Have any of you seen the movie Oz: The Great and Powerful?
Trick question. Practically nobody remembers seeing that movie, even though it was the 13th-highest grossing movie of 2013. I know, I’m as shocked as you are.
James Franco portrays a crummy Depression-era traveling magician who dreams of greatness. Unfortunately, he instead gets pulled up into a tornado and is transported to the Technicolor land of Oz. You know, as one does.
By the end of the movie, Glinda the Good Witch encourages him with the fact that he is much better than a great man: He is a good man.
Sometimes we get so caught up in considering the greatness of God that we forget about the goodness of God.
Yes, God is great. God has all the omnis going for Him, except for the one in Atlanta that was torn down.
The greatness of God should inspire a reverent fear and an awe that cannot be matched by anything else, of course. I am in no way discounting the greatness of God.
I simply want to help you refocus on the goodness of God.
Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth!
Worship the Lord with gladness.
Come before him, singing with joy.
Acknowledge that the Lord is God!
He made us, and we are his.
We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving;
go into his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good.
His unfailing love continues forever,
and his faithfulness continues to each generation.
Psalm 100 (NLT - Emphasis Mine)
I remember first really coming across this passage once when I was going through a difficult time in my life. I don’t remember what the difficulty was specifically. It might have just been your generic “Life is hard” kinda thing.
When I read this passage, everything faded away except for two very crucial phrases: The Lord is God, the Lord is Good.
I grew up in a Southern Baptist church where we always heard and repeated a specific phrase. I imagine many of you know exactly what I’m talking about.
What would you say if I said, “God is good?”
All the time!
And all the time?
God is good!
This phrase has been ingrained in so many of us, almost to the point of numbness. It has become a thing that we repeat without considering, without truly digesting. And yet, it is a simple truth that can have a profound impact on our life.
When we realize that God is good, we realize that there is an all-powerful presence that desires what is best for us. Even when we don’t.
I sometimes consider people living in oppression around the world, whose own governments want them dead. I recently read about Operation Condor and how many nations in South America aggressively pursued dissidents and leftists during the late 1960s and 1970s, often to the point of making problematic people “disappear.” It is to my shame that I read the extent that the United States was even involved in these operations.
I cannot imagine the terror that would come from living in such a situation, where the most powerful people in my nation wanted to harm me specifically.
But then I turn that scenario around and imagine that there is an even greater power. An all-powerful being that, instead of wanting me dead, wants the best for me. That is the magnificent goodness of God.
Take a second look at the commands in Psalm 100 that surround these two key phrases: Shout to the Lord with joy, worship Him with gladness, enter His gates with Thanksgiving. The Psalmist here is grabbing us by the face and saying, “Do you not recognize the goodness of God? Then celebrate it!”
A lot of 1990s worship songs took lyrics from this Psalm. Be glad that you can’t hear me singing through a blog post. (Photo by NATHAN MULLET on Unsplash)
I want to tread carefully here. While scripture does command us to celebrate the goodness of God, there are also several places where God is described as our comfort in times of pain. And I am reminded of John 11 where Jesus weeps with Mary and Martha at the death of their brother, even though Jesus knows that He is about to raise Lazarus from the dead.
God cares about our pain. He cares about our suffering in times of grief. That’s an essential aspect to the goodness of God, after all. But even in that pain, we are reminded that we can and should celebrate the goodness of God. Even though we can’t see it, we don’t know where God’s goodness is in the pain, we can know it is there. We can know that He is there.
God is not deaf to our pain. I am not going to be deaf to your pain, either. I know there have been times in my life where I don’t feel like shouting with joy or coming to God with thanksgiving. And that’s why this reminder matters. Because when we forget God’s goodness, we also forget the goodness of God’s comfort.
Scripture is not telling us to forget our pain. Scripture is reminding us that we can rejoice even in our pain because there is a God, both great and good, who loves us.
I told you I wanted you to refocus on God’s goodness for a minute, but consider this. God’s goodness and God’s greatness go hand-in-hand. In Psalm 100:3, the verse that includes the phrase “The Lord is God", we are reminded that He is our creator and He holds us in His hand.
Not in the John Edwards “Sinners in the Hands of Angry God” sort of way, but in that God holds us firmly and protects us. We are reminded elsewhere in Scripture that nothing can separate us from God (Romans 8:38-39) and that nobody can pluck us from God’s hands (John 10:28-29).
John Edwards described a God like this, but so much worse. (Image property of Disney/Pixar)
So not only is God good, but He is also God. His power, His greatness, it is all-sufficient for our needs. And God’s power is good.
One last thing that Psalm 100 reminds us of that I need to put out there. In the last little bit of the chapter, the Psalmist reminds us that not only is God great and that God is good, but that God’s faithfulness knows no end.
“His faithfulness continues through each generation,” we are told.
There’s a common objection thrown at Christians, about how we follow such an old book. How can we possibly believe such an old philosophy?
True, the composition of the Bible was completed somewhere in the range of 1,800 years ago.
But it also took about 2,000 or so years for all of the Bible to come together. We have reminders of God’s faithfulness from Abraham, Moses, David, Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and all the way up through Peter, John, and Paul. Sure, the Bible may be old, but that’s an asset, not a fault.
We have millennia of God’s promises to look back on. We have thousands of written reminders of God’s faithfulness to each generation. That includes our own, y’know. And we also have the reminders of God’s faithfulness to those around us, and those we’ve known who have seen God move in their own lives.
When someone makes a promise, we always tend to wait for them to break it. Let me remind you that God’s promises have been around for thousands of years, and He hasn’t broken one yet.
That is the goodness of God.
“We have mllennia of God’s promises to look back on...and He hasn’t broken one yet.”
I don’t want to flippantly toss around ideas of Eastern philosophy, but I will say that this repeated phrase has become something of a mantra to me lately: “You are God, and You are Good.” When I find myself struggling through life or wondering where God’s provision is in this moment, I remind myself that He is God, and that He is good.
If you’re in need of some encouragement today, feel free to take mine.
He is God, and He is good.