The Lord is Good

Psalm 100v5

22^nd August 2025

This is the fifth and last in our verse-by-verse studies of Psalm 100. This lovely Psalm ends with the words:

Psalm 100v5
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

In this verse, the Psalmist tells us why we should praise God. First he says, "For the Lord is good". The Hebrew word here, tob, is a general one and occurs 489 times in the Old Testament. It can mean "morally good", "of good quality", or "pleasing, gracious, kind etc." just as we can talk in English about a good person, or a good meal, or a good car, or a good afternoon out. God is good in every way. He's morally good – morally perfect. He never does the wrong thing. God is beautiful. He's 100% pure. He's generous, kind, wise, patient, forgiving. Those who know that the Lord is God (verse 3) will want to experience Him, and to worship Him in the assembly of His people:

Psalm 27v4
One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
and to seek him in his temple.

We praise and worship God because He's good, perfect in every way. As the people of Israel sang in:

Exodus 15v11
Who is like you, O Lord among the gods?
Who is like you, majestic in holiness,
awesome in glorious deeds,
doing wonders?

Verse 5 continues, "and his love endures forever". God's character is constant. His love doesn't change like shifting sands. It's permanent. We've probably all been let down, betrayed by people who we thought loved us, but whose love didn't endure, or turned out to be an illusion. But we're guaranteed that the God who loved us so much He sent His Son to die for us will always love us. He's adopted us as His children. We're part of His family now and for all eternity.

The psalm ends by saying "His faithfulness continues through all generations." God's faithfulness will never change:

God is faithful to His covenant. Until Christ returns, everybody who repents of their sin, their rebellion against God, their independence, and believes in the power of Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross to set them free from sin, will be saved.
God is faithful to His promises. God never lies. God never says something He doesn't mean. God will fulfil every promise in the Bible, including the ones we've been looking in this series of studies.
God is faithful to His people. You and I aren’t always faithful. But God is. He will never stop loving the people Jesus died to redeem. In Hebrews 13v5 God tells us "… I will never leave you. I will never forsake you." And He means it.

Hallelujah!

When we consider the character of God, the mercies of God, the holiness of God, how can we not be joyful, despite our afflictions? How can we not give thanks that such a holy God was willing to send His Son to die so that we could be forgiven and inherit eternal life? How can we not praise His holy name? How can we not give our lives in His service?

Well… the sad truth is that we're all capable of losing our joy, of neglecting our responsibilities towards God, of losing our gratitude to Him. That's dreadful, but it's true. We need Bible passages like this Psalm to remind us. We need regular communal worship. That is, we need to come on Sunday mornings. We need times of private prayer and worship. We need each other's encouragement. We need to remember that the Lord is God, that He is truly magnificent, awesome, holy, righteous, forgiving and full of grace.

Let us pray, and worship, and work, towards the fulfilment of God’s plan that one day all the earth will shout for joy to the Lord (verse 1). Let’s all do our bit, even though our contribution may seem and humble, so that when we stand in glory, each one of us can say, "I didn’t do much but I did do this", and no-one among us will have to say, "I didn’t do anything because I didn’t think my service to God could make a difference." Make a difference. God will enable you, and encourage you, and empower you, and lead you to make a difference. Let’s all make a difference.

Hebrews 12v1-2
… let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith…

Amen.