“How good is the Lord, eternal his merciful love. He is faithful from age to age.” (Psalm 100)
In our own thoughtless selfishness, we can get lost in the exaggeration of our own troubles, grumbling about the Christian life.
The truth is that hundreds of generations of men have lived and have died praising the goodness of God — at the end of their lives.
Grumbling in the Christian life is worthy of far more ridicule than w as the grumbling of the Israelites during the Exodus. The departure from Egypt was wonderful in hindsight, but wkuld surely have been challenging in real-time.
“Look, slavery in Egypt was bad, but are we sure this is going to end well?”
There was a lot of uncertainty.
In thebl Christian life, 3400 years after the Exodus, we have no excuse for grumbling. There is no uncertainty. We know exactly how the Christian life works and have watched it lived by hundreds of saints in countless different circumstances.
Men, in their wisest moments, in their final moments, have testified that God is good, and they have done so from age to age.
Can we not rise above the immediate, thoughtless and selfish complaints of our flesh and acknowledge the truth?
Psalm 5 reveals the real problem:
“All those you protect shall be glad and ring out their joy. You shelter them; in you they rejoice, those who love your name. It is you who bless the just man, Lord: you surround him with favor as with a shield.“
The goodness of God is only recognized and celebrated by just men.
WCM
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