Upon doing lectio with the psalms day after day, it becomes
impossible not to notice how often God is referred to as good and loving. “Taste
and see the goodness of the Lord.” “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures forever.” “For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive.” “For
the Lord is good; his loving kindness is everlasting.” Why is it important for
us to affirm God’s goodness so often?
Mohandas Gandhi observed, “Our thoughts become our words, our
words become our actions, our actions become our character, and our character
becomes our destiny.” If we think that God is good and loving, we will express
that thought in words; our words will lead us to act in trusting, peaceful, and
generous ways; these actions help us create a trusting, peaceful, and generous
character; and thus our destiny becomes the coming of God’s kingdom on earth.
The artist Milton Glaser said, “If you perceive the universe as
being a universe of abundance, then it will be. If you think of the universe as
one of scarcity, then it will be.” God gives us enormous freedom to shape the
world we live in. It is important for us to pay attention to our thoughts,
because often we are unconscious of where they lead us—and then we blame God for
the problems we ourselves have created. What we read and watch has a powerful
effect on what we think, so we need to choose the media we consume carefully,
for it will help shape our world. Personally, I prefer to live in a world that
flows out of God’s love and goodness, and I’m grateful that the Psalms have
endured through the ages to help us create such a world.
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