The Great Goodness Which Has Been Laid Up for Them That Fear the Lord

When David pens this psalm, he is surrounded by great trials. He begs the Lord for help. He is very afraid. His eye is consumed with grief, and his life has wasted away because of sorrow. His enemies mock him, and there is fear on every side. Yet, in all of his anxiety and sorrow there is in his soul a great trust upon the God of the covenant, who is the Faithful One. That is a faith which manifests itself most gloriously when a soul is in the depths of strife and temptations. Where is that trusting faith most exercised? In the depths.

We also note that here with David. That trust gives him the boldness to call out, “But I trusted in Thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my God.” How blessed are they, who with David, amidst all of the strife, temptations, and times of darkness, may place their trust in that God, who never forsakes the work of His own hands.

David was able to exercise the same trust when upon the ruins of Ziklag as we can read, “But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.” That gives strength, courage and hope upon God. Then while under the cross, in depths and in strife we will say,

My soul, in silence wait for God;

He is my help approved,

He only is my rock and tow’r,

And I shall not be moved.

We will realize that this is not a fruit of our own field. It is grace alone. It is the fruit only of the work of David’s greatest Son, of the mediatorial work of Christ. He had cast Himself upon His holy Father in a perfect and complete submission when He hung in the depths of God’s abandonment. When His Father hid His face from Him, He clung unto God even more fervently! Hear Him cry out: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Even when He is hanging in the depths of darkness, we still hear Him cry out, “My God!” That is a perfect trust. He has exercised that trust as Surety and Substitute to atone for the trust and unbelief which is so often found in God’s children. It is also the great Son of David whom we encounter in this psalm.

The psalms are full of references to Christ. That is also the case with this psalm. While on the cross, Christ took upon His lips words out of this psalm, namely, the first part of verse 5, “Into Thine hand I commit My Spirit.”

When David and God’s children may exercise trust by faith which casts itself unconditionally upon the God of salvation, then it is a fruit of the mediatorial work of David’s greatest Son only. It is conquering and drawing grace only. When flesh and blood come to the foreground, that trust is not there; rather, there is rebellion, enmity, and distrust.

Here David, in one of the most difficult circumstances in his life (it is likely that he has composed this psalm when he had to flee from Absalom, his son) cast himself upon the God of the covenant. That had given him so much courage and strength, that while in the depths, and from out of the depths, he praises the Lord for His loving kindness. He therefore calls out, “Oh, how great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee.”

What is that good? “Thy good,” says David. We can also translate it as follows, “The good that comes from Thee.” It is not the good of the world, but this good comes from God. The good of the world may shine and glitter before our eyes, but, ultimately, it will vanish. It is just tinsel. Keep that in mind.

Perhaps some are pursuing the goods of the world, and by nature we all do that. We pursue gold and silver, a good position, a good name, some praise and some honor, but keep in mind that the goods of the world can never satisfy our soul. “For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world but lose his soul?” At death we will have to part with all of our earthly goods.

The good, however, of which David speaks, we can carry with us through death and into the grave. That is a good for eternity. It comes from God, it comes from eternity, and it comes back in eternity. That good can never be lost, but it is kept safely in the hands of God. It is the good which shall never perish. It is the eternal salvation—salvation which God has thought out already for His people in all eternity, which Christ has merited in His suffering and death, which is applied by the Holy Spirit in the hearts of sinners.

Have we already learned to seek that good, or are we still seeking the goods of the earth? With the goods of the earth we will perish eternally. That is what the rich fool tried to do. He wanted to fill his barns with all of the earthly goods, but the Lord spoke, “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.” Then death came, and he could take nothing with him; it was eternally too late.

God’s Word calls out to us, “Seek those things which are above.” David therefore does not speak about the goods of the earth but about the good which comes from God. He is speaking about salvation. What is salvation? It is to be delivered from the greatest evil, namely, sin and the separation from God’s Spirit and His communion and to be brought to the highest good, namely, eternal salvation.

David cannot find the words to express how great that good is. That is why he calls out, “Oh how great is Thy goodness.” Human words are too poor to express the excellent worth of that good. What an excellent good! It is present in the rebirth and in conversion, in faith and trust, in justification and sanctification. There is peace with God upon the grounds of His justice and complete deliverance. In short, it contains everything that enables one to live in comfort and soon to die in peace.

