The Goodness of God
“All my life You have been faithful
And all my life You have been so, so good
With every breath that I am able
Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God.”[1]
You may have been present in a meeting when the following exchange took place:
Leader: God is good, all the time.
Congregation: All the time, God is good.
But what do we mean when we say God is good? Do we truly believe God is good “all the time”? Let’s try to answer the first question, and then give a basis for accepting the second.
God is good, all the time
“Good” is what God is. In fact, in his book The Attributes of God, Arthur Pink reveals, “The original Saxon meaning of our English word God is ‘The Good.’” [2]The Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible says that God’s goodness is “the most comprehensive description of God’s moral character.[3]
God’s goodness is shown through His benevolence, mercy, compassion, and patience shown toward His creation. He gives and forgives. God’s goodness includes His display of righteousness, holiness, justice, kindness, grace, mercy and love. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia states, “The thought of God as good and the prominence given to ‘good’ and ‘goodness’ are distinctive features of the Bible…. [In Galatians 5:22, Ephesians 5:9], as elsewhere, we are reminded that the Christian life in its truth is likeness to God, the source and perfection of all good.[4]
Paul emphasized just this truth to the Thessalonians when he told them, “With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith” (2 Thessalonians 1:11).
But, as the host often said on the children’s TV program Reading Rainbow, “You don’t have to take my word for it!” Here’s just a sampling of what the Scriptures say about the goodness of God.
- Psalm 145:8-9 – The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.
- Mark 10:18 – “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.”
- 1 Chronicles 16:34 – Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.
- 2 Chronicles 5:3 – He is good; his love endures forever.
- Psalm 107:1-3 – Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.
- Matthew 5:45 – He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous.
All the time, God is good
This one is admittedly a lot harder for us to get a grip on. In his article “Goodness and Me,” author Andrew Wilson candidly admits,
“It’s easy to affirm the goodness of God in the abstract. It’s easy to affirm it when things are going well. But when your children are going backwards on a daily basis, it becomes much harder. When the worship leader goes for a bit of call-and-response—‘God is good, all the time, and all the time...’—it can be a real physical challenge to squeeze out the words you know come next: …‘God is good!’ Singing becomes a fight between the truths you know and the emotions you feel.[5]
You may feel the same struggle in your own life as a result of poor health, the sudden unexpected death of a loved one, the catastrophic loss of your home, your job,… The list can be long. Is God still good when the rug has been pulled out from under you? The clear unequivocal answer is yes! Andrew Wilson knows this from personal experience, as did the psalmist. In fact, if you Google “Psalms of lament,” there is a long, long list (e.g., Psalms 3,6,10,13, 22, 38, 42,…). Yet a common theme even in these psalms is an acknowledgement of the suffering, and some pretty spectacular complaining (!), yet ultimately coming to a place of hope and trust in God’s goodness, faithfulness, and love.
Wilson says this about Psalm 34:
“Yet the psalmist affirms his experience of God’s goodness from a place of suffering. In verse 19, he makes the remarkable announcement, ‘Many are the afflictions of the righteous.’ Even with a good God, who is sovereign over everything and has the power to do whatever he likes, good people still suffer. His punchline, though, comes in the next phrase: ‘but Yahweh delivers him out of them all.’ Evil happens, but ‘none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned’ (34:22).”[6]
In another psalm David declares, “How abundant are the good things that you have stored up for those who fear you, that you bestow in the sight of all, on those who take refuge in you. In the shelter of your presence you hide them from all human intrigues; you keep them safe in your dwelling from accusing tongues” (Psalm 31:19-20).
There is one other incredible blessing we can receive as a result of God’s goodness. A.W. Tozer asks,
“Why would God the Eternal Son bleed for us? The answer is, out of His goodness and lovingkindness… [Psa. 36:7]. Why would God forgive me when I’ve sinned and then forgive me again and again? Because God out of His goodness acts according to that goodness and does what His loving heart dictates that He do.”[7]
Indeed, I can and will sing of the goodness of God!
- Ben Fielding, et al., “Goodness of God,” Bethel Music Publishing, Capitol CMG Publishing, 2021. ↑
- Arthur W. Pink, The Attributes of God (Unknown: Kindle Edition).↑
- Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel, “God, Being and Attributes Of,” in Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988), 876–880.↑
- W. L. Walker, “Goodness,” in The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, ed. James Orr, et al. (Chicago: The Howard-Severance Company, 1915).↑
- Andrew Wilson, “Goodness and Me,” https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/goodness-and-me--2. Andrew’s two sons are, as he describes, “quite severely autistic.”↑
- Ibid.↑
- A.W. Tozer, The Attributes of God Volume 1: A Journey into the Father's Heart (Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.)↑
Go Deeper
R.L. Wilson
R.L. Wilson has been on staff at the Ankerberg Theological Research Institute since 1982. Wilson’s articles draw from the perspective of someone who grew up in a multicultural environment, and who has been a follower of Christ for many decades.
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