How often do you give thanks to God?  As Christians, we have more things to be thankful for than we can innumerate, including many things that we take for granted and to which we give little thought.  One of those things is the goodness of God.  

Psalm 118:1-4 (ESV)
¹ Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! Let Israel say, “His steadfast love endures forever.” ³ Let the house of Aaron say, “His steadfast love endures forever.” ⁴ Let those who fear the LORD say, “His steadfast love endures forever.”

When is the last time you thanked God for His goodness when you prayed?  Imagine what it would be like if God was not good all the time.  Even if we served a God who was good only most of the time, we would be in trouble.  Think about the danger we would be in if God lost His temper unjustly occasionally.  Sometimes the best of men “get up on the wrong side of the bed.”  I am talking about people who are always good, pleasant, and kind, but once in a while, even they get grumpy and irritable and lash out uncharacteristically.

What if God was like that? Let us not forget how powerful God is. He created the heavens and the earth just by the power of His word.  Job acknowledged the power of God by writing the following:

“² I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2 ESV).

Jeremiah also expressed an understanding of the omnipotence of God.

“¹⁷ ‘Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you” (Jeremiah 32:17 ESV).  

What do you think would become of us if a God like that (a God who is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent) was sometimes bad?  We cannot say for sure since God is inherently good, but we know it probably would not turn out very well for us.  Thankfully, we do not have to worry about that because God is good all the time.

Four times in Psalm 118:1-4, the Psalmist declared that the steadfast love of God endures forever.  Having enduring love is a part of God’s goodness.  That is telling us, not only that God’s love never fades, but that it causes Him to endure us when we are at our worst.  That does not mean that God tolerates our sins, but, due to His longsuffering love, He forgives us of them when we repent.  It does not matter what we do or how often we do it, when we sincerely repent of our sins, God remembers them no more (Hebrews 8:12).  Why?  Because of His goodness.  It is out of His unmatchable goodness and love, that God is so willing to forgive us when we sin.

Are you glad that you serve a God who is good all the time?  We all should be.  We do not have to worry about God getting up on the wrong side of the bed.  We do not have to worry about God having a bad day.  Every minute of every hour God is good.  His goodness is one of the most reliable things we have in our relationship with God.  We can always count on it.

Psalm 31:19 (ESV)
¹⁹  Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind!

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.