Is the Goodness Gone?
I would have fainted unless I had believed to see the Goodness of the Lord in the land of the living … Wait on the Lord and be of good courage and He will strengthen your heart, wait I say, on the Lord.
Psalm 27:13-14
Hope in the End Time
As Christians, we believe there will be certain events that will take place in the end times. First and foremost, we believe there will be a Judgment. God will, in deed, judge the world because of sin. We also believe that there will be events taking place on the earth prior to the Judgment. Jesus described these times in this manner. “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it also be in the days of the Son of Man.” Luke 17:26. In the days of Noah, people were living wicked lives in the sight of God without any desire to repent or change. Leading up to the time when Noah entered the ark, he preached to the people about turning to God, but they ignored him. That is what the end times will look like. There is something else that the Bible says will happen prior to God’s Judgment. There will be a time of great tribulation. It will be focused on Israel’s suffering, but Israel will not be the only ones suffering during that time. According to the Book of the Revelation, Israel will be under Satanic attack for a seven-year period, where the nations will band together to totally annihilate the Jewish people. This will be their final attack before Jesus Christ returns personally to deliver them with a miraculous rescue. The events that we are now witnessing on the global scale, I believe, are the precursors for these end time events.
During those tumultuous tribulation days, there will also be signs in the heavens and on the earth. Nature will be out of control with what the Bible calls the raging of the sea, earthquakes in various places, famine, and other catastrophic changes in the atmosphere. Revelations even describes calamities that will be coming from the sky above or the heavens, as the hearts of people will be gripped with fear and for looking after those things that are coming upon the earth. Conditions will be so bad, even as God’s plagues are poured out on the earth, that people will want to die, but won’t be able to die for a season, so that they will experience the wrath of God without Mercy. Imagine that level of suffering that people will be seeking death, but death will flee away from them. That will be the essence of hopelessness. Yet, this will be the lot for those who have chosen to deny God and instead choose their own way of life apart from the Savior. Ephesians 2:12, tells us that these are the people who are without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. These will be the beginning of sorrows for many but not for all.
The Believer in Jesus will have Hope in the end times for several reasons. First, God’s Word tells us that Christ will return for His Church. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 is a promise that our Lord Jesus Christ will return to take the Saints to be with Him. We will meet Him in the air. We will meet Him at the sound of the great Trump of God. We will meet the Lord and we will remain with the Lord forever. That event is called the Rapture of the Church and is taken from the meaning of being “caught up” to be with the Lord.
Not only is that a reason for Hope in the end times but to add to that, the Great Tribulation will only last for seven years. Granted, it will be a dreadful and painful time, yet those days are all numbered by the Lord. Do you know what is coming after those tragic end times? It will usher in the Millenium of Christ or the thousand-year reign of the Lord on earth. Do the math. Seven years versus a thousand years. That means that the Saints have something to not only hope for but to also plan for.
What about the people who get saved during the end times? For some who can recall Tim LaHaye’s series, Left Behind, it was based on people who missed the Rapture and were left on the earth during the Tribulation period. It was basically saying that they would be persecuted and killed for putting their faith in Christ. That sounds tragic, doesn’t it? But here is the good news! To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. So there is still hope for those who are saved during the tribulation period. Jesus told us to not fear those who kill the body but cannot destroy the soul … rather fear Him Who can destroy both body and cast the soul into hell.
Applying God’s Gift of Hope
This brings us to the verses in Psalm 27:13-14. There are so many who are becoming discouraged even before the onset of the end times. People are losing heart over the political events of our day. Others are overwhelmed by the health care crisis in our country. People are worried because they don’t know if they will be able to survive the troubles that are bombarding their lives. In the midst of these threats and adversities we are able to discover something amazingly wonderful. God is still God. He is totally unphased by the things that we consider threats. Not only is God not threatened by these events, but His people are secure in all these things. Those who have God’s gift of Hope will triumph over all adversity.
Consider what the Psalmist is saying, then consider what the Psalmist did when he was faced with threats to his own life and wellbeing. I would have fainted unless I had believed to see the Goodness of the Lord in the land of the living … Wait on the Lord and be of good courage and He will strengthen your heart, wait I say, on the Lord. In order to apply the gift of Hope, we must consider this question: Is God’s Goodness Gone? Perhaps the wicked don’t consider this question because they have never been at a point of deep need. Those who have faced life’s treacherous storms know very well the pain of needing God’s Goodness to show up in their life.
