Audio Transcript

Today we read Psalm 84 together in the Navigators Bible Reading Plan. God has promised not to withhold any good thing from us. That’s Psalm 84:11 — a mega promise! But what does it mean when it feels like God is withholding good things from us? What does it mean for the single Christian who desperately wants to be married? Marriage is a good thing, right? So, why is God withholding it? Or what about the married couple struggling with infertility and who desperately wants to have children? Children are a blessing, right? So, why is the gift of children being withheld? We’ve looked at both of those situations in the past, both through the lens of Psalm 84, as you can see in the APJ book on pages 142 and 193.

Another side to the question is this: Why must we ask him for good things in the first place? He’s already made the promise to us that he will give us everything we need. So, why must we ask for more? That’s the question on the mind of Luke, a listener to the podcast who wrote this: “Hello, Pastor John! I’ve noticed that many worship songs being written today express a desire for ‘more’ — more of Jesus, more of the Spirit, more of God’s revealed glory, more of his felt presence, and so on. It seems to me that we are asking for more of something when, according to Romans 8:32 and Psalm 84:11, we’ve already been given ‘all things.’ This gives the impression that Jesus might be withholding something from us and that we must beg for it before he gives it. What is the difference between asking God for more of something and realizing that he has not withheld any good thing from us, as Romans 8:32 and Psalm 84:11 indicate?”

This is such a good question. I have asked it to myself in various forms for decades because that promise is so close to the heart of what we love about our salvation.

One way to put the question would be this: “If God is working everything together for our good (Romans 8:28), and if he withholds no good from those who walk uprightly (Psalm 84:11), and if he most certainly will give us all things (Romans 8:32), then why ask him for more of anything?” Doesn’t asking him for more imply that yesterday’s good wasn’t good enough?

What Does ‘More’ Mean?

There are so many things that need clarifying here. Let’s start with the last point. If you ask God for more good today, does that mean yesterday’s good was somehow defective or deficient or inadequate, less than good? And the answer is no, not necessarily. Think about it. The word more can have at least three meanings when you pray for more faith or more love or more obedience. It can mean more in the sense of continuation: “Just do it again, Lord. Do it again today like you did yesterday.” His mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22–23), and saying that is no criticism of yesterday’s mercy or yesterday’s good. You’re so thankful for it that you just want the same thing today. It’s more in the sense of being in addition to yesterday’s good, not an improvement on yesterday’s good. So, that’s the first meaning.

Second, more can mean not just a continuation of yesterday’s good but an increase. Paul prayed this way repeatedly. He said, for example, in 1 Thessalonians 4:1, “Brothers, we . . . urge you . . . that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.” Or 1 Thessalonians 4:9–10: “You yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing. . . . But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more.” To desire increase of yesterday’s good is not an indictment of yesterday’s good. It’s a commendation of it. “It was so good that I want more.”

And third, more can mean not just a continuation or an increase but a restoration of what was missing yesterday, as when David prayed, “Restore to me the joy of [my] salvation” (Psalm 51:12). “I want more joy in you, God, than I had yesterday or than I have right now.” That’s the way David prayed. Now, this more is more complicated than the previous two.

“To desire increase of yesterday’s good is not an indictment of yesterday’s good. It’s a commendation of it.”

The continuation of good and the increase of good is one thing — not much problem there. To want more joy in God than you once had is, on the one hand, a commendation of that joy and that good. But on the other hand, not having that joy yesterday is something you want to change. You want to change that. So, we ask, was not having joy in God yesterday good? If it was good, why are you asking to change it? If it’s not good, then does God withhold good from his people? That’s what the question boils down to in asking about more.

True Good for God’s People

Now, to solve that riddle, we need more clarification. You might immediately say, “Oh, you didn’t quote the verse quite right, Piper. You said God doesn’t withhold good from his people. But Psalm 84:11 says, ‘No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.’” And that question would imply that, when we lack good (like joy in God), it’s because we have done some sin — like David with Bathsheba, say.

But that doesn’t work in Psalm 84:11 because it implies that if you walk in the paths of righteousness uprightly, you won’t experience any emotional or circumstantial pain. But that’s not true. The Bible says, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous” (Psalm 34:19) — that is, of those who walk uprightly, the people from whom he withholds no good thing. Jesus and Paul were two of the most righteous people, and they both suffered more than anybody else in the New Testament, and they taught us to expect the same.

So, what does Psalm 84:11 mean by “no good”? (The word thing is not there in the Hebrew. It’s just, “No good does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.”) It means the same as Romans 8:28: “For those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Loving God and being called by God mean being a Christian. All things work together for good for Christians, God’s children, God’s elect.

It’s not a declaration that when Christians do good things, good things happen to them, and when they do bad things, bad things happen to them. That’s not what it says or what it means. It means God works everything that happens to a Christian for his or her good. And in that sense, what happens to them is good, good for them. That’s what I think Psalm 84:11 means. “No good does [God] withhold from those who walk uprightly” means, for those who are truly part of God’s people, truly faithful, truly saved, among the elect, God does not withhold what is ultimately good for them.

And you can see this because the same phrase, “walk uprightly,” is used that way — namely, for God’s faithful person. Not just for a person who today does a good thing, but God’s faithful one, God’s perfect one. In Psalm 15:2, 101:6, 119:1, and Proverbs 28:18, those who “walk uprightly” are simply Christians. They are the saints.

God’s Work, Not Ours

Which perhaps leaves time in this episode for one more clarification: the fact that God, in his infinitely wise and holy sovereignty, plans for Christians to experience some affliction in this life rather than perfect safety and health, and he plans for Christians to experience some sinfulness in this life rather than sanctifying them instantaneously and completely so that there are only sinlessly perfect Christians in the world. That’s not his plan.

That fact, the fact that he will turn all that affliction and all that sinfulness for their good, does not mean that Christians should want to be sick or want to be sinful. Why? Because it is presumptuous to want to be sick, and it’s evil to want to be sinful. God’s providence ordains whether we are struck with sickness or struck with sin; it does. But you don’t read God’s providence; you read God’s word. His word commands us to pray that we be healed and that we be holy.

Indeed, it is right to sing and pray, “More love to you, O Christ. More love to you, more obedience to you, more joy in you.” It’s right to pray that way. God can take yesterday’s lovelessness and disobedience and joylessness and turn them for our good, but it is dangerous. It is a dangerous sin to think that we should choose lovelessness and disobedience and joylessness. No. No, we shouldn’t. Rather, let us sing and pray, “More love, more obedience, more joy in you, O Christ.”