There are times when life just isn’t great. Sometimes that’s putting it mildly.
Maybe it’s your health. Maybe it’s someone you love. Maybe something is happening in your family that you never expected. Maybe you’ve been praying about the same situation for a long time, and nothing seems to be changing.
Those seasons can do more than make life difficult. Eventually, they can begin to affect the way we think about God.
Most Christians probably aren’t going to come right out and say, “I’m starting to wonder if God is really good.” But we can wonder why He allowed something to happen. We can become discouraged when He doesn’t answer a prayer the way we hoped. We can look at our circumstances and struggle to make sense of them.
So how do we keep seeing God’s goodness when life doesn’t go the way we hoped?
Psalm 103 gives us a surprisingly practical answer.
David remembers.
He looks back at what God has done. He remembers who God has revealed Himself to be. And when life feels uncertain, he lifts his eyes and remembers that God is still on the throne.
That gives us a simple truth to hold onto when life is hard:
Remember God’s goodness.
1. Look Back at What God Has Done
Psalm 103 begins with David speaking to his own soul and telling himself to bless the Lord (Psalm 103:1).
That tells us something important. David isn’t simply following his emotions. He is deliberately directing his attention toward God.
Then, in Psalm 103:2, David tells himself not to forget God’s benefits.
That word forget gets to the heart of the problem.
We can know what God has done and still lose sight of its significance. We can remember the facts but begin living as though they never happened.
Our problems have a way of doing that.
One thing goes wrong, and suddenly it becomes the only thing we can see. We focus on the prayer God hasn’t answered and forget the prayers He has answered. We focus on what we’ve lost and forget how many times He has provided. We become consumed with the trouble we are facing today and forget all the other trouble He has already carried us through.
That is why David deliberately begins remembering.
In Psalm 103:3–5, he looks back over God’s work in his life. God has forgiven, healed, rescued, shown steadfast love and mercy, provided what is good, and renewed him.
None of that means David’s life was easy. We know from the rest of Scripture that it wasn’t. These verses don’t erase the painful parts of David’s story.
They remind us that the painful parts were not the whole story.
What Does “Heals All Your Diseases” Mean?
Psalm 103:3 describes God as the One who heals disease. That doesn’t mean Christians are promised immediate physical healing from every sickness.
David himself eventually died. Scripture makes it clear that faithful people become sick, experience physical weakness, and eventually die.
Instead, David is recognizing God as the source of healing and restoration. Every time our bodies recover, every day our lives are sustained, and every instance of healing ultimately comes under His gracious care.
For Christians, there is also a future dimension to this hope. Our ultimate hope is not that our present bodies will never become sick. It is the resurrection, when disease and death will finally be defeated.
That makes Psalm 103 realistic about suffering without allowing suffering to have the final word.
Remember God’s Past Faithfulness
When life doesn’t feel good, it is easy to think only about what is wrong.
Psalm 103 calls us to remember deliberately.
You may not understand what God is doing in your life right now. You may not know why He has allowed a particular situation to continue. Remembering God’s goodness doesn’t require pretending that it doesn’t hurt.
But while you are looking at what is still wrong, don’t forget what God has already done.
If you belong to Jesus Christ, begin with the greatest thing He has done for you: He has forgiven your sin.
Then keep going.
How has God provided for you? What prayers has He answered? What difficulties has He already carried you through? How has He sustained you when you didn’t think you had anything left?
Sometimes we need to tell our own souls: Don’t forget what God has done for you.
2. Remember Who God Has Revealed Himself to Be
Remembering past experiences is important, but sometimes it isn’t enough.
You can remember what God did before and still have no idea what He is doing now.
That is why Psalm 103 moves from what God has done to who God is.
In Psalm 103:6–8, David reaches back to God’s dealings with Israel and especially His revelation of Himself to Moses in Exodus 34:6–7.
The context of Exodus 34 matters.
