So, what makes God good? God’s goodness is not just what He does but WHO He is. Anyone can act good or be good, if willing, but God IS good; it is part of Him! Psalm 145:8-10 says, “The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and great in faithful love. The Lord is good to everyone; His compassion rests on all He has made. All you have made will thank you, Lord; the godly will praise you”. We should take note that these verses do not simply state how good, loving, compassionate, or anything else God is; without showing thanks and praise to Him for it! Acknowledgment of who God is should always lead or come back to praise.

Psalm 34:8

Taste and see that the Lord is good, how happy is the man that takes refuge in Him.

When we eat something, we have never eaten before we tend to taste a little first before diving into the entire dish. Only a small taste of God is enough to know He is so, so good! It’s not just what He does, it is literally who He is! He provides everything we could ever need. Let’s look how the psalmist writes in Psalm 34 of God’s goodness:

• When did you praise God last? Stop and praise Him before moving on! Read Psalm 34 and make a list of all the ways it points to God’s goodness. Make a note that the chapter starts with praising God.

The bible has many examples of God being good and doing good to others. We want to mainly focus on the point that God CANNOT be bad. Some might consider Him bad because they do not agree with Him; however, being against God in any way is bad. Gods’ way is always the perfect way even when we don’t like it. Anything that is self-ordained to be good and does not align to how God defines good or reflects His character of goodness, is therefore not good.

In Isaiah 55:8-9, God says of Himself:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as heaven is higher than earth, so My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.  

• Was there a time you thought you was doing good; however, it did not align to the scriptures? Did you think to yourself, is this good because the world tells me or is this a reflection of what God says is good?

Along with God’s goodness we see God’s faithfulness. As mentioned in the sidebar, goodness aligns with so many other attributes. As we get to know Him more, we see one does not overpower the other but work harmoniously with one another. God’s faithfulness is weaved throughout scripture from the beginning to the end of the Bible. The most profound way He has and still does show His faithfulness to us is through the act of sending His Son as a living sacrifice for our sins. God literally provided all of us, who are and ever will be, a sacrifice powerful enough to cover our sins till the end of time. That seems overwhelmingly faithful to me! The coming of Christ was foreshadowed throughout the Old Testament, one of the most notable times being in Isaiah 53. Read Isaiah 53 (pay close attention to notice the exact details of what Christ would experience many years later).

The Sin-Bearing Messiah

53 Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
² For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no ^[a]form or ^[b]comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no ^[c]beauty that we should desire Him.
³ He is despised and ^[d]rejected by men,
A Man of ^[e]sorrows and acquainted with ^[f]grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

⁴ Surely He has borne our ^[g]griefs
And carried our ^[h]sorrows;
Yet we ^[i]esteemed Him stricken,
^[j]Smitten by God, and afflicted.
⁵ But He was wounded^[k] for our transgressions,
He was ^[l]bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes^[m] we are healed.
⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord ^[n]has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.
⁸ He was taken from ^[o]prison and from judgment,
And who will declare His generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the living;
For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
⁹ And ^[p]they made His grave with the wicked—
But with the rich at His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was any deceit in His mouth.

¹⁰ Yet it pleased the Lord to ^[q]bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
^11 [r]He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,
For He shall bear their iniquities.
¹² Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,
And He shall divide the ^[s]spoil with the strong,
Because He poured out His soul unto death,
And He was numbered with the transgressors,
And He bore the sin of many,
And made intercession for the transgressors.

God also let us know from the beginning of creation Jesus was already part of the Trinity or Godhead (Col. 2:9 for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily) and involved in the making of everything in Genesis 1:26, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness’”. Then again in John 1:1-3, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made”. In several areas of the scriptures, it is confirmed Jesus was always here from the beginning of time and was one with the Father. God’s plan for our salvation had been known and faithfully orchestrated since creation! He knew we would need a Savior long before Adam and Eve committed the first sin, or before they themselves even knew what sin was. He had displayed His faithfulness by first offering a promise.

