Psalm 145

“The Lord is good to everyone”

Psalm 145 is one of my favorite psalms. It contains jewels like the following:

“The Lord is faithful in all his words and gracious in all his actions.”

“The Lord helps all who fall; he raises up all who are oppressed.”

“You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.”

“The Lord is near all who call out to him.”

“The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and great in faithful love.”

And, of course, the line I cited above:

“The Lord is good to everyone; his compassion rests on all he has made.”

The line that sticks out to me is “The Lord is good to everyone; his compassion rests on all he has made.” A universal note of beneficence is sounded here. And yet, even here in Psalm 145 the compassion and fidelity of God are described as delimited and contingent. For example, “The Lord is near all who call out to him, all who call out to him with integrity.” The string attached is calling out “with integrity.” And: “He fulfills the desires of those who fear him.” The blessing is reserved for “those who fear” the Lord. The asymmetry and contingency are most clearly seen in verse 20: “The Lord guards all those who love him, but he destroys all the wicked.“

So, how do we balance this? The universal and unconditional versus the contingent and conditional? This is a bit too oversimplified, but I think it’s safe to say that progressive and liberal Christians lean into universality and unconditionality, whereas conservative Christians lean into the contingent and conditional. But both views, let me suggest, tend toward distortion. A balance must be struck between “The Lord is good to everyone; his compassion rests on all he has made” and “The Lord guards all those who love him, but he destroys all the wicked.” And, of course, people work out this balance in different sorts of ways. Regular readers will know how I tend to negotiate the tensions here.

Regardless, I think all theologies, in the end, have a tilt, one way or the other. In my upcoming The Book of Love I look to Jesus’ citing of Hosea 6:6 in his debates with the Pharisees as diagnostic of Jesus’ tilt. According to Jesus, when push comes to shove we are to choose “mercy over sacrifice.” We are to privilege “The Lord is good to everyone; his compassion rests on all he has made” over “The Lord guards all those who love him, but he destroys all the wicked.”

This is not to suggest that God’s wrath doesn’t burn against human wickedness or deny eschatological consequences. Just that our discernments about the character of God define, constrain, and determine all downstream commitments.

As I suggest in the The Book of Love, this question—What is God like?— sits behind all our questions, and we discern it in various guises over and over and over again.

For my part, I think the Lord will prove good to everyone.