Praising God for His Goodness

There is a verse of scripture found in Psalm 107 and verse 15 which states, Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. And it ends with a exclamation point stating this truth about God's goodness, that it should be shouted to all who can hear. My message today, friends, is entitled, Praising God for His Goodness.

For I intend to prove three things that, number one, God is good in good times. Number two, God is good in hard times. And number three, God is good all the time.

Well, let's look at this attribute of God's goodness as seen in the statement that God is good in good times. There are many mentions in the Bible about the goodness of God in good times. In Exodus, we see how God was blessing his people.

He delivered them out of Egypt. He brought them out through danger. And he gave them his commandments to live by in their new land.

His goodness is seen in his great care over them. Exodus 34, 6, we hear God proclaim about himself to Moses. And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth.

The fact that God's goodness is abundant to us in good times is evident for praising God for his goodness. But God, friends, is also good in hard times. Even if our circumstances are against us and the world as we know it is coming down upon us through adversity and afflictions, we can rest in the knowledge that God is good in hard times.

All one has to do is to take a look at Joseph in that Egyptian prison. His hopes of release are diminishing day by day until he gets two companions shut up in there with him. Pharaoh's butler and his baker become his cellmates.

They each dream a dream, and Joseph interprets it for them. And Joseph says to the butler, But think on me, when it shall be well with thee, and show kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house. But the text in Genesis 40, 23 says, Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgot him.

Now let me ask you a question, friend. Do you think the devil came along into Joseph's cell while he rotted there for the next two years and whispered in his ear daily that not only had man forgotten him, but that God had forgotten him as well? You better believe, friends, that when all is against you and your world is crashing down all around you and the devil is telling you that God has forgotten about you, that there stands the biblical truth that God is good in hard times. God is good, no matter what our circumstances are.

God was still good when Joseph was in hard times because God was in control at all times. God in his goodness was preparing Joseph to lead a nation and save thousands from starvation. But first, Joseph had to be cast into a pit and a prison before he could be exalted as a prince of Egypt.

Praising God for his goodness should not cease in our lives because of our circumstances, because God is good all the time. Romans 8, 28 declares, And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called, according to his purpose. I remember Stephen Offord relating that he had an uncle who was a pharmacist in England, and one day Stephen Offord went to see him at his shop.

He found him in a back room, huddled over some bottles and bowls, and he watched him as he poured a little of this chemical and a little of that into a mixing bowl and stirred it all together as a medicine for healing. And Stephen Offord said that God is just like that. He's a divine alchemist who mixes a little of this and a little of that in our life, in our life's circumstances, and brings it all together for our good.

But why is that, friends? Because God is a God of goodness, and we must be praising God for his goodness because God is good in the good times, and God is good in the hard times because God is good all the time. Let us pray.