Apples or Vinegar?

I actually wrote this post well over a year ago. I originally published it as a facebook note and thought that I included it on this blog. However, I suppose at the time I was still thinking of this blog, which I wasn't ever writing in, as being about hymns, so included it on my general blog instead. Since I gave in and expanded the lyrical scope here, I've decided to give this post yet another place of its own.

A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. -- Proverbs 25:11

God is good all the time. We use that phrase so often, and yet I think much of the time we misuse it. Most of the time when I hear people say it, they really seem to be saying, “I am currently perceiving God as kind. He has chosen to work things out the way I wanted Him to.” But in scriptural terms, the goodness of God does not refer to His kindness, and certainly not to whether or not we are happy with His works. It refers to his moral goodness. One of the challenges of the Christian life, of the life of faith is to trust that God is indeed acting out of moral goodness even when those actions hurt terribly and make us rail and scream against the pain and hurt.

Seven years ago today, I walked into what was, for the rest of the congregation, a typical Sunday morning service. For me, it was not. My husband and I had returned just the evening before from the funeral and burial of my infant niece. As I was going through the motions of participating in the singing, I had to give up when the congregation sang “God Is Good All the Time” (Moen). We sang that song many times at that church, and I’ve really hated it ever since and will be content if I never hear it again.

Now, to be fair to Don Moen, his song does acknowledge that life is not a bowl of cherries:

If you’re walking through the valley

And there are shadows all around

Do not fear; He will guide you

He will keep you safe and sound

‘Cause He’s promised to never leave you

Nor forsake you and His Word is true

But the song itself is a very upbeat, clappy, happy, almost pep rally kind of tune. Hearing that song in a time of sorrow was not an apple of gold. Instead, it called to mind a different proverb in that same chapter:

Like one who takes away a garment on a cold day, or like vinegar poured on soda is one who sings songs to a heavy heart. -- Proverbs 25:20

Early on when we came to our present church, I was introduced to “Blessed Be Your Name” by Matt Redman. My very first reaction to this song 3 ½ years ago was, “Now if I’d run into this song after Bethany’s death, I could have appreciated it.” It was, especially in comparison, truly an apple of gold in a setting of silver.

When the darkness closes in, Lord, still I will say, “Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Blessed be your name on a road marked with suffering. Though there’s pain in the offering, blessed be Your name.

You give and take away; My heart will choose to say, “Blessed be Your Name.”

In other words, God is good all the time.

Today our church gathered to bury a beloved member and shepherd, and this song was one of the ones sung at his memorial service. It it tragic to think of his wife and daughters, especially the one still at home, deprived of his care and support. We hate the hole left in his community by his absence. We can’t imagine walking into church week after week and never seeing his smile or being caught up in his formidable embrace. But as he no doubt learned through the heartbreaking life and loss of his own infant daughter, God is good all the time. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.