Psalms 100:4,5 Bless His name, for the Lord is good, His steadfast love endures forever, His faithfulness to all generations
Three BIG character traits or attributes of God are mentioned in the last verse of this great little Psalm. The first is: GOD is good. The second is: His steadfast love endures forever. The third is: His faithfulness endures throughout all generations.
These truths form the foundation of a belief structure that enables us to endure the ‘winds and the rains’ that beat upon the houses of our lives’. We MUST know, understand and come to a firm conviction that these three ‘truths’ are true, and that they are ‘true for us’.
If we don’t believe that God is good and has our ‘best interests’ at heart, then it will be hard to believe and accept that He loves us. The ‘goodness of God’ is bedrock and foundational to all of life. Bad things WILL happen to us. Evil happens in the world. Plans will NOT go according to our best intentions. People will fail us. Despite our best intentions, we will fail and sin. Satan will NOT leave us unmolested. Yet, in spite of whatever happens in life, if we wrap ourselves with this great truth, we can maintain HOPE. We can cling to God and continue to cleave to Him in the midst of the hardest of times.
Closely related to this is that God’s steadfast love never ends. We MUST know, understand, accept and live on this great truth: GOD LOVES ME. God will never stop loving me. His love for me is not based on my performance. It is not based on the consistency of my ‘walk with Him’. It is based on the immutable nature of God Himself. I must accept this by faith and not live on ‘feelings’.
The last great truth in this verse is that God is FAITHFUL. His faithfulness endures. His faithfulness is not contingent upon my faithfulness. Rom. 3 says, “What if some were unfaithful, does my faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means…” This is such an incredible truth. Add this to God’s goodness and God’s love, this triad of truth can and will sustain us through all the storms of life. They form the basis of our joy and our hope.
