Why God Doesn’t Give Us Everything We Want | Psalm 84:1-12

Show Notes

Episode 805:
In this episode, we read from Psalm 84, reflecting on its themes of longing for God's presence and the joy that comes from trusting in Him. We emphasize the verse that states, "The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right," discussing the implications of this promise. We clarify that while God may not give us everything we desire, He will not withhold what is truly good for us.

What is The Bible Guys?

Whether you’ve been following Jesus for years or you’re just starting to ask questions, there’s a seat for you here.

Join Jeff and Chris for honest conversations about Scripture, faith, and the everyday stuff we all navigate. With humor, personal stories, and plenty of back-and-forth, The Bible Guys explore what the Bible says and how it connects to your life.

Subscribe, bring your questions, and get to know the Bible one conversation at a time. Head over to TheBibleGuys.com for more information!

You're listening to the Bible guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Good everybody, Good afternoon. Wow, it's uff you're gonna. Do talk the whole night through, Good afternoon, good afternoon? Do you and you? And Well? This week we discovered, after only eight hundred episodes, we finally cared enough to find out when are people listening to us? And it seems like the more people listen on the drive home from work time play Afternoon than like four o'clock to seven o'clock. Yeah, it looks like it. Then even in the morning. Yeah, yeah, I mean we have people listening all day long, twenty four hours a day, but yeah, it seems like the majority is right there in that time slot. We've always been singing good morning to everybody. So I just thought i'd pop in on the Good Appa. Well, you know, I'm not gonna let it ruin my mornings. You're just listening. I'm gonna keep doing mornings. Okay. So Chris, by the way, I just want to hint that tell our audience that right as the role I was coming through, we both looked at the scription and said, oh, my goodness, we have turned as so many four. Yes, I just want to announce that I get there much quicker. Did you get there before me? Oh? Way, way quicker? Actually, okay, yeah, way quicker. All right, well you get a gold star after I had a birthday. Yeah, yeah, you get you get a gold star after we're finished, Jeff. Okay. So the segment that does has for us is let's ask chat GPT. Yes, and this is the part of the show where we hand over control the artificial intelligence, because apparently that's how every good horror movie starts. Wow. Today's Halloween. Wow. Right, So since it's Halloween, we told chat GPT to dig up some funny stories, some ridiculous jokes, or random halloween chaos. Basically, we said, hey, robot, get weird. That's really funny. So here we go. So you did it right, you typed it in. I did, and you asked what did you ask chat GPT? I said, our segment on the Bible guys tells me quote. Since it's Halloween, let's see what funny stories, jokes are random Halloween chaos chat ChiPT can come up with. Okay, unquote, so please give me some great funny or amazing stuff to share. Okay, so I literally gave it Dez's instructions. Just and whatever whatever this weird robot wants to do. And then it said, this perfect setup smiley face. Since it's for the Bible Guys and it's Halloween, let's mix it up for a clean, funny, surprising and Bible guy's appropriate chaos. Good. I'm glad it's gonna be clean. Okay, So yeah, yeah, that's a good one. Okay. So it said, and there's categories. Here's the category of Halloween jokes. And then it says Bible Guys style. Okay, okay. Why didn't the skeleton go trick or treating because you didn't have the guts? Oh no, what kind of makeup do go? Swear? I don't know, mask, scaa, masks, scare okay, all right. Why do demons and ghuls hang out together? I don't know, because demons are a ghul's best friend. That friend. Okay, okay, that's a good one. What do you call a witch who lives at the beach? I don't know. Sandwich sandwich? Oh? I should mummies take time off? I don't know, because they're afraid to unwind? Why are the Bible. Why excuse me, why was the Bible so good at Halloween parties? I don't know, because they had plenty of spirits. Oh and then finally, what did the ghosts say to the preacher? I don't know. I join your sermon, but I'm already in the spirits. So two spirit jokes, okay. And then it says Bible meets Halloween clean comedy skits or lines. These are terrible. I'm skipping over that. Okay, thank you. And then it says random Halloween chaos like the Pumpkin Gone Wrong gospel, that these are terrible ideas. Okay, okay, okay, So but there was there was another one here here? It does I like this if Bible characters went trick or treating. Okay, okay, and there's only a few of these, okay, Uh, Moses, Moses. Let my people go to the next house. Oh no, yeah, come on, this