Amen. We need grace to trust Him more, right? Isn't it wonderful to know that you can learn to trust? He can teach us. Let's turn our Bibles to Psalm 145. Psalm 145. And I want us to contemplate and think and ask God to help us and change us in regard to understanding the goodness of God. Now, remember Romans says what? That the goodness of God leads to what? Repentance. And people perceive the goodness of God through what he does, through his mighty and what we might call mundane acts. But they also perceive the goodness of God in his people who are walking in the good way. And that theme is all over the scripture and has just lately really captivated my heart. and seeing those two things come together, the goodness of God and God wanting to shepherd me and all of us into walking in His good ways, or the good way. Let's look at Psalm 145. This is what they have called a summary psalm. after all the most immediate preceding Psalms that were all about asking God for things. They were supplications and asking God for certain petitions. And right before this were what they call a lot of lamentations, sorrowful songs. And then you come up to Psalm 145 and it kind of summarizes these great themes that I've been talking about, and you would expect some of that other to enter in, but Noah kind of concludes in this. And then look in your Bible real quick. Psalm 146 to the end, they all begin with what? Praise the Lord. What's that in Hebrew? Hallelujah. Each one, praise the Lord. Psalm 147, praise the Lord. Psalm 148, praise the Lord. Psalm 149, praise the Lord. Psalm 150, praise the Lord. And those praises, many have argued, are the therefore of Psalm 145. Let's read those first nine verses. Psalm 145, I will extol you, my God, O King. I will bless your name forever and ever. Every day, I will bless you. Now, you catch that? Going to do it in continuity into the future, but going to do it what? Continually every day, every day. I will pray and I will praise your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord and highly to be praised and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts. on the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wonderful works, I will meditate. Men shall speak of the power of your awesome acts, and I will tell of your greatness. They shall eagerly utter the memory of your abundant goodness." You see that now? The memory of your, not just goodness, but your what? Abundant. goodness and will shout joyfully of your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and great in loving kindness. The Lord is good to all and his mercies are over all his works. The rest of the song goes on, and it's wonderful, and I want you to scan it. We're going to scan it briefly tonight. But listen to what he said. This central theme is God is what? Three G's. He's great, He's gracious, and He's good. And do you see how they all follow one upon the other? How do you know God is great? Well, you wouldn't intuitively come up with this. But He's great because He's gracious, when He doesn't need to be gracious. He's under no obligation to be gracious, and yet His extending of grace shows how great He is. And both of those tell us what? That he's good. Fundamentally good. He's a good God. And this is also important. It's the central theme. The rabbis used to teach that if you recited this psalm, Psalm 45, three times. Now this is kind of crazy. They thought kind of crazy, as Josh has helped us to understand. But they said this would prove that you're a citizen of heaven. You could just recite it three times. Wouldn't that be nice if that's all it took? It says, or others said, no, it's not about that. It's the preparing you for the kingdom of heaven. If you recite this psalm every day, three times. This is how central these things are. This is how important they are. Look at verse nine. God is good. What's the scope of that? He's good to all. He sends His reign on the who? On the just and the unjust. That's how good He is. You wouldn't expect Him to. And yet He does. He's good to all. And His mercies are over, not some of His works, but all of His works. There's a comprehensive nature in this psalm about God's goodness. He's altogether good. He's good over everything. He's all the time good. God is good. Verse 7, look what it says, We shall eagerly utter the memory of your abundant goodness. The memory, isn't that interesting? What's the memory? It's the things that stick. It's the things that stand out to us over time. It's the things that we remember. And he says, and I'm just not going to tell it, but I'm going to eagerly tell of God's abundant goodness. What is that? Well, if we took time to go through the psalm, look at verse 14, just scan it with me as I call them out. He sustains all who fall. Let me ask you, how many of you have fallen in here? It's good to be sustained. Amen? God sustains those who fall. And He raises up the bowed down. Think of our daughter of Abraham this morning. 