The Lord is With Me!

In the center chapter of the Bible, we find this reminder of the central theme scribed throughout Scripture, “The Lord is with me!” What a profound thought! Is there adversity? Yes! Are there challenges? Continually! Here is the great “but” — but the LORD is with me. What a comforting declaration!

I stop to consider again these words of hope and encouragement. The King of all kings, and Lord of all lords, the exalted God of the universe (Ruler, Deliverer, Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer, Healer …) chooses to be with us. He bends toward us and whispers, “You are not alone. I AM with you.” Who can comprehend anything so amazing? Certainly not I!

“The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? The Lord is with me; he is my helper. I look in triumph on my enemies.”
Psalm 118:6-7

No matter what has happened in the past or what the future may hold, one thing we know with certainty — the Lord is with me, with you, and with us.

God’s Goodness

Before the crescendo of instruments rose in acclamation, the psalmist makes one thing quite clear: no meritorious conduct on our part deserves such honor.

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.”
Psalm 118:1

Humble gratitude becomes us. Out of God’s goodness and unfailing love, He bends oh so low to meet us. We understand love in part; but divine love will always remain beyond what our finite minds can fathom. His goodness, perhaps, is more difficult to articulate.

So, I turn to the theologian, A.W. Tozer, for clarity.

The goodness of God is that which disposes Him to be kind, cordial, benevolent, and full of good will toward men. He is tenderhearted and of quick sympathy, and His unfailing attitude toward all moral beings is open, frank, and friendly … Divine goodness is self-caused, infinite, perfect, and eternal.

and

Nobody ever got anything from God on the ground that he deserved it. Having fallen, man deserves only punishment and death. So if God answers prayer it’s because God is good. From His goodness, His lovingkindness, His good-natured benevolence, God does it! That’s the source of everything.

God demonstrate sympathetic compassion toward us. Sym means “together; while pathy comes from pathos, meaning “feeling or suffering often.” Sympathy, then, is God feeling and suffering along with us — demonstrating in tangible ways His goodness and love.

God is Good

God is good — infinitely good. Allow these passages to affirm such courage-inspiring truth:

• “You (God) are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees” (Psalm 119:68).
• “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him” (Psalm 34:8)
• “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever” (1 Chronicles 16:34)!
• “I say to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing'” (Psalm 16:2).
• “Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have prepared for those who trust in You in the presence of the sons of men” (Psalm 31:19)!

Is God’s goodness beginning to resonate with you? Do you feel the assurance of His infinite goodness, just as the long-ago shepherd psalmist did?

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Psalm 23:6

The word translated as “follow” literally means to pursue and chase down. Can we rightly envision God’s goodness and mercy literally pursuing and chasing us down, to capture and wrap us within it? Or do we wrongly think of God passively looking down from heavenly realms indifferent toward us?

Assurance

Because of nothing more, or less, than His goodness we can be assured that “the Lord is with me!” The Holy Spirit captivated me by these words, as I read and mediated on them this morning. Again and again, I allowed this simple phrase to settle within me, until it bubbled over in childlike worship.

The writers of Scripture were acutely aware of God’s abiding presence. They sensed Him — seeing His hand at work over and in their lives, feeling the power of His Presence, hearing His instruction through audible words, dreams, and visions, touching the hem of His garment for deliverance and healing, and tasting of His merciful goodness. They continually confessed, “The Lord is with me!”

Again, I turn to Tozer:

This idea that God is an absentee engineer running His universe by remote control is all wrong. He is present in perpetual and continuous eagerness, with all the fervor of rapturous love pressing His holy designs.

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
Romans 8:28

Only God can fulfil such a divine declaration! The goodness of God can and will work all things together for our good. We stand unshakeable upon that solid and reliable truth. Any doubt stems from an incomplete understanding of the perfection of God and His limitless goodness toward us. His goodness is just one of the many unchanging attributes which identify Him as God.

Prayer

Oh Father, forgive us for doubting You … for doubting Your goodness. May a settledness come upon us dispelling all loneliness or sense of abandonment. Fill us with the assurance that You are, and will always be, with us. May we breech the gap between frail faith and spiritual strength, knowing that You, O Lord, draw near to all who call upon You with believing hearts. Awaken our spiritual senses to see, hear, touch, taste, and feel Your nearness.
Every blessing we have comes from You. All You have given to us flows out of the deep well of Your abundant goodness. May that reality become the central theme of every aspect of our lives. May we sing with the psalmists of old, “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.”
O gracious, loving Savior, we will not fear, because You are with us. We will triumph through every circumstance, because You, O Lord, are with us.
With joy, we celebrate Your goodness, O Lord!

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(A.W. Tozer references from “The Knowledge of the Holy, Harper One, 1961, pg 82, 83” and “The Attributes of God; Volume 1; A Journey Into the Father’s Heart, Wing Spread Publishers, 1997, pg 47; 44-45”)