"I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living!" Psalm 27:13
Where can we find the goodness of the Lord? It's a question I've been pondering lately. I have often taken this hopeful statement of David's and interpreted it as gifts or blessing from the Lord. I've filled in the nebulous phrase with my personal list of desires: comfort, freedom from suffering, plenty of money, a comfortable home, and certainly no cancer for me or anyone I love. These are my version of the good life; the things I think I am owed.
But is this what David is writing about or have I interpreted his words in accordance with the American dream instead of the voice of scripture?
Certainly, all the things I listed are good. They are snapshots of the Hebrew concept of "shalom" in which all is well, at peace, and in harmony. Shalom between God, man and nature is what we crave. It's what we were made for.
The trouble is that shalom is hard to find here in "the land of the living". Live long enough, and we all learn that there are no guarantees in life. Houses burn, cells mutate into cancer, and relationships are destroyed by conflict. The stock market crashes, companies go under, and suffering inevitably comes.
David knew suffering far more deeply than I. He lived in a time without anesthesia or antibiotics. He lived on the run and came into power only to watch his legacy be destroyed by his sin. He had no grand illusions that death was benign or prosperity secure. He knew how tenuous life could be.
It leaves me wondering what he means when he talks about the goodness of the Lord and how he could feel so confident as he looked toward an unknown future. Yes, God did provide blessings to David, but not all was well. He didn't experience lasting shalom on this earth.
But what if David wasn't looking with confidence at temporal blessings ahead but rather at the experience of God's presence with him no matter what came? Earlier in Psalm 27 he wrote, "One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple" (vs. 4).
What if he really did seek God's presence above all else?
What if the goodness of the Lord is actually the Lord's goodness. What if the goodness David hoped in wasn't earthly prosperity but Divine mercy, steadfast love, perfect faithfulness, sovereign rule, sustaining grace and saving power?
These are things we can experience in life even on our worst days. These are the promises of God that are intrinsic to his character and cannot be destroyed by illness, war or pain. The gifts God gave to David - and the gifts he gives to me - simply point me to His goodness. The gifts aren't promised, and they aren't Him. But when betrayal comes, relationships end, money is lost, loved ones die, and war comes - God's goodness will still be there. The goodness of the Lord never fails, no matter what life brings.
So today I am reorienting my heart to see His goodness: not in what He gives me but simply in who He is.
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