Oh, how abundant is your goodness,
which you have stored up for those who fear you
and worked for those who take refuge in you,
- Psalm 31:19a
Recite using the acronym:
O , H A I Y G , W Y H S U F T W F Y A W F T W T R I Y , PSALM 31:19
Read Full Passage HERE
Dive Deeper:
When I begin meditating on the beautiful scripture, I can’t help but think about a farmer harvesting and storing up His plentiful crop. The crop in this harvest is that of goodness. The Lord’s goodness. As the Lord goes out to harvest, abundant goodness is found, like a farmer who has gone out to his crop in late September to harvest after a hot yet rainy summer.
What joy and rest can be found in an abundance of a harvest, how much more, the goodness of the Lord? The Lord works His goodness, like a farmer who works His crop, for those who take refuge in Him and are in need of it. He is gentle and lowly, patient and cheerful, storing up His goodness for us, for our time of trouble. How comforting it is to know that we have store-houses full of the goodness of our King to take refuge in our hour of need. The goodness of the Lord is our strength in the midst of our best day and our greatest trial.
David sets us an excellent example in this psalm as a whole as we look at his posture towards God during his trials. In verses 9-13, David agonizes over the fiery trials he finds himself in and pleads for God to be gracious towards him. David fears for his life as enemies are nearby, and the emotional toll this takes on him is great. Yet, when we come back to this week’s verse, verse 19, we see that in the middle of David’s extremely stressful, painful, and life-threatening situation, David praises God entirely and places his trust in Him. We ought to be like David, unfailing to remember God's goodness and unfailing in praising Him as we daily put our trust in Him. Remembering the stored up treasure of goodness that the Lord is rich in will help us to be steadfast in the valley and overjoyed with gratitude on the mountain top.
In conclusion, I want to think about this passage in yet one more way. In 2 Corinthians 4:7 (shout out to those who have been memorizing with us since last November), we see a picture of us (God’s Children) in jars of clay, filled with treasure. In comparison, through this Psalm, we can think of ourselves as a storehouse filled with the abundant goodness of Christ. He chose us, fragile jars of clay, to put in us His goodness through the spirit. If we have the peace-giving and all-sustaining goodness and spirit of the Lord within us. We should be the greatest peacekeepers and gracious people in the world. As God is our safe refuge in our time of need, we, having the abundant goodness of God within us, shall also be a safe refuge to the hurting and lost in this world, ultimately pointing them to the Giver of every good gift.