18 years. And He stood her upright after 18 years. Isn't that glorious? What do we call that? That's the goodness of God. That's the wonder. That's the power of His might. Verse 15, He gives food in due time. I like that, in due time. Verse 16, He satisfies the desire of every person. No, what? Every living thing. Have you thought about God, thought about Him taking care of the plants, of the plants alive? It's God, the goodness of God, that satisfies the desire of every living thing. What do plants need? Chlorophyll. You ever think of that? This is how good God is. Verse 17, He's righteous and kind in all His deeds. Righteousness and kindness in not most of His deeds, but in all of His deeds. In verse 18, He's near, and not just near to us, but what? He saves us. Verse 19. Verse 20, He keeps us, and notice this, but the wicked He what? Destroys. And let me tell you, that's a good thing. That's a good thing. Without getting political, understand me, I don't care what politics you follow. But when we have a national convention, celebrate 24 abortions that they made provision for. And not just do that, but to celebrate it. I tell you, that's a culture of death that goes beyond me. Takes my breath away. And to think that one day God is going to destroy all the wickedness. The wickedness it takes those young innocent lives before they can even breathe. He keeps, but he destroys. And that indeed is a good thing. And so in this psalm, the psalmist shows us, well how are we to respond to the goodness of God? Catch this really quick. Verse 1, we're to extol it. We're to extol, I will extol you my God, O King. What's the word extol mean? I like it. It just means to lift up in order to draw attention to it. That's to extol it, to lift it up. I will extol you, my God. Verse 2, I'll bless and praise. How long? Forever and ever. I'll declare, verse 4, to each generation and to the next generation. I'm so grateful for that curriculum, Sean, that you are intending to use with the young people because of how it is patterned to the next generation, these important truths, and to teach them to them. And so we're going to, in verse 4, the psalmist says we're going to declare to each generation, to the next generation. Verse 5, he says we're going to meditate on the goodness of God. How does he say it? On the splendor of your majesty. Not just your majesty, but the splendor of the wonder of your works, of your awesome acts. Verse 6, we're going to speak of the power of those acts. Of the splendor, of the wonder, not just of the goodness of God and the deeds of God, but how they impact this world. They take our breath away. He says, I'm going to meditate on your greatness. And it's such greatness, it says what? It demands what? Declaration and meditation and explanation to the nth degree, to exhaustion, and understand. Verse three, the end of verse three, what did he say? Great is the Lord, highly to be praised, but what did he say? And his greatness is unsearchable. But do you hear the psalmist? He's trying to search it all out. He's trying to tell us to declare it, to meditate on it, to explain it. Spurgeon said about the unsearchable riches of Christ, what did he say? He said they're beyond the calculation of arithmetic. He said, they're beyond the measurement of reason. They're beyond the dreams of imagination. They're beyond the eloquence of words. Guys, this is the goodness of God. It's unsearchable. We try to write it down. We try to explain it. We try to give pictures of it. We sing about it. But it's inexhaustible and we need the grace of God for us to fully comprehend it and for it to change the way we think and the way we live. and how we talk. Listen to verse 7. How are we to respond to the goodness of God? We are to shout joyfully of His righteousness. Such abundant, what does he say, goodness. Verse 15, he says the eyes of all look to you. What should we do in response to the goodness of God? We ought to look to God. We ought never to look to anything else to provide our needs. Verse 16, he says he has the open hand which satisfies us. How much of our longing is because we're not satisfied? And he says everyone on the earth, everyone in the world will look to him because he alone can satisfy. Now these principles are the very principles we see in another major portion of Scripture, teaching of Scripture. And they're the principles behind, if you will, the reason for the temple. Turn with me back to 1 Kings. Go back to 1 Kings, chapter 8. And if you'll remember and scan this, this is Solomon's dedication when he finally built The temple for the Lord that his dad had aspired to build wasn't allowed to build and it was given to Solomon to do that. And he acknowledges in this, he says, would God live in such a building, the great God of heaven? There's nothing here that we could build that could contain him, and yet this was such a gorgeous and a beautiful building. They were dedicating it, they were all excited about it. And the point as you get into that is that the temple is going to be God's point of contact. with His people Israel, and not just with His people Israel, but even the foreigners that will turn to this place which God has given to His name, and they're going to cry out. And it's the point of contact. And in his dedication of this, look at verse 36 for just an example. In verse 36 he says, verse 35 he explains, when the heavens are shut up and we're in great need, there's no rain. Verse 36 he says what? He says, and when, after verse 35, after we pray towards this place, confess your name and turn from our sin, when you afflict them, then what? Here's the point of contact. Then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants and of your people Israel. Indeed, teach them the good way in which they should walk. And send rain on your land which you have given your people for an inheritance. And if you'll scan that, beginning in verse 31, there are all these couplets, if you will. If something happens and we're in need, and it's because of our own fault, and we turn from our sin, then what? Hear from heaven. And what? Forgive our sins. And then what? And act upon whatever this great need is. Look at it, verse 37, if there's famine in the land, verse 39, then here in heaven, verse 41, and concerning the