Rachel Whisman

For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.

-Psalm 84:12

No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly

That is a reassuring promise. It can bring comfort when life seems to be going your way, but unsettling when it’s not. What good could come in the easy, monotonous, and difficult seasons of life from our Father’s hand? He says He doesn’t withhold any good. What does that look like? What does scripture say?

…in the joys of life

We are more prone to delight in these times. Everything seems easy. Much effort isn’t needed. Motivation isn’t lacking. Good seems to abound everywhere you look. God can seem very near and dear. 

He does not withhold from all, “For He makes His sun rise on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). 

He does not withhold good days, “In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him” (Ecclesiastes 7:14). 

He does not withhold us from seeing good, “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in God” (Psalm 34:8). 

…in the mundane

Boring, absent, dull. It could be from doing the same routine that has you bogged down. It could be the stress of trying to sit down and study again for another test. Maybe you are single and you come home to an empty house day after day. You do the same tasks of unloading your lunchbox from work, preparing dinner, cleaning dishes, preparing your meal for the next day, and then having a night by yourself that makes your skin crawl as you experience the same thing over and over again. I know I can relate to that one. On the other hand, you might be married with kids and you have a stack of dishes in the sink that need to be washed, diapers to be changed, clothes to be folded, and dinner to prepare. The mundane can become wearisome, but God is not absent and does not withhold good in the midst of it. 

He does not withhold encouragement to the fainthearted, “And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ” (Philippians 1:6). 

He does not withhold His power as it seems useless, “He is NOT weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. For He was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God” (2 Corinthians 13:3-4).  

He does not withhold promise, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9). 

….in the trials

Dark, clouded, numbing, and hazy. Sense of direction is lost. Balance is unsteady and when you hear “no good thing does He withhold” we can be quick to scoff at the Lord. It can seem like a lie because the good that we truly want, we might not be getting. Our true convictions are illuminated in the absence of light. Yet, these words, “No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly” will always be more secure than the seasons that rock us. This is where faith is placed in the fire, and is formed to be fortified, “so that the tested genuineness of your faith-more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire- may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7). No good thing does He withhold. 

He does not withhold His Spirit to intercede, “the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit intercedes according to the will of God” (Romans 8:26). 

He does not withhold His promise to comfort us in our afflictions, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction” (2 Corinthians 1:3). 

He did not withhold His Son from experiencing what we have experienced so that we would not be alone, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). 

He did not withhold His Son from suffering, “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). 

He did not withhold His Son from experiencing pain like we do. Yet His was far greater, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Isaiah 53:10). 

…in our Savior Jesus 

No matter what you are going through, “No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” We can not walk upright unless we have Jesus. He is the “founder and perfector of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). We have no capabilities on our own as Jesus reminds us in John, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in Him, he is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” As believers, we have Christ. Christ has been given to us. The ultimate “No good thing does He withhold” is in our Savior, Jesus Christ. He is our ultimate good. Everything else should pale in comparison. Whether our days are light-hearted, repetitive, or sorrowful, we remain hopeful because God knew what our greatest need was and He gave us Himself. We have Jesus. We have His words in the Bible for us to savor. We have His Spirit, to guide us. We have prayer. We have the privilege to talk with God. We have His body, the Church, to know Him better and serve Him. All these are good things that God did not withhold from us who are in Christ. What a blessing. It is fititng that this Psalm that this verse is in ends with the following.

“O Lord of hosts; blessed is the one who trusts in You.” Psalm 84:11