Hearing His Voice #340

I am confident I will see the LORD’s goodness while I am here in the land of the living.

Psalm 27:13

“One day, when the Lord returns . . .” These words have come off the lips of innumerable Christians when life in the present isn’t quite working out. We tend to give up on the here and now and focus on the there and then. These words have an uncanny effect of sounding like a lament and a comfort simultaneously, and sometimes we’re not sure which it is. But we know they signify some lack of satisfaction now.

These words are true, of course, but we tend to focus on “one day” much more often than Scripture does. Yes, it tells us of the coming Kingdom and describes a glorious end, but it also tells us the Kingdom has already come and that glory can be experienced now. Here, David expresses confidence that he will experience God’s goodness in the land of the living—that is, in this age in this earthly realm. Life isn’t all hardship, no matter how difficult our momentary circumstances might be. For David, and for us, there are tangible blessings to be discovered and received right now.

Much of the church has spent so much effort combating the health-and-wealth gospel that it has presented an opposite error: the suffering-and-poverty gospel. In truth, neither picture is biblical. We live in two realms simultaneously, and we experience the good and bad in both. And though we will encounter hardships in this world—Jesus assured us of that—we are nowhere told that we will encounter only hardships. We can come to God with the confident expectation that we will see His goodness here, now, and forever.

Lord, these are the ears I want to listen with—the attitude that assumes Your goodness will show up in every situation I face in every area of life. Your goodness is not a theory; it’s real and tangible and evident. I’m grateful for that and fully expect to see it more.