Psalm 73:28: “But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.”
This verse works in two ways.
On the one hand, if life is going poorly for you, you can read this verse and take comfort in the fact that the “nearness of God” is your ultimate good. Your bad circumstances are not your ultimate good.
On the other hand, if life is going well for you, you can read this verse and take comfort in the fact that your circumstances are not the cause of your good. Your life is ultimately good because of the “nearness of God” to you.
Whether your life is going well or poorly, the question is: how is God near?
The answer is that God is near you in the person of Jesus Christ. Before Christ, you were separated from God. You were as near to God as you are near to the sun—99.883 million miles away. But in Jesus Christ, God is near, even in your heart (Ephesians 3:17).
If God is near in the person of Jesus Christ, the next question is: how do you get near to God? Psalm 73 tells you. Make the Lord God your refuge. To make the Lord God your refuge means that you trust in God alone for all that you need, forsaking all your own ways of obtaining what you need. If you “have made the Lord God” your “refuge,” you have found refuge in Christ—God is near.
And, as it works out in your life, a relationship with God (i.e., being near to him), always leads to relating God’s works and words to others, as the Psalmist says that “I may tell of all your works.” Making God your master leads to making God known.
So today, if you find refuge in God through Christ, God is near. And because he is near, no matter what you are going through right now, God is your good. Tell of his goodness, then, his works and words, to those you see today: your family, friends, colleagues, and church members.
Pastor Dan
For more on Psalm 73, listen to the message here.