He who may have this good as his portion has everything. Yea, he has a Triune God as his portion, and he has as his portion eternal life. Yea, such a person has everything which is needed for time and eternity.

Is it any wonder that David does not have words to express this great good? He may look upon this good beyond all of the circumstances in his life, and therefore he calls out, “Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.”

In order to merit this good, Christ has offered Himself before the foundation of the world to do the will and good pleasure of His Father. In order to merit this good, Christ has emptied the cup of His suffering to the last drop, He has as our substitute glorified God’s attributes, He has shed His blood upon Golgotha. In order to merit this good, He also arose from the dead, ascended up to His Father, and is now exalted at the right hand of the majesty of God. As the exalted Majesty He is also the great Applier of that good. We should note closely, He is not only the Meritor but also the Applier of salvation.

By nature, we do not possess that good. We stand in this world outside of God without any hope. We are dead in sins and trespasses, and we stand for our own account. That is why this good must be applied. If Christ was not the Applier of salvation then it would still be eternally lost. Now He Himself applies salvation by means of the Holy Spirit. In this way He grants life unto a dead sinner. He begins to convince us that we are missing this good. Do we know something of that? When the Holy Spirit begins to convince us, then it becomes the burden of our soul, “I am missing that good! I am living without God and am without hope in this world. I cannot die, for I must meet God.

The Spirit of Christ teaches us to seek for that good and causes us to call and beseech God from out of the depths of our lost state.

O Lord, remember me in grace,

Let me salvation see;

The grace Thou showest to Thy saints,

That grace reveal to me.

It is the Holy Spirit which makes place in our heart for this good in a way of uncovering and discovering. Then we will no longer have any ground under our feet. All that remains is a naked poor sinner who cannot exist before God’s justice but who also cannot live without God.

According to our nature this good has no value, but for such an emptied sinner it becomes eminently valuable. What a wonder it is when our eyes may be opened for the possibility of being saved and the possibility to have this good as our portion.

The wonder becomes even greater when He, who has merited this good, begins to reveal Himself to our soul and to expound out of His gospel His willingness to apply this good unto us in His all-sufficiency and necessity. Oh, how desirable then Christ and His good become. A longing is born to be clothed with His righteousness, to receive the remission of sins in His blood, and to receive that good for our portion. Again it is the Holy Spirit which grants that faith which unites with Christ—that casts itself upon Christ and may embrace Him with the conscientiousness of the soul. What a wonder when we may, with an assured faith, embrace Christ and the good which He has merited by the applying and confirming work of His Spirit.

Then we will call out, “Now I have found a Mediator for all of my sins.” Where once we had to go lost under the justice of God, now we receive the peace with God in the glorification of His justice, only through the merits of Christ. May God’s children more and more seek to make their calling and election sure.

How great is that good which the Lord has laid away for all those that fear Him. That good is therefore the portion of all those who fear the Lord with a childlike fear. Even if there may be differences in the exercise of faith, even if the one may have seen more of that good than another, yet it is the portion of all those who in the beginning or in continuance learned to fear Him. In this way David takes along all of God’s Church, both the great and the small.

This good is laid away for all of God’s children. Can they always see that? The days of darkness are many. David could not always see it either. When he called out, “I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul,” he did not see this good. There is so much unbelief, so much doubt. Satan does not sit still; inside the mockers say, “You have no salvation by God, you will yet perish.” However, this good is preserved by God; it is kept safely by Him in His storehouses. There the devil can never reach it. Soon it will be the eternal perfect and complete portion of all those who fear the Lord.

How great, then, is this good: justification, sanctification, reconciliation, peace, yea, a complete deliverance. What is the greatest good? To walk eternally in communion with God.

Is that good also our portion? It is the portion of those who fear Him; God’s storehouses are filled with abundance. That great good is still proposed to us and offered from God’s side. This good is still available, for it is still the day of grace. And He who had merited this good still calls out to us, “Look unto Me, and be ye saved.”

Should you, then, only seek for the good of this earth? Woe it is if we will not have considered such a great salvation.

Deze tekst is geautomatiseerd gemaakt en kan nog fouten bevatten. Digibron werkt voortdurend aan correctie. Klik voor het origineel door naar de pdf. Voor opmerkingen, vragen, informatie: contact.

Op Digibron -en alle daarin opgenomen content- is het databankrecht van toepassing. Gebruiksvoorwaarden. Data protection law applies to Digibron and the content of this database. Terms of use.

Printen