foreigner who is not of your people Israel, when he comes from a far country for your namesake, For they will hear of your great name, and your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm. And when he comes and prays towards this house, hear in heaven your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you. Why? In order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, to fear you as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house, which I have built, is called by your name. Now think about that. The global evangelistic nature of the temple of God was that everyone would hear about the goodness and glory and the greatness of God and they'll say like the Queen of Sheba, we need to go up there and see it for ourselves. And coming up He said, God, would you hear them? They're not your people. But would you hear them and forgive them and grant them to know? Look at verse 44, when your people go out to do battle. Hear from heaven, verse 46, when they sin against you, for there is what? No man who does not sin. And so when they go out and they're about to be penalized and punished for their sins, and you are angry with them and deliver them to an enemy, so to take them away, capture the land of the enemy, far off or near, If they take thought in the land where they have been taken captive and repent and make supplication to you in the land of those who have taken them captive saying, we have sinned and have committed iniquity, we have acted wickedly. If they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land, what? Then verse 49, hear their prayer. and their supplication in heaven, your dwelling place, and maintain their cause. Do they deserve their cause to be maintained? Do we? No. And forgive your people, verse 50, who have sinned against you and all their transgressions, which they have transgressed against you, and make them objects of compassion before those who have taken them captive, whom God has raised up to be their punishers. See how good God is that he would allow all of that to take place? after we've seen? I really want to impress that upon us, that we don't understand the goodness of God until we understand how undeserving we are of the goodness of God. And when we can understand that, that's what magnifies His goodness, is that He, to someone like me, would be steadfast in loving kindness and forgiving. He says, Lord, at the point of contact, forgive, not only forgive them, but indeed teach them what? Verse 36, the good way in which they should or they ought to walk. See guys, there's a good way in which we ought to live. Why? Not just because we owe it to the Savior, but because That's what He's created us to do. He's ordained good deeds for us to walk in. And it's not just about us trusting Christ and being saved and waiting until we get to go to heaven. No, He has a plan for us, a cause and a purpose for us in which to live. And it's called the good way we ought to walk or we should walk in. Now this word, good, I wish I could pronounce the Hebrew and I won't try and won't mess you up, but this particular word. is used 31 times in the Old Testament, just this one cognate form. And all the other forms are beyond it, just a word or two changes that just change little aspects of it. But it's the same word, and it's our primary root. And what it means is to be or to do or to make good. It's good, the essence of goodness. You could say wellness. And the Strong's Dictionary and others, lexicons that look at it and try to define it, they say it's goodness in its widest sense. And then they'll give you a big paragraph, that big, about how it's used throughout the scripture in its different formats. It's used as pleasant. Isn't that good, something that's pleasant? It's used as agreeable. That's good, agreeable. It's used as beautiful, beneficial, best, is how this word is used. It's used as charming, cheerful, choice. Have you ever seen someone say, well, that's charming. And if you broke that down, what do you mean? Well, it's just good. Feels good to be in the presence of that thing. Cheerfulness. That's a choice thing. Delightful is how it's translated in other places. Favorable. I like that. Favorable. Almost sounds like grace, doesn't it? This goodness. It goes from favorable to festive. What do you get about festiveness? The goodness is so good that you get what? You get happy about it. It's a festive thing, the goodness of God. And the next one is gladness. The goodness of God will make you glad. Now this is getting out there, but this is what it is talking about. In the widest sense, now listen to this. It says it can be used of a good man. In its widest sense, it can talk about, and I'm not joking with it, a good-looking man. That's what this goodness, in its widest sense, whatever you deem to be good-looking, well, apply this word to it. Good. It's happy. You get the word holiday from this kind of goodness. It's intelligent and kind in its goodness. It's pleasant and pleasing. I wish we could just comprehend the fullness and the wideness of this word. And if we could, then we'd have a little bit of a grasp on how we're to walk in that good way, in all those categories of being charming and pleasant and kind and favorable and gracious. See, that's all goodness. And if we could do that, the scripture would indicate to us that to walk in the good way of God is to even know the goodness of God. In this passage in 1 Kings, I hope you haven't turned from it, but go to verse 60, where he says, so that all peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is good, God. There is no one else. So the idea of us walking in