You Are My Only Good
- Cathrine Schmelzer
- Nov 29, 2024
- 3 min read
“So when we look at God, but also the truth that for the believer we are able to be in a relationship with that perfect God, we can truly say ‘I have no good apart from you.’”
“I said to the LORD, ‘You are my Lord; I have nothing good besides you.’” Psalm 16:2 (CSB)
You may have noticed the difference between the way the word Lord appears in the first verse. The first time it is used, it appears as “LORD”, while the second time it says “Lord”. What’s the difference? LORD is the proper title for the one true God. In Hebrew, Jehovah is the name of the God who existed before creation. To make it a little more complicated, Jews did not pronounce the vowels, which results in the title Yahweh as well. And Jews felt the word Yahweh was so holy, they did not dare to say it out loud. Then, when we see Lord used, it is a replacement for LORD because Jews were showing reverence by not saying God’s name. So what David is saying in the first verse reveals a couple things about God and about David as a follower of God.
First, we see God is the creator of everything. He existed before anything else, which we see in the first verse of Scripture, which declares, “In the beginning, God created.” What existed before the beginning? God. He exists outside of time, and because of this He is the one true God. In David calling God both LORD and Lord, he is revealing his posture of humility and reverence toward God, who is his savior.
In verse 2 when David says “good” it is translated as benefit, welfare, bounty, happiness, or good things. David is declaring God is his only good. In his life nothing compares to the goodness he finds in his Lord. Paul echoes these words in Philippians 3:7-8, “But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ.”
How can David and Paul claim this? Certainly there are some good things in our life we can count as good, even in the light of God’s goodness. Yet these verses from Psalm 16 are urging us to consider that God is our only good. This is possible because of our belief in God as the supreme, worthy, and holy God that He is. So when we look at God, but also the truth that for the believer we are able to be in a relationship with that perfect God, we can truly say “I have no good apart from you."
Do you have this type of reverence for Christ? Do you consider everything good in your life to count as nothing compared to the worth of knowing your savior? I pray we would grow in our ability to worship the Lord rightly and hold the things in our life with an eternal perspective. Not only that, but may how we live and order our lives, meaning how we spend our resources and how we make our schedules, reflect the greatness of God and the good He mercifully and graciously chooses to show towards us each day.
Action Steps:
Spend time in prayer or worshiping God in a posture that shows reverence towards Him. Pray on your knees or with outstretched arms. We are embodied souls, and what we do with our bodies can reflect what is going on in our hearts.
Take a reflective look at your weekly schedule. If someone else were to look at how you are spending your days, would they say your life reflects the passions and priorities of Christ? If that is not the case, repent, and ask the Lord to reorder your priorities and give you an eternal perspective.
Written by Michelle, mom of 1