is ten year old Moses here, Come on, my people go to the next house. That's right, okay, Jonah, I'd love some candy, but no fish shape gummies please. Okay, all right, Samson says, I do love those little red what are those? Those those sweetish fish? Yeah, sweetsh fish. Yeah, so I don't know what happens to me because I'm not like that kind of candy person. But sweedish fish. Yeah, I'll eat the whole box, and still we sticking my hand in the empty box looking for more. Huh. I don't know why I love them. Huh. Anyways, go ahead. There was a There was a movie by Lindsay Lohan was the daughter and uh Kelly Preston was the mother, and they were in a band together. It was about a stepfather. I fit the name of it. But they would say, she said, I love you a million green M and m's, and she'd say, she goes, I love you a million sweetish. Fish, sweetish fish. Okay, there you go, for. No reason at all. There's the rand thing, okay, Samson, no need for a costume. My hair is all the talking, okay. And then finally, noah, I I brought my wife and two of every kind of neighbor. Okay, weren't weren't That. Was really good? Okay, that wasn't funny. No, that's it. Okay, that's it. That's where I go. It gave me more of but that was it for me? Okay. Well, hey, uh So do you do you go through your kids or did you go through all your kids candy and get the best stuff? I believe or not? No, because I'm not a candy. You know, a candy I forgot? Yeah, yeah, yeah, And this was like that one time year I could send my kids out to the neighbor's house and get all the best stuff, and then I come back and go, I got to check it for razor blades. And what I meant was I got to check it for all the receason. That's yeah, check it fores it's good. Oh well, good man, I like good chalk. That's good stuff. So I don't really have a transition for this one to use. Arba uh no. Let me see. I'm so sorry. No good thing goes. Does he withhold is the promise today? Yeah? I'm eighty four. Yes, So God's not gonna hold back on the reces. Oh yeah, God's gonna give God's gonna give you the best Halloween candy if you if you trick or treat, trick or treated in the mansion behind the pearly gates, because technically God doesn't live in a mansion, but that's okay. He's gonna give you the best candy available? How about that? You think? So? Maybe ding dong? And you know why, I was too busy doing something on my phone. I'll give you one. Guess you're texting? Nope, no, not not during the Bible. Guys, Okay, I don't know what are you doing? Are you asking chet gpt something? Why is Jeff so handsome? Uh? It's what a girl wants. Oh the movie? You look the movie which because you couldn't let it. Go by the way, That's where I was going to say it was. Oh, but I didn't think it was well Lindsay Lowhane, I thought that was h Amanda Bynes. Huh so Psalm eighty four says this. Are you ready you know what I got it wrong? It was it was Amanda Bynds. It wasn't Lindsay Luyn Okay, so it wasn't Lindsay the Son of a gun. Okay. Well, now you learned people were riveted. That was important. Yeah, I know, I know they took a lot of time. This is God's living presence in our is our greatest joy. That's what this is all about today. And the promise is no good thing does he withhold? And this is all about the provision of God. So Psal maybe four says, how lovely is your dwelling place, O, Lord of Heaven's Armies. I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the Lord. With my whole being, body and soul. I will shout joyfully to the Living God. Even the sparrow finds a home, and swallow builds her nest and raises her young at a place near your altar. O, Lord of Heaven's Armies, my King and my God. What joy for those who can live in your house always singing your praises. What joy for those whose strength comes from the Lord, who have set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. When they walk through the Valley of Weeping, it will become a place of refreshing springs. The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings. They will continue to grow stronger, and each of them will appear before God in Jerusalem. O, Lord, God of Heaven's Armies, hear my prayer. Listen, O God of Jacob, Oh, God, look with favor upon the king our shield. Show favor to the one you have anointed. A single day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God than live the good life in the homes of the wicked. For the Lord God is our son and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. And the Lord will withhold nothing good, no good thing, from those who do what is right. Oh, Lord of Heaven's armies, What joy for those who trust in you. So the big verse is for the Lord. For the Lord God is our son and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what. Is right, withhold no good thing. He will withhold no good thing. Which again, it's not saying he would give every good thing. It doesn't say he will give you every good