- Withhold no good thing
Psalm 84:111c
No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
We can either hold God accountable for not keeping His promise and withholding good things; or we can hold ourselves accountable for not walking uprightly, not meeting the condition for the promise.
First we can dispense with the second option, “not walking uprightly.” Of course, no one walks uprightly before God and so no one deserves good things from God. But Jesus Christ has earned for us and given to us the righteousness of God and sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts to live upright lives. By repentance and faith in the Gospel we can claim to “walk uprightly.” Therefore, by the grace of God and the work of Christ we can claim the promise: “no good thing will he withhold” from us.
Second, we must categorically deny the first option because God always keeps His promises since He is a promise-keeping God by definition. If God makes a promise He binds himself to keep it and He will honor His Word. Our Lord will not keep back any good thing from us. Jesus says, Matthew 7:11: “How much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”
One way out of the dilemma is to say that my definition and God’s definition of “good thing” may be different. We may have to struggle with ourselves or wrestle with God about whether such and such is a good thing or not. This struggle is worthwhile because our own understanding of good things probably needs some adjustment. For example, if we took the time to learn that kindness is a good thing we may then spend some time asking for it and appreciating it as a gift instead of patting ourselves on the back for being so kind. For example also, if we learned that the love of money is the root of all evil we might learn that more money is not a good thing. Maybe. Also for example, is healing or sickness the good thing? Even though we don’t always know the mysteries we can always trust God to know what is or is not a good thing.
What we need to do is start with believing the promise. This means first making sure that we are walking uprightly by faith in Christ. Then we must know beyond a doubt that the promise is true: God will not withhold any good thing (He is not mean). Then we ask for and we expect to receive everything that He considers “good.” Continue asking and receiving and enjoying God’s “good things,” for of this we are certain: God is good!