When the sin of Adam and Eve was exposed, God allowed the consequences, and the curse of sin took place. However, God is good and faithful by sealing our fate with a promise. In Genesis 3:15 it says, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel”. Adam and Eve were unable to be morally excellent or be consistent in God’s instruction to them. However, God already knew this would take place and He shined His perfect goodness and faithfulness by informing them of His redemptive plan.  When telling the serpent he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel it is believed God was referring to Satan’s ultimate defeat by Christ’s death and resurrection.  The striking of the heel being Jesus’ suffering which would be followed by victory when he defeats death. The striking of the head being a fatal wound that Satan would suffer because Jesus defeated death and won the battle against sin. Matthew Henry wrote this to describe God revealing this to the serpent (Satan):

 “Destroyed and ruined at last by the great redeemer, signified by the breaking of his head. His subtle politics shall all be baffled, his usurped power shall be entirely crushed, and he shall be forever a captive to the injured honour of divine sovereignty. By being told of this now he was tormented before the time.”

God’s promises will always reign true. He does not make a promise He is not capable or faithful to complete. The very being that created everything has no reason to lie or mislead. If He promises something IT WILL be fulfilled. A great example of God keeping his promises can be found in 1 Samuel. Now we hear of a woman named Hannah who was the wife of a man named Elkanah. Elkanah had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah; Peninnah had children, but Hannah was barren. Being barren in biblical days was often considered a symbol of affliction and brokenness. Some would even call it a disgrace, as if they were receiving punishment from the Lord. 1 Samuel 1:6-7 states Her rival (Peninnah) would taunt her severely just to provoke her, because the Lord had kept Hannah from conceiving. Whenever she went up to the Lord’s house, her rival taunted her in this way every year. Hannah wept and would not eat.

Hannah was surely thinking, “Why can’t I do what women are supposed to be able to do?”.  Hannah being hurt and growing bitter from the way Peninnah was treating her goes to the Lord’s temple and prays to the Lord saying, “Lord of Hosts, if you will take notice of Your servants affliction, remember and not forget me, give your servant a son, I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and his hair will never be cut.”(1 Samuel 1:10-11) She then goes on to say “May your servant find favor with you” then she left the temple and it states she no longer looked despondent, leading us to believe God had given her peace in the situation at hand. The priest of the temple named Eli had seen her praying and she had been so into her prayer with the Lord that he had originally thought she was drunk.

After she revealed she was just overcome with emotion Eli told her to, “Go in peace, may the God of Israel grant the petition you’ve requested Him.” A few verses later once Elkanah and Hannah had returned home to Ramah it says “Then Elkanah was intimate with his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her.  It does not say He happened to remember someone….out of everyone on the planet He remembered HER prayer and her promise and lovingly gave her the desires of her heart. He saw her sincerity and showed His compassion, love, mercy; just to name a few; by giving it to her.

Hannah goes on to also fulfil her own promise to God by giving her son to the Lord for His work at the age of 3. Imagine with me giving your 3-year-old child over to be used for God’s work…. yeah. But she did so joyfully because she had experienced the faithfulness and goodness of God and was certain to also keep her promise to Him. We are back to always praising God for all He is and for His perfect faithfulness and goodness. Her prayer in 1 Samuel 2 is a testimony to just that.

• Read her full prayer in the side bar

     Her prayer right off the bat is rejoicing in the Lord or praising Him. That is so important for all of us to remember during our daily walk with God. We must recognize who He is and, in all things, praise Him for that. Not necessarily for what He has done for us but for who He is and what He is capable of. We must present a certain level of fear towards God because of that fact. He is all powerful and capable of anything, yet He is good, faithful, merciful, loving, and so much more.

• In what ways has God shown His faithfulness in your life? Think of a small seemingly unimportant way and then think of a very profound way. Both are God showing who He is.
• How does God’s oath to remain faithful give you greater confidence?
• How does your experience with human faithfulness (or unfaithfulness) affect the way you perceive God’s faithfulness?

1 Samuel 1:19

…the Lord remembered her.