thing. It does not say vote for Pedro, He'll make all your wildness dreams come true. That's right, vote for paid, vote for Summer. No, it's it's not that it is it is, Okay, all these movie quotes are going through my head. So sorry, See what'd you do to me? I'm sorry. No, what I was going to say is it doesn't say that he's going to give you every good thing. It just says that by the nature of God, he will not withhold any good thing. Right, It's sort of like it's sort of like in Romans Yesterday. It's sort of in the same category, right, because it says if Jesus Christ, if God gave Jesus Christ, then he's not going to hold anything else back. So it's sort of the same principle. It's the idea that it's saying that, hey, if you're a person who does what is right, if you seek him first, you know, if you have good intentions and good heart, if you're a believer, you're a follower, you acknowledge God as lord of your life. He's never going to see a good thing and look at you and say, no, I'm going to hold that back. Now, whether he chooses to give it or not, it's a different story because sometimes he chooses to give some things and sometimes he doesn't. And that's that's a whole other category of why. And you know, fairness and in God's perfect plan and timing and his will and all. I mean, those are massive categories. So we can't we can't just you know, assume he's going to give us all good things, but not that he's not going to look at you and say, you know what, I'm going to hold this good thing back from my child because you. Want so, you know, we love the Life Application Study Bible. Yeah, and the note here for verse eleven. Right, so the Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right. The note says this verse does not promise that God will give us everything we think is good, but that he will not withhold from us what is permanently good. It's a big difference. Yeah, right. What we want is we wanted to give us what we think is good, and God saying I'm not going to hold back anything that is permanently good or perfectly good for you. He will give us the means to walk along his paths, but we must do the walking when we obey him. He will not hold anything back that will help us serve him. And so in that then, as we're on mission, because remember this is the king and he's singing this praise to God. As a matter of fact, at what point he says he asks him to help the king. Do you remember that part? Yeah, Oh, God, look with favor upon the king our shield. It's the king, the king's job to protect the people right, right, So again that's almost in the middle, not quite, but towards the middle of the message here of this this this passage, and he's saying, show favor to the one you've anoined. God. I've got a job and I'm doing what you anointed me to do. And it's in that context I'm doing what you made me to do, so I can have confidence that You're not going to hold back anything I need to do it, right, that's great, and uh, you know, doing God's mission, God's way will never like God's resources. Right And then so who is at Hudson Taylor used to say that, yeah, yeah, and uh, that's true that this is what I said. Then let me let me highlight this. I love the term the name of God, the Lord, God of Heaven's Armies. Yeah, is maybe, maybe maybe one of my favorite names in the Bible. So one of our friends started a church in the area and call it Heaven's. Armies, Heaven's Armies, and that that idea of you thinking about how powerful God is and how strong he is. Here's a king who has spent a big part of his career having to defend the people of Israel from raiders like the Philistines and others. Yeah, and he refers to his God as the God of Heaven's armies, not of Israel's armies, right, but of Heaven's armies, which is pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. And I think we talked about this before in the past, but most people believe that there are millions of angels, right, millions, And so just the idea that God would have this vast army is I mean, it's I think it's supported in scripture, the idea that God has this tremendous, powerful army. And so yeah, the Lord of Heaven, Heaven's armies puts him as the king, doesn't it, Yes, and the powerful king at that, and so it does say that, you know, just like he wants God to look at look favor upon his king. The shield, you know, it actually says in verse eleven our main verse for the Lord God is our son. In our shield. It gives us grace and glory. The Lord will withhold no good thing. So you know, there's the Bible talks about how when Jesus was on the cross, he could have called the whole legion of angels to come and rescue him, you know, and you think of that power and then hear David saying, the Lord of Heaven's armies will not hold back anything that I need to fulfill his mission. So I was just looking up, how powerful is one angel? Oh? That's great, not a thousand angels, but one angel, one