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The Nearness of God is our Good

Whenever a plane goes down, there is inevitably a news story about the people who were supposed to be on the plane but weren’t—either because their alarm didn’t go off or there was a traffic jam or they switched travel plans at the last minute. When we hear stories like that, we Christians tend to say, “Wow! Isn’t God good!?” We say that a lot—“Isn’t God good!?” when we hear reports of people who inexplicably avoid doom. A woman has car trouble and avoids the fatal 12-car pile-up on the
interstate that she would’ve been in if her car had started. Isn’t God good? A man goes to his doctor for pneumonia and the chest x-ray shows a tumor in his lung.  The man has surgery to remove the tumor and his life is extended indefinitely because the doctor
accidentally discovered it when it was still in its early stages. Isn’t God good?

About seven years ago I suffered a very serious heart attack known as the “widow maker”.  Unless the victim of this kind of heart attack gets treatment within 30 minutes or so, the patient almost never survives.  But I got treatment quickly, so I survived.  Isn’t God good? People say that a lot when they hear my story of how I almost died, and how God spared my life.  Yes, I always say. God is good.

But is this WHY God is good? If God hadn’t spared my life, would God still be good?  God is not good because he does good things; God is good because whatever he does is good.  This is a concept that is difficult for us to grasp.  We tend to believe that there is a standard of what is “good” or “right” or “just” and we get to define that standard.  Anything that does not fit that
standard cannot be “good” or “right” or “just.” 

But the standard of what is “good” or “right” or “just” is not something that is based on what we want that standard to be.  Our ideas do not define the terms of what is “good” or “right” or “just.”  Those terms are defined by God.  Thus, God does not do what is “good” or “right” or “just.”  Whatever God does is “good” or “right” or “just.”  The Bible doesn’t just say that God does good things. It says that God IS good. It’s not just what he does; it’s who he is—and who he is never changes. Charles Spurgeon wrote that God is good, not because he causes things that seem or feel “good” to happen in our lives, but because in the midst of the storm, God comes closer to us than the storm could ever be.

And THIS is why we can say with absolute confidence that God is good. This is why we can say, no matter how bad the storm is, no matter how much pain we experience, no matter how different the outcome is from what we’ve prayed for, that God is good. In the hardest moments of life, God comes close to us and he doesn’t change, he doesn’t falter, he doesn’t quit, he doesn’t leave and he doesn’t let go.

In the first part of Psalm 73, Asaph (the author), believes “good” is defined by the absence of pain, difficulty, trouble, sorrow,
illness, or poverty.  But if you drop down to v. 28, you’ll see that “good” means something far better than prosperity.  “But as for me,” he says, “the nearness of God is my good.” 

Nearness to God is our highest good. Therefore, whatever interferes with our nearness to God is actually evil, and whatever draws us into a deeper fellowship with God is actually “good.”  When God brings suffering and adversity into our lives, our
confidence in his goodness should not be undermined.  Instead, we should be reassured that when we suffer pain or serious
hardship, God is near.  The nearness of God is our good.