Yahweh, Let Your Goodness Flow

Yahweh, Let Your Goodness Flow

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

   his steadfast love endures for ever!

Let those who fear the Lord say,

   ‘His steadfast love endures for ever.’

It is better to take refuge in the Lord

   than to put confidence in mortals.

I was pushed hard, so that I was falling,

   but the Lord helped me.

The Lord is my strength and my might;

   he has become my salvation.

Psalm 118:1, 4, 8, 13-14

Recently I was privileged to have a three month sabbatical. For reasons I am sure made sense to me at the time, I chose to spend a portion of each day researching the philosophical notion of goodness. I am not a philosopher and I was quickly out of my depth but compelled by the idea of being able to pithily define goodness and brush it off like it was no big thing.

I began each day sitting next to a window overlooking a small, steep valley where Cammeraygal land meets the Turranburra. Our home sits on the ridge on one side and enjoys a spectacular view. Each morning before dawn, I would settle in to enjoy space to read and reflect. As the sun rose over the gums I had my eyes lowered on the text at hand, ensuring I understood the meaning of the word in itself. As the birds began to sing, I was bracketing goodness like nobody’s business.

I’m sure you’re quite a few steps ahead of me but in case you haven’t noticed the point I am clumsily making, here’s what I was missing. While I wrestled with an isolated idea of goodness, the world around me was waking up and delighting in its beauty. The trees were reaching up in nourishing joy. The birds were calling out in nurturing hope. The Turranburra was - as it has been for millenia - steadily flowing. Had I bothered to go outside and walk a hundred metres, I could have watched mullet baptising themselves just for the joy of it all. What I needed was to look and listen gently for a moment. I would have found myself enveloped in the eucharistic posture of creation - relishing in the reality of its own inherent goodness and, in turn, giving reflective thanks to Creator God.

Psalm 118 begins with the words, Give thanks to Yaheweh, for Yahweh is good… the remainder of the Psalm hangs off this phrase. It is a eucharistic psalm - giving thanks for all that Creator God does. All that Creator God does is shaped by God’s inherent quality of goodness. The Psalmist details all that has been going wrong in their experience - When hard pressed, I cried to Yahweh - and claims that Yahweh has, in turn, provided a safe, spacious place. The poem culminates with the words, Yahweh is my strength and my song, Yahweh has become my salvation.

Advent invites us to participate in The Wait. When hard pressed we wait for Yahweh’s steadfast love which endures forever. This wait makes sense because Yahweh is Good.

This Advent season, I will choose to enjoy time in the predawn hour to lift my eyes, open my ears and join in with all creation in pithily singing of Yahweh’s goodness like it is no big thing. I will walk down to the edge of the Turranburra, as I pray a daily prayer of eucharisitc hope - ‘Yahweh, let your goodness flow. . .’

Graeme Anderson is the Senior Pastor for Northside Baptist - a formational church who meet on Cammeraygal land. He is the author of Follow: Experiencing Life with Jesus.

This devotional is part of a series of daily email devotionals for Advent 2024 reflecting on the life-giving, thirst quenching justice of Jesus we long to see flow across these lands. A justice overflowing with love and compassion, bringing forth hope, healing, nourishment and flourishing for all.

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