"Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!"
Psalm 31:19
“Oh, how great is thy goodness,”
If you have been able to follow through our theme this month, “My God Is…,” with us, I believe you will agree with me that we have seen many scriptures that teach us that our God is good! Once again in today’s verse, David brings up the subject of God’s goodness. As we read through verse 19, there are at least two types of God’s goodness.
“Which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee;”
Notice “thou hast laid up,” He’s already done it! He has “goodness” set aside for Jehovah-fearing-people. The Hebrew word for the phrase “thou hast laid up” is the word that means “to treasure or store up.”1 You understand what this means, you have set aside a little cash for a rainy day. Or you know you may have an emergency, and so you have made provision for it ahead of time (as with insurance). You’ve started an IRA so that you will have some funds to work within old age. So, our God has treasured away goodness for us for when it’s needed later. For we who know the LORD and fear Him, that is we highly reverence Him, He has treasured up “goodness’” that we have not seen yet or needed, but we will see them at some time in the future when our LORD knows that we need them!
“Which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!”
Here’s a second kind of “goodness.” This is the goodness that God has already done in our lives. These are things He has done daily for us. Can you count them? I can’t because there are so many things that He has done and provided for me that numbering them all is impossible. Please understand, it hasn’t been your “good luck” that brought these things into your life. These things have been the work of an omniscient and loving Father. And notice that He has done these kinds of things for all those that trust in God. That is, you are trusting Him to be your provider. If you are a true believer hasn’t God been continually good to you?
And one last thought here. God has done these things in our lives, “before the sons of men.” All these good things He does in our lives are meant to be a testimony to His goodness in front of people. When we share what God has done for us with the lost, it leads to an evangelistic witness. When we share with other believers, it’s a reminder and an encouragement of God’s goodness. Let’s remember to share with others what God is faithfully doing in our lives!
Keep searching the Scriptures to get to know your God personally.
In this verse, I am reminded that My God is Good!
1. Brown, Driver, and Briggs. Brown-Driver-Briggs’ Hebrew Definitions, the electronic version in eSword.