Eyes to See the Goodness of God

"I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living."

Psalm 27:13 (NIV)

Today, I shared with my email subscribers about how wonderful my vacation was last week. But was it wonderful because I was away from the stress of everyday life? Well, yeah, that was certainly part of it. But I believe God was also doing something in my heart before we ever arrived. He was turning my attention toward something I don’t always recognize in the middle of the everyday grind: His goodness.

That sounds like an odd thing for me to say, doesn’t it? After all, I write devotions and share photographs that all point to the goodness of God. I believe God is good. Yet somehow, I don’t always live with an awareness of that goodness in the everyday rhythms of my own life. If I’m being truthful, I tend to see God’s goodness mostly in answered prayer—not in the grocery store on a Tuesday afternoon.

Too often, I allow the squeaky wheel in my life to direct all my attention to it—and only it—causing me to miss the goodness of God right there in the midst of it, or even in spite of it.

When David wrote Psalm 27:13, he wasn’t sitting in a beach chair with the salt air on his face, a good book in one hand and a cold drink in the other, surrounded by people he loved. Quite the contrary.

We don’t know exactly what was happening in David’s life when he wrote these words, but Psalm 27 speaks of enemies, armies, adversaries, and trouble. And given what we know of David’s life, those words could have reflected political, military, or deeply personal conflict—or a combination of all three.

Yet in the middle of his trouble, David wrote, “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13). David expected to see God’s goodness this side of heaven, right in the midst of his present life and trouble.

But how could David be so confident when so much around him appeared anything but good?

To find the answer, we have to go back to the beginning of Psalm 27. David declared that the Lord was his light and salvation (v. 1). He desired above all else to dwell in the Lord’s presence (v. 4). And when God called him to seek His face, David responded, “Your face, LORD, I will seek” (v. 8).

In Psalm 27, we don’t see David wringing himself dry trying to fix his problems; we see him fixing his eyes on God. His problems weren’t his focus. God was.

And that brings me back to our vacation. It was wonderful, but that doesn’t mean everything about it was wonderful.

Just three days into our trip, we received news that our youngest child had an emergency at home and was admitted to the hospital. Then, all four of our grandchildren who were with us got sick. I’m talking fevers, an elevator ride I'm sure my daughter would rather forget, and two separate trips to urgent care with two different littles.

Those things could have easily become the squeaky wheels demanding my attention. And believe me, they squeaked loudly. But this time, something was different.

My husband and I had spent time in prayer as we drove to the beach, asking God to show us the good in each day. Looking back, I believe the prayer itself was evidence of the goodness of God. He was prompting us to seek Him.

And what we discovered was something David already knew: God’s goodness is present in the midst of trouble. And His goodness can be found in the most ordinary of moments.

So, what goodness of God did we actually see? The list is too long to share here, but let me give you a few highlights.

We watched the sun rise each morning over the Atlantic Ocean and were in awe of our Creator. And although the little hand of the clock was only on the 6 and I hadn’t had coffee yet, I wasn’t even grumpy.

We saw the goodness of God in the majesty of His creation. My husband, however, saw evidence that God still performs miracles.

We experienced calm in the midst of the troubling news about our youngest daughter. We knew without a doubt God heard us as we prayed for her and our sick grandchildren.

We saw the goodness of God in the assurance of His presence.

We laughed probably more than we should have at our 10-month-old granddaughter eating sand like it was her job. And we spent an entire week with two grandchildren we don’t see as often now that they’re in school.

We saw the goodness of God in the gift of family and the joy of simply being together.

Now, none of these things erased the reality of sick kids, nor did they make what happened to our daughter any less serious. But they did remind us that trouble wasn’t the only thing present.

God was present too.

When I think about all I might have missed every day on our vacation, I’m grateful that I sought to dwell in God’s presence and seek His face.

But even that says far more about God than it does about me.

My husband and I didn’t manufacture the desire to see His goodness. As I said earlier, God prompted us to want to see it. And I believe because He knew what the week would hold for us, He didn’t want us to miss any bit of it. More evidence of His goodness.

Friend, just as He did with David, God still calls us to seek His face. And maybe that should be our prayer—not that we would simply try harder to look for His goodness, but that we would respond to His invitation to seek Him and dwell in His presence, trusting Him to help us recognize His goodness.

Squeaky wheels are gonna squeak. Trouble is gonna come. But we can be confident that:

“[We] will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.”

We don’t have to wait for heaven to see His goodness. We can ask God to open our eyes to see it right here, right now.

And I can tell you, the view is beautiful.