angel. And in tewod King's chapter nineteen, verse thirty five, it says that night the angel Lord went out and put to death one hundred and eighty five thousand in the Assyrian camp. One angel wipes out an army of one hundred and eighty five thousand people. Now see, because I think in terms of like scenes and movies, Yeah, I'm thinking like, did he do you like, you know, punch the ground like thor and everybody just blew back? Right? Yeah, We're like Hella when she threw the eternal flame and then everybody glew green, you know, glow green. Or was it more like okay, here we go, you know, roll up the sleeves and we're going to take them on one by one and it's more like the matrix, you know, fighting off everybody, you know, coming at him one at a time. Right, did it take all night or did it take one second? Yeah? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, but one hundred and eighty five kind of the I hope it took all night. I kind of do too. I kind of do too. Just flinging body parts, right, right, right, that's horrible. But so so here's the really cool thing. In Psalm one O three, King David says he refers to the angels as the mighty ones who do God's bidding and who obey his word. So you think about that. So for him to say, God is the Lord of Heaven's armies. So David had a pretty tough army, right, He was never defeated in a major battle. He never lost his kingdom to outside armies. He defeated the people who were always oppressing the Israelites up to that point, there arch enemies. He was a pretty great warrior. The Bible describes only him. Does the Bible describe his mighty men. He had thirty mighty men, right, these mighty special forces guys, and it talks about how absurdly effective and tough they were. Right, So David is one of the great warrior kings of Israel, and he's talking about his God. Who's Who's the lord God of Heaven's armies? He's the ruler of Heaven's armies, and one angel wipes out an army of one hundred and eighty five thousand. The Bible says he could have called ten thousand angels come and help Jesus, right, yeah, And then each one of these angels, according to Psalm one O three, they're mighty ones who do God's bidding and who obey his work. Did I ever tell you about the moment when I, uh, when I played that out and I described that scene, and then this kid in the youth group embarrassed me so literally. I was reading, I was reading from the scripture, and I said, I said, Jesus could have Jesus could have called down ten thousand, and my whole point was I was trying to create a scenario where God could have done something right. But he didn't do it because he went to the cross, because it says for the joy set before him. So I was preaching, right, so I said, I said, I said, so, so Jesus on the cross, I said, he looks up at the gray, cloudy sky and he gives a single nod, I said, and then one hundred thousand angels swooped down with flaming swords, and I said, and they circle all around, and all everybody there in the Roman camp was dismayed, and I said, and all these kind of things, I just created this massive scenario, right, and they come over and they burn his ropes, and all of a sudden, the spikes fall out, and then Jesus just jumps off the cross and you know, all of a sudden he's healed, and and I'm doing all these things, and uh, you know, and then I think I even described perhaps him going back up in the glory or something, right, you know, it gets on the cloud, turns around, you know whatever, and I get done, and I was about to go to the serious part. So I was having fun, right, just creating this movie scene whatever. And then and then during the pause, I was gonna say, but he didn't. And right for the pause, the kid goes, dude, you've seen way too many movies, and everybody laughed, and I'm like, there goes my dramatic effect, right, there goes everything I built for for the past three minutes. He just destroyed it because he made everybody laugh. Yeah. Yeah, anyway, Well it's that kind of power that David then has so much confidence that Hey, my God, I'm a king, and I know what it means to have power. But let me tell you I have just a little shadow of power compared to the Lord of Heaven's armies. Yeah, and he's the. One I'm relying so right, becka dust. So then there's no wonder that this magnificent king says a single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else, that there is one Dayah, that's where the song comes from. He said, As a matter of fact, I'm the king. My job is to be the shield for this nation. I need your power. But dude, I would just as soon be the gatekeeper at your house yep, than to be the shield over my own house. Right. And because the Lord God is our son, and he's our shield, and he's the one who gives us grace and glory. And it's in that context that the Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what it's right. So he's trying to do his job, and he's trusting the