It’s So Depressing!

Many are saying, “Who will show us anything good?” Lift up the light of Your face upon us, Lord!  Psalm 4:6  NASB

Anything good – I don’t like to watch the evening news.  I’m addicted to it, but I don’t like it.  Why?  Because it’s so depressing.  All I hear about is the utter corruption and destructive division of the political machine.  Is there any common sense?  No, I don’t think so.  Ideology shreds common sense no matter what the consequences.  It’s hard for me to even listen to the drivel and irrational verbiage, but every time I decide not to pay any attention, another talking head spouts more insanity.  And I react.  Who will show us anything good?

That seems to be the plight of the poet.  “Many are saying” introduces his insight.  And yes, it’s true, many, perhaps most, are saying that there’s nothing good happening in our world, whether it’s the 10^th century BCE of the 21^st Century CE.  We all want good news, but what we get is mostly discouraging.  However—and this is the important qualifier—the translators have added just one word to this verse that pushes us toward the therapist’s couch.  That word is “anything.”  You see, the Hebrew text doesn’t really ask if there is anything good.  It asks a much more fundamental question.  Chabad captures it better:

“Many say, ‘Who will show us goodness?’ Raise up over us the light of Your countenance, O Lord.”  Chabad

The Hebrew text is ṭôb, unqualified.  That is, “good,” pure and simple.  Bowling comments:

“This root refers to ‘good’ or ‘goodness’ in its broadest senses. Five general areas of meaning can be noted: 1) practical, economic, or material good, 2) abstract goodness such as desirability, pleasantness, and beauty, 3) quality or expense, 4) moral goodness, and 5) technical philosophical good.”^[1]  When the translators add “anything,” the verse makes us think that we are looking for specific examples of good things.  Nice news.  Beautiful sunsets.  Happy families.  Things like that.  But this isn’t what “many are saying.”  The question is really, “Where will I find goodness?”  “Where can I discover the true sense of what it good?”  Not in any specified list, but rather in the wholesomeness of existence.  And the answer is, “in God’s face.”  Real goodness, the kind of goodness that transcends all the chaos and insanity of our world, in not found in the world.  It’s found in God’s favor toward the world, including you and me.  Paul wrote, “in Him we live and move and have our being,” and if we can’t find the goodness of God in living, moving, and being, then the news is not good—not at all.  We won’t find goodness in the gods of a world as broken like this one, but we can find goodness in God.  If He shine His face toward us, then life is worth living.  Otherwise, it’s just a long depressing road to the end.

Topical Index: goodness, ṭôb, Psalm 4:6

^[1] Bowling, A. (1999). 793 טוֹב. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 345). Moody Press.