Good Things

Our church reads a chapter of Psalms and a chapter of the New Testament each Sunday, and several of the men take turns reading the chapter and sharing a few brief thoughts. Steve is on the rotation, and after his reflection on Psalm 84 today, it occurred to me that I should feature these as guest blog posts. I am so thankful for my husband's ability to see the gospel throughout Scripture and apply it to life with wisdom and thoughtfulness!

[guest post by Steve Kannel]

Upon first glance, there are a number of comforting thoughts in Psalm 84. The end of verse 11, however, isn’t necessarily all that comforting:

“No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.”

Most of us would say that there are a number of things going on in our lives that we don’t feel to be good. An example for me is that just last week I was stranded in not one, but two of my cars because they broke down on the side of the road. If you have ever had a broken down car, you know it's usually time consuming and expensive to take care of. Certainly not a good thing.

Most of us would also say that we don’t really walk uprightly…hey, that may explain some of the “un-good” stuff that is going on. Maybe God is withholding good things from me because I’m not walking uprightly enough.

See what I mean? Not necessarily comforting.

Yet for those of us in Christ, the upright walking that God requires is not ours, but that of Jesus. Because He walked perfectly, we receive God’s good gifts.

Read it like this: “No good thing does He withhold from those who trust in the perfect walk of His Son.”

OK, so how does that explain the car situation? For me, I think it was a very strong and obvious reminder that the things of this world are not big enough to be my savior, and therefore be worshiped. Yet just saying it wasn’t enough, they had to actually fail me so that I would get the point.

God, in His mercy and goodness, because of his Son’s finished work, seeks to remove false idols from our hearts, that we may worship the true King. And that is a very good thing.