With praise and thanksgiving, they sang to the Lord: "He is good; his love toward Israel endures forever." And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy" (Ezra 3:11-12).

"God is good, all the time; all the time, God is good."

Many of us have declared this. But some of us may not use it very well, that is, we only use it when we have experienced something which we consider good.

For example: when someone is in a car accident but unhurt and the insurance payout is good. Or when someone loses a job but quickly gets a better one. Or when cancer treatments are successful so that the doctor declares 'cancer free.' Or when we think we failed a test, but the teacher gives us a B+.

It's vastly more difficult to say, 'God is good,' after the doctor says there is no more treatment, or the accident results in permanent injury, or the job lose results in extended unemployment, or the test result is a D-.

So, this raises an important question: is God only good some of the time? Does God take time off from being good? Of course, he doesn't. "God is good all the time."

This is what the Israelites were declaring as they rejoiced and cried together. They had returned from exile, cleaned up some of the rubble in Jerusalem and begun to rebuild the temple. When the foundation had been laid, they paused to give praise to God. They created a such a loud noise it could be heard for miles around. However, people heard both crying and rejoicing.

The older folks had seen the temple that Solomon had built. This new one wasn't going to be anything as grand as the old one. They recognized that Israel had been reduced to little more than a stump of the tree it had once been. The new temple was symptomatic of that.

Yet, they declared, God is good.

Why? Because God's love endures forever. Those older folks new this better than the young. They were the ones who had seen Israel's sin, and they knew that the exile had been a result of this sin. Israel had done it to herself. God should have given up on them. But he hadn't. He had moved Cyrus to let Israel return to her own land, the land God had given them.

God's goodness was seen in his faithfulness despite Israel's sin. God was and is good. They saw it in this new Jewish community centred in the temple. God's goodness enables us to endure downturns. It is important to praise God, to declare that God is good, even when life is not. When we don't feel like it, praise becomes an act of faith. It's a declaration that God will see us through the darkness. And at times it is also a declaration that God will see us or a loved one through the vale of death. Jesus is our shepherd even then.

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May your day end with rejoicing at the wonders he has shown you. May you rest in his provision as he brings night, and then new dawn.