He is Good: Psalm 119:65-72

As I begin to focus more on God and less on myself, I'm going to change the titles of my posts to reflect that.
This is something I need to do in all my life.  I am so often focused on ME: what I should do, what I shouldn't, what I don't do that I should, what I want to do but can't.  I would become a lot less selfless if I focused on God and on others instead of myself.  I'm going to work on doing that in my posts, too.

In today's passage, three verses stood out to me.  Verse 66 says, "Teach me knowledge and good judgement, for I believe in your commands."  My notes say about this verse that we can have confidence in God's commands because they are not deceitful.  The note on verse 52, which says "I remember your ancient laws, O LORD, and I find comfort in them," says, "God's law is not fickle, but it is grounded firmly in his unchanging moral character.  This is a major source of the author's comfort and one of the main reasons he cherishes the law so highly."  Unlike human laws, which are changeable and made by changeable people, God's laws stay the same forever.  They teach us "knowledge and good judgement".

I was discussing this with someone the other day: how it is such a comfort that God is unchangeable.  People are so fickle and unpredictable, and it's impossible to fully understand them because they're always changing.  Now, it's also impossible to fully understand God because he's more than we can understand, but he will NEVER CHANGE!!  So when we do begin to understand aspects of him, we can be sure that those aspects will stay the same no matter what.  God's laws are the same way.

This leads into the next verse I underlined, verse 68: "You are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees."  This sentence is such a comfort to me: God is good, and everything he does is good!  Even when things seem to be going horribly, even when I can't understand why things happen, I know God is good.  All the time.  Because he doesn't change.  One of my all-time favorite Bible verses ever is Romans 8:28: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (the emphases are mine).  I get so excited about this verse (all of Romans, actually)!!!  God works IN ALL THINGS for the good of those who love him and whom he has called!!  That's ME!!!  That's you!  That's everyone who loves him and whom he has called!!

This leads right into the third verse that I underlined, verse 71: "It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees."  I firmly believe that in every trial we go through, God teaches us something.  The frustrating difficulty I've been experiencing for the last few weeks has taught me patience.  It's taught me to trust God more.  It's taught me to be thankful for my many blessings, because even my trials are insignificant compared to many others'.  God is so amazing like that!  Even when we experience the influence of sin in the world, he uses it to teach us how much he loves us and to trust him!

I could go on and on about this (I sometimes do; don't get me started talking about Romans 8!), but for now, I'm going to remember how good God is.  And how he's always working for my good, no matter what!!!