Copy of Psalm Book PDF

I II. The Creative Goodness of God We might not all agree on what is “good.” I love mushrooms sauteed in butter and two of our kids cannot abide them. Our senses don’t always agree on what is “good.” Yet, there is no question that with all the things in the universe that God has created for His glory and our enjoyment, He is indisputably good! We should learn to know this, experience it, trust it, yes! However, we are also told to engage our senses and survey our lives and conclude that we lack “no good thing.” In other words, survey all that is good and all that is given in your life and know how abundantly better and steadfast is God’s goodness. Reflect: What do I find good in this life? What foods, what comforts, what experiences strike me as “good.” Thank the Lord for His creative goodness on earth. Not one sense we experience or good gift is random, but from His hand. Perhaps make a meal with friends and family that includes your favorite foods and thank the Lord specifically for the gift of good things. Take time to go further in your prayers to acknowledge how fleeting and unsatisfying even our favorite things on the earth are when compared with His goodness. Ask God to help you to be more satisfied in His refuge, in His goodness, than anything else you love and crave. Ask God to help verse 10 be true for your soul. III. The Creative Goodness of God We might not all agree on what is “good.” I love mushrooms sauteed in butter and two of our kids cannot abide them. Our senses don’t always agree on what is “good.” Yet, there is no question that with all the things in the universe that God has created for His glory and our enjoyment, He is indisputably good! We should learn to know this, experience it, trust it, yes! However, we are also told to engage our senses and survey our lives and conclude that we lack “no good thing.” In other words, survey all that is good and all that is given in your life and know how abundantly better and steadfast is God’s goodness. Reflect: What do I find good in this life? What foods, what comforts, what experiences strike me as “good.” Thank the Lord for His creative goodness on earth. Not one sense we experience or good gift is random, but from His hand. Perhaps make a meal with friends and family that includes your favorite foods and thank the Lord specifically for the gift of good things. Take time to go further in your prayers to acknowledge how fleeting and unsatisfying even our favorite things on the earth are when compared with His goodness. Ask God to help you to be more satisfied in His refuge, in His goodness, than anything else you love and crave. Ask God to help verse 10 be true for your soul. V. The Lord’s Character: Who Is The Lord? This part of the psalm declares truths about God’s character. I love in a great book when the author stops in a critical moment of the plot to reveal something about the inner thoughts and nature of the main character–reminding of the reason you love this character and getting an inner look at their heart. God is revealing something about His character here to David, and we get to stop and just reflect on what God is telling us about His heart here. It’s such a critical discipline to remind ourselves about who God is. He tells us who He is in His word. Thus, we can “catechize” our hearts with His word. Or more simply put, we can ask the question: “Who is the Lord? What is He like” and let God’s own word answer. But why should we do this? Simply put, we don’t always “feel” the truths about God. Sometimes in the storms of life, we don’t “feel” that God is hearing us or near to us. Repeating and proclaiming the truth of God’s character is how we survive the “don’t feel it seasons” so that the truth that God’s eye “IS on the righteous,” that the Lord “HEARS AND RESCUES,” that “the Lord IS near the brokenhearted” will overcome our “feelings”. Reflect: Name some of God’s characteristics from God’s word and this psalm. Who does God say He is? What character of God do you most need to remember and repeat in this season?

8 Taste and see that the Lord is good. How happy is the person who takes refuge in him! 9 You who are his holy ones, fear the Lord, for those who fear him lack nothing. 10 Young lions lack food and go hungry, but those who seek the Lord will not lack any good thing.

11 Come, children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. 12 Who is someone who desires life, loving a long life to enjoy what is good? 13 Keep your tongue from evil

and your lips from deceitful speech.

14 Turn away from evil and do what is good; seek peace and pursue it.

15 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry for help. 16 The face of the Lord is set against those who do what is evil, to remove all memory of them from the earth. 17 The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and rescues them from all their troubles. 18 The Lord is near the brokenhearted; he saves those crushed in spirit.