Thursday, October 23, 2008

The Good God

Remember the classic chorus God is So Good?

God is so good,
God is so good,
God is so good,
He’s so good to me!


Why sing it?
This song helps us understand some of the dynamics of life within God’s kingdom. In order to have a kingdom you obviously have to have a king. Our King, the One in charge and ruling over us, is that good King we sing about in God is So Good. I love the response of Mr. Beaver in C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe when the children ask him if the Lion (Aslan, which represents Christ) is safe. Mr. Beaver tells the children, “Safe? Who said anything about safe? Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.” How do we know He is good? Because He has revealed it to us through revelation. We have general revelation (e.g., the order of nature) which points toward a Creator and we also have special revelation (e.g., the Word and Jesus).

Through revelation we come to know Him. Through revelation the psalmist of Psalm 139 came to know God. How do we know that? You can tell there is a personal relationship between the two by the vocabulary used in this Psalm (e.g., You have searched me and you know me (v.1), always there for me (vv.7-12), intimately involved in my life (vv.13-18), I’m loyal toYou (19-24), and I offer myself up to You (vv.23-24)). The fruit of this relationship is that the psalmist’s eyes are open to the kingdom of God. His eyes are open to the unseen world.

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