Daily Manna · Day 305 · November 1
Good to All
“The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.”
You can believe that God is good in general and still suspect that He is not good to you. Most people who have prayed a long time about one thing know exactly how that feels.
So look at the small word the psalm uses for where His mercies are: "his tender mercies are over all his works." They are "over" His works the way a roof is over a house. A roof covers the parts nobody would choose. It covers the rooms nobody visits and the corner where the damp gets in. A roof does not inspect each room before it covers it, and that is what makes it a roof. A reward would only go to the rooms that had earned it.
Psalm 145 is an acrostic, a poem whose verses begin with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet in order. Its drumbeat is the word "all." "The LORD is good to all." "All thy works shall praise thee." "The eyes of all wait upon thee." It is also a serious psalm, and that is worth saying. Near the end it says, "but all the wicked will he destroy." So the psalm takes evil seriously, and it still tells you how far God's roof reaches while the house stands.
You were made by Him, and that is the only qualification this verse asks for. You meet it whether or not this season looks like proof of anything.
So you are free to go looking for the small signs of His goodness. You do not need to make it an exercise, and you do not need to start tonight if you are too tired. But the next time you notice one, take it as part of the roof rather than as chance: the cup of tea somebody made you, the fact that you slept, the message from your sister that came at just the right hour. The God who is good to all has not left you out.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 305 is Smote the Rock Twice (Numbers 20:11).