“The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works.”

In Genesis, after each component of creation was complete, the text tells us over and over again, “God saw that it was good.” God, out of his infinite goodness, created a good world to be inhabited and cared for by his image bearers. Of course, we know the perfection of God’s original creation was soon corrupted. Yet God did not forsake the earth or its inhabitants.

Even as God confronted Adam and Eve with the consequences of their sin, he made it clear he would continue to provide for them. Men and women still partner with God to create new human life, and people still cultivate the earth as God brings the sun and the rain to sustain our efforts. In spite of everything that is wrong and broken in the world, all creation still experiences God’s goodness in every sunrise and every birth.  

God’s continued blessings on creation are sometimes called common grace. Theologian John Murray defined common grace as, “every favor of whatever kind or degree, falling short of salvation, which this undeserving and sin-cursed world enjoys at the hand of God.” These are the gifts of God that are bestowed on his followers as well as on those who reject him.

In this devotional series through Psalm 145, we are trying to answer the question, “Who is God?” by studying David’s description of him. But as God’s image bearers, there’s an additional question this psalm sheds light on: Who are we meant to be? According to today’s verse, we are to be good to all.  

Jesus draws this same comparison between God’s common grace and our calling to be good to all in Matthew 5:44-45. He begins with the well-known command to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” The reason he gives for this is, “so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” Next comes something that will sound familiar after our earlier discussion of God’s goodness to creation. Jesus says, “For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

When we are good to all, when we love our enemies and pray for our persecutors, we, on a small scale, reflect the mercies of God over all his works. Jesus says this is what identifies us as God’s children! As ACF prepared to love and serve our community in Jesus name through Impact Alaska this month, Pastor Brian reminded us that the gospel needs to flow through us: it’s not just something we receive, but something we share. And then, Pastor Josh preached that we, God’s people, are the mechanism through which God accomplishes his will and brings his kingdom on Earth as it is in Heaven.  

There are a lot of people who aren’t convinced of God’s goodness and mercy. And that’s often because they’ve been disillusioned by Christians who were neither good nor merciful. As God’s children, we are beneficiaries not only of his common grace, but also the special grace of salvation. In a culminating act of his goodness and mercy, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). That’s the love that we have been charged to bring into the world–love that shines on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.  

Maybe it’s because I’m so eager to see my flower beds come back to life after our extended winter, or maybe it’s the Matthew 5 imagery of the sun and the rain, but every time I re-read Psalm 145:9, I visualize God’s goodness and mercy as vibrant wildflowers. When I read that he is “good to all and his mercies are over all his works,” the expansiveness of that word “all” brings to mind a vast field lit up with the color and vitality of summer as far as the eye can see.

Can you imagine bringing that kind of life to those around you through your love? I think that’s what we’ll see happen as we let the gospel flow through us. We will see it be in our families and our communities as it is in Heaven as we shine goodness and shower mercy on both the deserving and undeserving people in our lives.

Lord, my Shepherd, you have so generously provided for me all my life. Surely your goodness and mercy will continue to follow me, because that is who you are–good to all and merciful over all your works. Help me not to just receive your blessings, but to extend them to others. Open my eyes to see where you have planted seeds, because I want to partner with you in cultivating life. I want to see your love in bloom all around me, here as it is in Heaven. In Jesus name, amen.