No Good Thing?

Psalm 16

Is this poetic exaggeration?
“You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing” (emphasis mine)?

Nothing? Is there really no good thing apart from the Lord? I think we have to say this is not exaggeration, not for people who know the Lord. Once you believe and place the Lord on the throne of your life, you are like Paul the Apostle, who counted everything as trash for the sake of knowing Jesus (Philippians 3:8). Paul was an educated, cultured guy. He had a lot going for him. And yet, compared to Christ, everything else was garbage.

That’s the key. We can’t expect the world apart from Christ to get this. And I want to remind myself that there is a lot that is good in the world and in people, from a human point of view. There are lots of people without faith who do good in this world. As I noted in this forum before, I am not better than another because of my relationship with Jesus. I am better than I would be without him. Only God is good. But his goodness is so great that it spills over onto all who will accept him and his goodness, and he has more than enough goodness for all of us.

The rest of the psalm celebrates that, trusting in God alone, we can count on him for absolutely everything.

Prayer:
God, thanks that I can put all my trust in you. I will lack nothing by trusting in you. I cannot fail as I commit to your purposes. You will reward me in this world and eternally even though the reward is not deserved and is a result of your own goodness beyond any measure I can even dream of. Thank you. In Jesus. Amen.