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The Bible Teaching Commentary on Genesis: The Book of Foundations
Commentaries that specialize on training the teacher!
Psalm 16:2
"No Good Besides You!"
Paul J. Bucknell
“I said to the LORD, ‘You are my Lord; I have no good besides You’” (Psalms 16:2).
There are two sides to this truth of not having any good besides the Lord, each carefully edges out the presence of idolatry. The first is for the godly who are suffering troubles while the second the godly ones who enjoy the good times.
Singled Out
The first side plays an important role by God’s godly ones who face evil surmounting about them. Wherever they turn, in their family, at work or generally in their lives, they only see difficult times, and the Lord alone can and does bring comfort and love to their souls. Their situation remains unsolved or even swamped with wickedness (Ps 17:9), but these stark reminders only further highlight the sweetness of the Lord, a very desirable light in an otherwise very dark and lonely place.
Goodness Amplified
The other side, contrary to the first, are the godly ones finding most things going well, “The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places” (Ps 16:6). When enjoying time with family, enjoying small group with church members, and finding our niche in life, everything is good. Things are hardly perfect, but the joy from enriching relationships diminishes the little things not working ideally. We enjoy our life’s circumstances. And yet, upon reading and reflecting upon the Lord's goodness, we fully agree with the Psalmist–He, the Lord, is our only good.
Instead of being enchanted by the good things we have and falling into the snare of hedonism, all the good things in life call our hearts to even more greatly long to be closer to the God of all goodness. Like variously shaped earthly signs all signaling an upcoming place, all good things point to the supremely Good heavenly One with whom we long to be with for all eternity.
And so, when the Lord has blessed our lives on earth, our life experiences, the many answers to our prayers being so evident and touching, only more powerfully steer our heart towards Him for He is the source of all that goodness that we encounter. The surrounding difficulties and depravity remind us that goodness here is tainted with temporariness and evil, reassuring our hearts that it is God that we desire rather than His many gifts.
Our Heart Response
The main lesson of acclaiming the Lord’s greatness, “I said to the LORD, ‘You are my Lord; I have no good besides You’” (Psalms 16:2) is not to be hidden from us. The Lord has found our heart, the entirety of our soul. There is nothing bad or good that can take away the sweet joy of the Lord’s goodness found in Christ Jesus our Lord.
But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:37-39).
The key to breaking idolatry’s hold on us is to supremely love and cherish the Lord Himself–“I said to the LORD, ‘You are my Lord!." When the sun shines brightly, the street lights are dim. By not valuing anything more than the Lord, we release our hearts to joyfully concur that the Lord Himself is our greatest good with which we will forever be content.