goodness and demonstrating and proclaiming the goodness of God is not just for God himself, but it is so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God. And catch this, there is no one else. What does he say? All the gods of the nations are nothing. They're idols. What's the best thing that can happen to the peoples of the earth? They're to come to know the true God, the goodness of God. There's no one else. This reminds us of what we began tonight in Psalm 145 verse 4. It says to each generation and to all they need to know the goodness and the greatness of God. Look at verse 66 now. Jump down to the end of the passage, the end of the chapter. After all this dedication and prayer, Solomon quit praying. They had a great, huge amount of sacrifices. I thought about that this morning, Josh, when you said he doesn't delight in all these offerings, and you didn't even approach him. You said, I think you said 10,000 rams. Look at this in verse 62, 22,000 oxen. Can you imagine that? 120,000 sheep. Now do you understand why they called the Old Testament a slaughterhouse religion? Do you understand now why they actually had a sewage system and gutters built into the temple and the tabernacle before it for all the blood to be drained off? These are huge sacrifices. And they did them rightfully so in the dedication of God's house here. And after they did that, look at verse 66, on the eighth day, he sent the people away and they blessed the king, King Solomon. Then they went to their tents, joyful and glad of heart. Why? For all the goodness that the Lord had shown to David his servant and to Israel his people. Now let me say to you, are we King David? No. Are we Israel? Yes and no. But listen to me, are we his servant? Are we His people and the sheep of His pasture? And this is extending down to us. They went to their tents joyful and glad. Why? At the realization of what? The contact point that God had established a temple where they in all their distresses and all their daily lives could turn back and ask God to forgive their sins and that God would hear from heaven and forgive their sins. And not just that. but then act on their behalf and sustain their cause. Look at the parallel. Go over to 2 Chronicles with me real quick. This is the parallel passage to this. 2 Chronicles chapter 7. I want you to see verse 3. Kings didn't include it. But in chapter 7 of 2 Chronicles, it talks about God's glory coming down, His Shekinah glory filling the temple at the end of what we had just seen and read about and all the sacrifices that they had. And when Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices. And the glory of the Lord filled the house. The priest could not enter into the house of the Lord because of the glory of the Lord filled the Lord's house. And all the sons of Israel, seeing, seeing, The fire come down, and the glory of the Lord upon the house. What did they do? They bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshipped, and they gave praise to the Lord, saying, what? Truly, He is good. Truly, His lovingkindness is everlasting. This is why this shows up all over the place. When they saw, can you imagine being in that crowd and seeing the fire of God fall on it? And the Shekinah glory of God fill it to the point that they couldn't enter. All they could do is put themselves down, their faces to the pavement, and worship and praise God, saying what? Truly God is good. And His lovingkindness is everlasting. Listen to me. Same word. This goodness is what David says shall follow me all the days of my life. And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Psalm 25, the next psalm says, two psalms over, says what? Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgression. Remember me according to your lovingkindness for your goodness sake. For goodness sake, for goodnesses, purposes, do what? Teach me your way. Why verse 8? Because good and upright is the Lord. Therefore, he instructs sinners in the way. And verse 9 says, it's his way. in the way that we're, God is good. Therefore instruct sinners. I can remember as a college student, newly converted, the first time someone opened Psalm 25 to me and said, David, if you're ever wondering about where you should go and what you ought to do in life, don't worry about it, but humble yourself before God and God will show you. And why? Because you're sincere? No, because he's good. Because God is good. He instructs sinners in the way and in His way. Oh, I wish we could capture the goodness of God as a living principle, as the way to live, as His way to live. If we could capture the goodness of God, guess what? We would be more effective in our mission desires. We would be more effective in our evangelism. Why? Because people would see the goodness of God reflected, and demonstrated, and talked about, and pointed to, and held up for all to see. And the goodness of God, what? Leads to repentance. But we sometimes are so oppressed as Christians and we live in a dark world that does it oppress us? Yes. Is it discouraging? Yes. But we ought to magnify and reflect upon and seek to grasp this living principle. The goodness of God is so great. In a world of darkness, can we understand that God is yet good? And He sent Christ to be our Savior and our Redeemer. Oh, if we could capture His goodness as a living principle of the way we live, oh, it would make such a difference, wouldn't it? What does the Scripture say? The joy of the Lord. Where does the joy... They went to their tents with joy. Why? Because they said, surely He's good. And the joy of the Lord is what? Our strength. If we lack strength, is it