“my good above all others”

I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
I have no good apart from you.” (Psalm 16:2)

It’s been almost two weeks since I posted–and not a particularly positive two weeks, either. I’m not sure what season of life I’m in, but I do know it’s been a test. Perhaps I’ve been having what some call a “wilderness experience”; I have felt at times as if I were circling the same thing over and over, much like the Israelites circling that mountain for forty years. It’s hard for me to imagine: to think at 42 I might have spent my entire life in the desert!

In the past few days, though, some things have changed–or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I have changed, am changing. Instead of having only a mountain of problems constantly in my view, I am heading toward something better; the Promised Land is in sight.

Truly, in the last week, a number of good things have happened, and I hope to share those here in the next few days. Perhaps that’s why this verse from the Psalms caught my attention this morning in The Divine Hours. The translation above is the ESV, and it renders this verse much as the other translations do; that all the good we have or experience comes from God. The New Living Translation says, “Every good thing comes from You!”

This concept is hardly new; James tells us that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.” Perhaps that’s why the rendering included in The Dvine Hours caught my attention; throughout this prayer book, the Psalms are taken from The Book of Common Prayer (BCP). Here’s how I read it this morning:

I have said to the Lord, “You are my Lord, my good above all others.”

When I saw this at the start of today’s prayers, I immediately stopped and looked it up because it sounded unfamiliar. As you can see, the BCP offers a slightly different wording, but it makes more than a slight difference in meaning. It’s rather like the difference between telling my wife Teddie “I love you” and “you are the love of my life”; both are good things to say, but the second puts Teddie in a different position.

In the BCP, God moves from being the only source of the good in my life to being the good in my life. The two concepts are not mutually exclusive, but the second is more powerful. It shifts my attention from what He does to who He is.

As I’ve noted before, I’m no Hebrew scholar, but from what I can tell of the various translations, both versions are possible. I like what the BCP says, because it turns my gaze from the blessings I’ve experienced lately to God Himself. Teddie likes to hear that I love her, but she would rather hear that I love her more than all others, that she is the one. Likewise, I suspect that while God appreciates it when we thank Him for what He’s done, He would much rather hear, “Father, thank You for being You.”

If you’re like me, you’ve probably thought some in the last week about the things you are thankful for; God got a lot of attention last Thursday for all His blessings. I’m going to spend this week considering God Himself as I meditate on this verse: “You are my Lord, my good above all others.”

Tagged as: Book of Common Prayer, God, good, Psalms, thanks, The Divine Hours