“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the LORD say this.”
Psalm 107:1-2
It was a dull Saturday. My spirits were drooping, and it was all I could do to fight off depression. A corset riding high was digging into my ribs, forcing me to draw deep breaths now and then. And when I did, I would say, “The Lord is good.” Somewhere after the fifth “Lord is good,” my friend turned and gave a good-natured dig, asking, “What are you doing? Trying to convince yourself?”
“You’ve got it,” I replied. It’s not that I doubted God’s goodness; I simply wanted to remind my dry, cracked soul of the truth. David, the psalmist, often grabbed his innermost being by the scruff of the neck, demanding, “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God” (Ps. 42:5-6). It’s easy to announce God’s goodness when your spirits are soaring; it’s another thing—a more God-glorifying thing—to proclaim the goodness of God out loud when you’re under the weather.
Voicing the goodness of God is a testimony not only to your downcast soul but to others listening in. And not just people but powers and principalities who stand on tiptoe to see what you have to say about your Savior when times are tough. “Let the redeemed of the LORD say this,” our verse today advises. Find moments today to speak aloud of the goodness of God, no matter what your emotions insist.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it; prone to leave the God I love. This describes me to a tee. But not today. Today I insist that my soul listen. The Lord is good.
