From Psalm 84:11 we read, “For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.”
WHEN NO IS A BLESSING. Suppose you found the perfect used car. It looked great. The price was right. You could already picture yourself driving it home. But before buying it, you took it to a mechanic you trusted. After looking it over, he came back and said, “Don’t buy this car.” You might be disappointed. You might even think, “But I really want it!” Then he shows you what you couldn’t see. There was a serious problem underneath that could cost you thousands of dollars. Suddenly, his “No” doesn’t sound so disappointing. It sounds like protection. Sometimes that is exactly what God is doing in our lives. We see what we want. God sees what comes with it. We see the outside. God sees underneath. We see today. God sees tomorrow. And there are times when the most loving thing God can do is keep us from something we were convinced we needed. Psalm 84:11 says, “…no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Notice carefully what God promises. He does not promise to give us everything we want. He promises not to withhold anything that is truly good for us.
HE IS OUR SUN. “For the LORD God is a sun…” The sun gives light, and sometimes what we need most is light for the next step. Have you ever walked through a dark house at night and tried to make your way without turning on a light? You think you know where everything is until your little toe finds the corner of the furniture! What changes everything? Light.
God may not show us the entire road ahead, but He promises to give us enough light to keep walking. We may not understand what He is doing today, but we can trust that He sees what we cannot see. He is our sun. Then the Bible says, “…and shield.” HE IS OUR SHIELD. A shield doesn’t just provide something for us; it keeps something from reaching us. Think about an umbrella in a pouring rain. You don’t usually appreciate the umbrella because of what it gives you. You appreciate it because of what it keeps off you. Some of God’s greatest blessings may be things that never reached us. The job we didn’t get. The relationship that didn’t work out. The deal that fell through. The door that wouldn’t open. The plan that suddenly changed. We may have called it disappointment, while God called it protection. There have probably been times in all of our lives when we looked back and said, “Lord, I’m glad You didn’t give me what I was asking for.” HE GIVES US GRACE. “…the LORD will give grace…” I think of grace like the strength built into a bridge. You can drive across a bridge carrying a heavy load because the bridge was designed to carry more weight than you could ever carry by yourself. There are burdens in life that we look at and say, “I don’t know how I’m going to get through this.” And the truth is, in our own strength, we may not be able to. Like a bridge, God gives grace for the weight. Paul prayed for his thorn to be removed, but instead God told him, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” Sometimes God changes the situation, but sometimes God gives us enough grace to walk through the situation. HE WITHHOLDS NO GOOD THING. “…no good thing will he withhold…” Imagine a caring doctor who refuses to prescribe a medicine you are convinced you need because he knows it would be dangerous to mix that medicine with something else you are taking. You might not understand, but the doctor knows something you don’t know. Our God knows infinitely more.
So when God says, “No,” we can trust Him. When God says, “Not yet,” we can trust Him. When God closes a door we desperately wanted opened, we can trust Him. And when He gives us something, we can receive it knowing it has passed through the hands of a loving Father.
WHAT ABOUT YOU TODAY? Maybe today you are disappointed because something hasn’t happened the way you hoped. Don’t immediately assume God has forgotten you or that He is withholding something good from you. It may be that what looks like God keeping something from you is actually God keeping something for you. And it may be that what feels like rejection today will look a whole lot more like protection when you see it from the other side. *Sometimes God’s “No” is just as much an expression of His goodness as His “Yes.” A PRAYER TO PRAY. Lord, help me trust You when I understand what You are doing and when I don’t. Thank You for the things You give me, and help me trust You for the things You withhold from me. I trust your promise that, “…no good thing will You withhold from them that walk uprightly.” You always know what is truly good for my life. Amen. Think it over…🙏