It boils down to these three things: confession, admission, and possession. When we ask ourselves, has God’s Goodness Gone, we are making a confession. For the Psalmist, the confession was simple, I would have fainted unless. Confession is really saying to God that we are nothing without Him. Men may boast about their strength, their wealth, or their talents, but where did they get it from? Did not Job make a confession as he went through his struggle? The Lord has given … the Lord has taken away … blessed be the Name of the Lord. Confession is giving God credit for being God. Before we ask God for anything, we should first thank Him for everything. Thank Him that He is the Creator and the Sustainer of Heaven and Earth. Thank Him that you are still alive. Even when you cry out in pain, that is an indication that at least you are still living. Thank God and make your confession that He is God and it is He that has made us and not we ourselves. I would have fainted unless I had believed to see the Goodness of the Lord in the land of the living … Wait on the Lord and be of good courage and He will strengthen your heart, wait I say, on the Lord. No, God’s Goodness is not gone. Confession will give you a fresh look at Grace.
Not only confession, but also admission is needed to give us hope in trying times. This is not the admission of our short-comings and faults, this is an admission of entering into something or drawing near to something that is missing. The Psalmist was seeking admission into one specific thing that would remedy his fainting spell. He was seeking the Goodness of God. Please note that his request is not to be surrounded by God’s Goodness but rather simply to see it. What? Yes, he merely wanted to see God’s Goodness and that would be enough to restore the hope he needed to endure the trial. Unlike our prayers where our desire is to totally escape all affliction and trouble. That is the human response to a crisis. Our prayer is for God’s Goodness to get us out of the mess. By now, the Psalmist had reasoned in himself and understood that going through a trial by seeing God’s Goodness would do something amazing to his spirit. Seeing God’s Goodness would be a drawing power that would so enflame our hope that God’s Goodness would also appear in our character. Rather than losing heart, God is able to strengthen our heart. Rather than giving up on life, God’s Goodness prepares our heart to overcome every trial, every crisis, and every storm. With seeing God’s Goodness we obtain access into a higher plane of living to where we can press on to the Upward Way.
The Bible gives a wonderful example of “seeing God’s Goodness” from the Old Testament. The Israelites had murmured and complained about their journey to the Promised Land so much that the Lord sent fiery serpents among them. When they cried out to God to deliver them, God did not remove the poisonous snakes, but instead gave instructions for Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole. Anyone who looked up at the bronze serpent would live. That bronze serpent became a symbol of God’s Goodness that required only a look of faith. All that was needed was to look up and anyone would be saved. In other words, look and live. Numbers 21:9. Jesus referred to that passage in John 3:14, to demonstrate if people would look to Him, they would see the Goodness of God. Look and live.
The final aspect of seeing the Goodness of God that brings Hope is to recognize that we must possess God’s Goodness in our life. While Hope can be received in a storm, it is best to have it before the storm. Possession means having the Gift of God and remembering why God gave it to you. The closing verse of Psalm 24 is of particular interest at this point. This is where Faith teams up with Hope. The Psalmist remembered that he possessed the gift of believing. He states, unless I had believed to see the Goodness of the Lord in the land of the living … Wait on the Lord and be of good courage and He will strengthen your heart, wait I say, on the Lord. If God has given you and me faith to make it through the test, He is not going to stop the test just because you are afraid. The thing that we should do is to start looking for that missing gift.
The Apostle Paul describes the incredible teamwork of Hope and Faith in Hebrews 11:1. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith says, “I know that God is Good.” Then Hope looks down through the ages and replies, “All the time.” Confession opens the door to admission. Admission then brings us into the realm of possession. You must believe that you have received it and you shall surely have the Goodness of God. You don’t have to see it. You simply must believe. Believe that you have the Goodness of God.
I close with this illustration. With the introduction of the debit card, the financial institution has made it possible for you to transact business without having to carry the cash or the check book. The newer designed debit card has a computer chip that allows you to “Tap” and the payment is instantly applied to your account. That is exactly what Hope does. That hope “taps” into the treasure of God’s Goodness and draws you out a blessing that there is not room enough to receive. You must simply believe it in your heart.
My Hope is built on nothing less than Jesus Blood and Righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ Name.
On Christ the Solid Rock I stand – all other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand.