God is Good All the Time — E.A. Johnston

David's Confidence in God's Goodness During Adversity

In Psalm 27, 13, we read, I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Here we find the psalmist reflecting back on a recent deliverance by God. Verse 5 tells us that David was in the midst of tremendous adversity, a time of trouble.

God's Protection in the Time of Trouble

He writes, For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me. He shall set me up on a rock. David was in a jam. David was on the run. David was being hunted like a flea among the rocks by his enemies.

And he was outnumbered, and he was plumb wore out. But David had hope. He had hope in his God. He had seen what God can do for a child of his, and he was resting and trusting in the attributes of God, which in this particular case was God's goodness.

David knew God is good all the time. His word is true, and he is true to his word. God is good all the time, even in the midst of trial and trouble. David has penned this song of deliverance, this testimony to God's goodness as a tribute to God and as a promise to all followers of God who come after him, that even when things look their bleakest and all human resources are gone, there are two truths a believer can hang on, a believer can count on.

Faith as an Anchor in the Storm

God is good, and God is good all the time. David knows that God is a deliverer. David tells us, I had fainted, meaning he never would have made it without God. He'd been killed by his enemies if it were not for God stepping in.

David reminds himself that I had fainted unless I had believed to see. In other words, it was David's faith in God that got him through. His faith in God was not shaken, but his faith was the rock that he stood upon.

David is telling us, I had fainted. Unless I had believed, his faith was his anchor that held him in the storm. He goes on to say, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord. Here, David announces it was the goodness of God that delivered him.

Testifying to God's Deliverance While We Live

David is telling us about God's goodness from personal experience. David was near death in his trial, and death would have surely visited him at the hands of his enemies if God had not stepped in. David says he had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

He was saved from death, and he was penning this psalm while he was still in the land of the living. And that's what we should do as well, friends. We should be actively telling others about our testimony in Christ Jesus while we are still in the land of the living.

When we are gone, our lips will be silent, but they shouldn't be silent now. We should be like David, praising our God for who God is, for his goodness toward us, his goodness and mercy of saving us, his goodness of Jesus going to Calvary to die for us, his goodness in bringing the gospel witness to us, his goodness of his Holy Spirit bringing conviction to us and regeneration to us.

Waiting on the Lord With Courage

God is good all the time. David ends his psalm with the following exhortation, Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. Charles Spurgeon wrote of this psalm that it is a song of cheerful hope, well-fitted for those in trial who have learned how to lean upon the almighty arm.

And I have learned to lean on the almighty arm as well, friends, especially now as I face homelessness for not having the money to pay my landlord his back rent. But I know that my God is good even when my personal situation is not.

God is good all the time. The thought David leaves us is with this, that God is worth waiting for because God is good all the time. Let us pray.