fact that this incredibly powerful God will provide everything I need. But he's also saying, man, of course, you deserve all of my worship, as if a king is willing to get down off of his own throne, pull back his robes, and kneel before another king. Maybe that's the king we should pay attention to. Yeah, right, that's great. You know what I love? I love this last verse. We can't overlook that verse because right after he leads up to everything, and then he gives the promise that we were focusing on, which is, you know, he's our son, our shields who give us grace and glory. He'll withhold no good thing for those who do it is right. And then he says, oh, Lord of Heaven's armies, what joy for those who trust in you. So what he's saying is, after all these promises, after everything that we know about God being willing to not hold anything back. He then adds and says, he's almost like reflecting on this idea that God won't hold anything back for those who do his right. And he says, oh, Lord of Heaven's Armies, what joy? And he doesn't describe anything else other than Wow, how much joy is waiting for those who trust in you? And I think that it sometimes over sometimes is overlooked, because after all, this is at its very root a giving verse, isn't it. This is a giving principle, well, not about us, it's a giving principle about God, who God is. And then and what he's saying is when God gives, then joy you know is waiting for us. And so therefore we could actually believe it or not just by principle based on who God is. We can apply that principle to our finances. In the financial verses, they talk about hey, as God gives to us, we give back to God. And then God promises to bless us in ways you know that we necessarily don't. You know, we can't necessarily determine the ways that He blesses us, but we know they come with blessings, and so therefore we give back to God. God gives us. We give back to God. And then what does God do? You cannot outgive God. So God then continues to give right and then we can apply this what joy waits for those who trust in you. So this principle that who God is can be applied to any giving principle I believe. Yeah, well that's awesome. Yeah, you know that phrase what joy? It comes up in verse four, What joy for those who can live in your house always singing your praises. In David's day, the Holy spirit didn't dwell in them. They had to go to the temple to worship. Sure, right, they had to go to God's house. Now in Corinthians, Paul tells us, we are God's temple, We are God's house, so we always have this joy that David only could have when he was in the temple, right, right, So you and I have it all the time. And then the next one says, what joy for those whose strength comes from the Lord who set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. This set their minds on being able to go to God's temple. Well, you are God's temple, so now at this point it's going to visit with God, going to spend time with God. Who've set their minds on spending time with God? What joy for those whose strength comes from the Lord? So he says, what joy for those who are able to always be singing your praises? What joy from them? For those who strength always comes from the Lord. And then, as you mentioned, what joy for those who trust in you? Yeah? Yeah, one God gives because he got one hold back. And you know why I think this is a thing, because right, in the middle. He says, help me out, because I'm my nation's shield, and that's a big responsibility. I'm the king. You can imagine the stress of this, especially when it's always only invaders all the time. I think I was going to have the audacity to say I think so, but that is absurd. Yeah, I cannot even come close to I think so. So. I think the reason why he's saying, man, there's so much joy for me when I understand my strength comes from the Lord. I got my part to do, but there's even more joy just knowing I'm trusting him. It takes all the pressure off, not all of it, you know, he still has to have the strength to go out and fight the battles and be the shield. But he says, I'm trusting you to be the shield. He says that earlier, and then he says, what joy there is when I'm just trusting you? He said, it takes a lot of the pressure off of me because I'm finding my power and my strength in you, and so I don't have to be the man. I don't have to show up with all the answers because I'm putting my faith and trust in you. And I think what you're feeling is the relief of a powerful man finding satisfaction and provision from a more powerful God. That's good. And that's what he's saying is I find a lot of joy in that. There's celebration, the whole thing is just it's all joy. Yeah. Well that's great. Yeah he's got a big job, but God's bigger. That's great. Well, hey, that's great insight about that chapter and that looks like our time, so hopefully we will see you back on Monday on the Bible. Guys,