party, he said. My son who was lost, is found. But if God is not good, the story might end like this: Seeing his son from a distance, the father grabbed his shotgun and ran out to meet the boy. Stopping some thirty feet from his son, the
father fired a shotgun blast over the boy s head. That s far enough! said the father. I knew you d waste my money and come crawling back to me and your brother. So I m only going to tell you this once: you are no son of mine and you re not welcome here anymore! You had your chance and you blew it. So get lost, kid. Get off my property and never come back. Or next time, I ll be aiming the shotgun at you. Now that s one sad story. No forgiveness. No mercy. No grace. One chance and one chance only. One and done. Blow it and you re toast. But that s the way the story could read if God were not good. And what about the story of Jesus in Gethsemane? Jesus reflected the Father s character. If the Father is not good, can we count on Jesus to be good? If we can t, Gethsemane, the place where Jesus prayerfully steeled his resolve to take up His cross: Father, if it s possible, please let this cup pass from me. But not my will, Father; your will be done. That was Jesus Gethsemane prayer. And Jesus came out of the garden to take up His cross. But if God were not good, it might have ended like this: Jesus went to the garden to pray. Peter, James, and John followed him into the garden. Stay here and pray, said Jesus, and I m going to go a little deeper into the garden and pray. Wearied and exhausted, Peter, James, and John fell asleep. They were awakened by the approach of Judas leading a mob on their way to arrest Jesus. Not sure what to do, Peter ran to the place they had left Jesus. Master, shouted Peter, come quickly. A mob is approaching. Master! Master? Peter searched the garden to no avail. Deciding that the cross was not for Him, Jesus fled into the night and was nowhere to be found. What if Jesus had decided against the cross? What if He had made a run for it? Or what if Jesus made it to the cross but took a different direction? Jesus said the Father had placed legions of angels at His command to rescue Jesus if He called out for them. What if Jesus had called out for those angels? Jesus swept to safety; you and I left to die in our sins. If God were not good Jesus s words on the cross might have been different. Instead of, Father forgive them for they know not what they do,
perhaps Jesus would have said, Strike them down, Father, destroy them for what they are doing to me. Instead of responding to the repentant criminal on the cross next to His by telling him that that day he would join Jesus in paradise, Jesus might have said, Look, buddy, you made your bed, now you ve got to lie in it. It s every man for himself. See how things would be so different if God were not good. Well, we wouldn t be here in church today. Life would be different. History would be different. And we would still be lost in our sins. Lots of differences for sure. III And Bible verses would be different. Exclamation points would become question marks, and we d read qualifiers and caveats galore. Romans 10:13 might read: Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved if God feels so inclined at that moment. Romans 8:1 might read: There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus if they re lucky. Romans 8:35 might read, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? and instead of a list of all the things that can t and don t it might read, well, lots of things can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. You better hope none of that stuff happens to you. Ephesians 2:8-9 reads, For by grace have you been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast. If God were not good it would read like this: For by works are you saved. So get busy, hope you re lucky to be more good than bad, and knock on wood that God will be in a good mood when you stand before Him in judgment. And the great promise of Hebrews 13:5 would read differently. It might read like this: Maybe I ll never leave you or forsake you, says the Lord. I ll decide on a case by case basis.
Yikes! If God were not good, we d be living on thin ice; we d be walking a tightrope without a net. Every step a ginger one, every step uncertain. Any misstep could drop us into the cold waters of eternal death. Everything would be different. IV And I can hardly imagine how different my work would be, how hard my job would be if God were not good. What would I say to the person whose doctor tells him to put his affairs in order because he s probably got only a few months to live? Good luck? What could I offer the widow standing beside the grave of her saintly husband? There s always a chance God might let him into heaven? What could I say to the sinner desperately seeking God s forgiveness? Go ahead and ask, maybe God will forgive you and maybe He won t? What could I share with the lonely person in a broken marriage who just wants to know that God will be there for her? I hope God will be there for you, but who knows? You better not count on it. If God were not good, the best I could do is encourage wishful thinking instead of hope, raise doubt instead of faith, offer maybes instead of promises. V The goodness of God is a very big deal. Something we so often take for granted is so very critical to our present and our eternity. No wonder the psalmist calls us to pay attention to it and say thanks for it: Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. For his steadfast love endures forever. Maybe the bottom line virtue in God s goodness is that we can trust Him to keep His promises and to keep us in His never-ending love.
When God says, I will never leave you or forsake you, He means it all the time. When God says, I am working for good in your circumstances when you love me and are called according to my purpose, He means it all the time. When God says, If you confess your sins I am faithful and just to forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness, He means it all the time. And when God says, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, He means it all the time. And when life gets dark, when circumstances are overwhelming, and when it feels like all is lost, being able to trust God in the darkness, even when we don t feel His presence or His help well, it just means everything. It s the difference between despair and hope. It s the difference between anxiety and peace. It s the difference between giving up and going on. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. For his steadfast love endures forever. God is good. His love endures forever. But don t misunderstand the goodness of God. God s goodness doesn t mean that He ll answer every prayer the way we want it. It doesn t mean trouble will never pay us a visit. It doesn t mean life will be easy. We live in a fallen world full of trouble and woe, and sooner or later we re going to face our share of it or maybe even more than our share. Sometimes we ll make decisions that bring problems on ourselves. Being a wise and loving Father, God may even put us under the pain of His discipline for a greater purpose than we can understand in the moment. Sometimes God s goodness doesn t look like a Christmas present; sometimes it looks like a cross. So don t misunderstand the goodness of God. God s goodness doesn t mean life is one big strawberry sundae. But it does mean that even when we re getting brussel sprouts instead of ice cream, God is with us leading, working, helping, loving, keeping, and empowering us to be more than a conqueror through Christ who loved us. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. For his steadfast love endures forever. VI
Early in my pastoral work, I really looked up to a man named Melvin Hill. He had been a pastor for about thirty years, and then took the job as the Director of Missions for our local Baptist association. There was more than one time when I called on Dr. Hill to get a little advice, a little coaching, on one church situation or another. Like Jesus, Melvin was the kind of man who just went about doing good. I couldn t believe it when he was diagnosed with cancer. Why, God? I asked. All he does is serve you. All he does is help pastors and churches. Why him, God? And if he must have cancer, why not heal him? He ll give you the glory. He ll give you the praise. It was not the first time and it wouldn t be the last when I would wonder if God is as good as the Bible claims He is. After a couple of rounds of treatment that weren t going so well, Melvin wrote an article in our associational newsletter. It helped me. This is what he wrote: We must all accept life one day at a time, trusting God and using every day to serve Him. That is what I intend to do, hoping for many more years to serve Him, but trusting Him to plan my life. We are all in His hands, and they are good hands. Those would be the last lines that Melvin ever wrote. He died shortly thereafter. He fell asleep in his hospital bed and woke up in glory. And you know what? I wouldn t be surprised if his last words on this earth and his first words in heaven were these: Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His steadfast love endures forever. And on this Thanksgiving and all year long, that s a song we can sing too in good times and in bad, in life and in death. It s a good song. It s a true song. And our lives depend upon it. Sing it with me: Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. For his steadfast love endures forever. Sing it well and sing it often. Sing it when you feel it and sing it when you don t. And if that s just too many words to remember, then sing it like our friend Bud Lee. Echo the refrain with me, won t you? God is good all the time. All the time God is good! Preached: November 24, 2013
First Baptist Church, Hot Springs, AR John Scott McCallum II