because we lack a grasp of the goodness of God? Oh, I wish we could grasp it. Cece Winans is one of my favorite singers. I don't know about her doctrinally or anything else, but I know that she touches me with the lyrics and the way she sings and all that. Are you familiar with Cece Winans, y'all? Last year, I believe it was, she came up with this song, The Goodness of God. And I would like to encourage you to look up the video of that. You guys are all video-oriented. And I thought to myself, should I try to get the video up here? And I said, no way. I won't be able to pull it up. Josh could, but I won't be able to. But let me encourage you to go home and on whatever it is, YouTube or whatever, but I want you to get the official video. There's a million different videos, singing it live, singing it on American Idol with an oxymoron. But all these things. But get the official, get the official one. And it's so wonderful just about family, which is not the scope of this sermon, but it's just a wonderful thing. Because it has her coming in and begin singing it, and she's got kind of like a choir robe on and an empty sanctuary with one pew. And she's singing. And then you see her walking in, not singing, like she's singing to herself. And she sits on the front pew, and guess who's up there with her? Her dad. And then her family members come in, and then her children, and then her grandchildren. It'll make you cry. If you need to cry, just bring it up. It's really good. And it's about the goodness of God. Well, her song really helps me. Listen to it. I won't sing it. But listen to the stanza. The first stanza introduces the comprehension, comprehensiveness, The nature of this. She says, I love you, Lord. Why? For your mercy, listen, your mercy never fails me. Now think about that. All my days I've been held in your hands. Sounds like Psalm 145, doesn't it? From the moment that I wake up until I lay my head, oh, I will sing of the goodness of God. Now think about it, the stanzas then kind of break down this goodness, just like Psalm 145 did for us. She says, I love your voice, you have led me through the fire. Now does anybody like fire? Has any of us been through some fire? It's not good, is it? And yet God is good. Why? It says, you have led me through the fire in darkest nights. You are close like no other. I've known you as a father. I've known you as a friend. I have lived in the goodness of God. Amen? I mean, now think about that. Think about it. Another stanza. She says, your goodness is running after me. Think about the prodigal son and the prodigal father so exorbitant in love that runs after the son. Your goodness is running after me, is running after me. With my life laid down, I surrender now. I give you everything, O Lord." The refrain of this throughout this is, "'Cause all my life you have been faithful, and all my life you have been so, so good. With every breath that I am able, O, I will sing of the goodness of God." I believe that she's captured the teaching of Psalm 145. Of the reason for the contact point of the temple so that we would learn from God by His goodness to walk in the good path. I wish we could grasp it and surrender like she sings about it. She says, what? I'll give you everything. And what would I say to us tonight? Will you let God's goodness catch you? Would you let God's goodness as it runs after us, and we don't deserve it, but would you let Him capture you? Well, what would that mean? That would mean you'd have to surrender. How does someone chasing someone get them? Well, they just overtake them or the one fleeing stops. And I wish it would be that the grace of God would help us early to surrender, to give to God everything, instead of trying to hold on. And if we can only realize it's the goodness of God that calls us to yield and to surrender. Well, would you let His goodness catch you? I want you to hear Spurgeon again. How good is God? Listen to what Spurgeon said on that same text talking about the unfathomable riches of Christ. I love Spurgeon, don't you? The way he can go off. When I get to heaven, I'll be able to preach like Spurgeon. I aspire to and I can't do it. Listen to what he says. How good is God? He's more ready to pardon than you are to sin. How good is God? Did you hear that? He's more ready to pardon than you are to sin. How do you know that? He sent His only begotten Son to be your Redeemer. How good is God? He's more able to forgive than you are to transgress. Able to forgive. Why? Because of Jesus on the cross, shedding His blood, giving His body so that we could be redeemed. How good is God? He's more willing to supply your needs than you are to confess them. Oh, we're so proud, aren't we? Aren't we so proud? Oh, I would never admit that. Well, just go ahead and admit it. Why? God is good. Amen? We need to learn the goodness of God. Why? So that we would extol it. We'd hold it up. We'd point to it. We'd tell everybody, God is good. And because he's good, he instructs sinners in the way of goodness. God grant that we would learn his lesson. Amen? Let's stand together and bow our heads. Father, we desire to know you and we confess that that's not always the highest desire that we have. And so, Father, teach us your goodness, that we would desire nothing else. Those things that we do desire would pale in insignificance against the goodness that you show us. Help us understand the majesty, the splendor, the might, and the power of all your grace, mercy, and deeds. Change us fundamentally so that we might reflect your goodness. And we thank you for that in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.