Psalm 62

I just listened to Steven Furtick's One Prayer message at Church Online. His message for the God Is... series was "God is great, God is good."

It was based of course on the traditional prayer little kids learn in Sunday School to bless their snack quickly. But the beauty of it is that these two attributes are so fundamentally intertwined that they are really inseparable parts of defining who God is. If He were only great but not good, He would be a galactic bully wielding power without any purpose. If He were only good but not great, He would be that well-intentioned friend who loved you but was incapable of really being there to help you when you needed them most. But our God is great and He is good. This psalm ends by clarifying these two attributes. You, O God are strong. And You, O Lord are loving. Thanks be to our wonderful Maker that He is indeed both.

The other thing that jumped out to me over and over when I went to this psalm today is the emphasis on God alone. Not God and. Just God. How many times a week so I try to add something to God? God and my own two cents. God and my own efforts. God and my own ideas. God and my money. God and my relationships. God and whatever. The magnitude and glorious majesty of who God really is though laughs in the face of that attitude. God alone is our hope. God alone is my fortress. God alone is my help. God alone is my portion.

A friend today told me about how God revealed Himself to her in a new way through that word portion. That word isn't really very definitive by itself. A portion can mean a lot of different sizes and quantities. But that's who our God is. Whatever it is you are in need of at the time, He is precisely that. Your portion. The exact thing that is needed. So, like Steven Furtick put it tonight, the real message for this series is just plain old God Is. No blank afterwards. Because whatever blank I have in my life, He alone fills it perfectly.

God is great. God is Good. God Is...