What is godliness?

 

READ Psalm 86–90

The dictionaries say that a godly person is someone who is deeply religious and shows obedience to the rules of their religion. This word is usually associated with moral uprightness, devotion to God. This morning I noticed that the psalmist says he is godly, but the rest of what he says is not at all about himself. Instead, he mostly writes about the reasons he trusts God. In other words, his godliness is more about God than himself.

Preserve my life, for I am godly; save your servant, who trusts in you—you are my God. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all the day. Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you . . . . Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer; listen to my plea for grace. In the day of my trouble I call upon you, for you answer me . . . . For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name . . . . I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. (Psalm 86:2–12)

A godly person is one who is saved by God, trusts God, experiences God’s grace, depends on God, gets his forgiveness and joy from God, His help during troubles, teaching in how to walk in His truth and change in the way he thinks and acts. A godly person is thankful and wants to glorify God and not himself. Godliness is a God-thing, and points to God, not me.

A godly person stands before God like an empty vessel, crying out to be filled with God’s good things. This does not mean total passivity; godly people pray. Nor does it mean God puts them in a rose garden; godly people suffer, sometimes from persecution and sometimes when God seems to hide His face and leave us without the sense of His presence:

Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry! For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol . . . . You have caused my companions to shun me; you have made me a horror to them. I am shut in so that I cannot escape; my eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day I call upon you, O Lord; I spread out my hands to you . . . . O Lord, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me? Afflicted and close to death from my youth up, I suffer your terrors; I am helpless. Your wrath has swept over me; your dreadful assaults destroy me. (88:2–16)

A godly person understands that God is sovereign and rules all in righteousness and justice. He punishes sin but keeps His promises and does not cast away His people:

O Lord God of hosts, who is mighty as you are, O Lord, with your faithfulness all around you? You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them . . . . The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours; the world and all that is in it, you have founded them . . . . Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you . . . . If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules, if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes, but I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips. (89:8–34)

Godly people seek God in everything, knowing that He is their source of everything:

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! (90:14–17)

The Lord reminds me of what He has done to give me all I need to be a godly person:

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. (2 Peter 1:3–4)

What a wonderful God who grants true godliness to His people!