Israel had already experienced an incredible deliverance from Egypt, but while Moses was on Mount Sinai, they rebelled against God and worshiped the golden calf. Yet in the aftermath of that rebellion, God revealed Himself to Moses as merciful, gracious, patient, and abundant in steadfast love.
David isn’t guessing about God’s character based on his circumstances. He is remembering what God has said about Himself.
That distinction matters when life is hard.
Don’t Let Your Circumstances Define God
When something painful happens, we can start working backward from our circumstances.
If God allowed this, maybe He doesn’t care.
If He hasn’t answered this prayer, maybe He isn’t listening.
If someone continues getting away with what they’ve done, maybe God isn’t going to do anything about it.
We may never say those things aloud, but we can begin living as though they are true.
David takes the opposite approach.
He doesn’t use his circumstances to determine what God is like. He uses what God has revealed about Himself to interpret his circumstances.
Psalm 103:6 reminds us that God is righteous and just. Psalm 103:8 reminds us that He is merciful, gracious, patient, and overflowing in steadfast love.
Those things were true when Israel safely crossed the Red Sea. They were still true when Israel sinned at Mount Sinai.
They were true when David sat securely on the throne. They were still true when his life was falling apart.
And they are still true in whatever you are facing today.
God Knows How Weak We Are
Psalm 103 also gives us one of Scripture’s most comforting descriptions of God’s compassion.
In Psalm 103:13–14, David compares God’s compassion to that of a father toward his children. God knows our frame and remembers that we are dust.
Sometimes we become frustrated with our own weakness.
We think we should be handling things better. We should be stronger. We should understand more. We should recover faster. Other people may even have trouble understanding why something is so difficult for us.
God doesn’t.
He knows exactly how we were made because He made us.
God is never surprised by our limitations. He doesn’t discover our weakness and suddenly realize He overestimated us.
That doesn’t excuse sin, but it should comfort us in our weakness.
God knows how frail we are, and He has compassion on us.
God’s Love Outlasts Our Lives
Psalm 103:15–18 contrasts the brevity of human life with the permanence of God’s steadfast love.
Our lives are compared to grass and flowers. We flourish for a while, but our lives pass quickly.
We get older. Our bodies change. Our strength fades. Eventually, every one of us reaches the end of this life.
But God doesn’t change with us.
Our lives are brief, but His steadfast love is everlasting.
That means our confidence in God doesn’t have to rise and fall with our circumstances. We have something far more stable to build our lives on: the revealed character of God.
3. Lift Your Eyes to the God Who Reigns
There is still one more question that difficult circumstances can raise.
Even if God is good, is He actually in control?
Psalm 103:19 answers that question by turning our attention toward God’s throne. David declares that the Lord’s throne is established in heaven and that His kingdom rules over all.
God hasn’t lost control.
That doesn’t mean everything happening in this world is good. We live in a fallen world. People rebel against God. People hurt one another. Disease and death are realities of life in a world corrupted by sin.
God doesn’t approve of evil simply because He permits it for a time.
But evil hasn’t pushed God off His throne.
Nothing happening in your life has caught Him by surprise or removed His authority.
Psalm 103:20–22 expands the call to worship from David himself to the angels, the heavenly hosts, and ultimately all of creation.
Then David ends exactly where he started: with his own soul.
He can’t control how everyone else responds to God. He can’t control everything happening around him.
But he can decide where he will place his trust.
And so can we.
You Were Never Meant to Control Everything
Most of us like to feel as though we are in control.
We make plans. We put things on the calendar. We save money. We prepare for the future. There is nothing wrong with planning wisely.
But it doesn’t take much to remind us how little control we actually have.
One phone call can change your plans. One diagnosis can change your future. Another person can make a decision that affects your entire family, and you may have no power to stop it.
When that happens, our instinct is often to fight desperately to regain control.
But you were never meant to carry the weight of controlling the world.
That throne already belongs to God.
There may be something happening in your life right now that you cannot fix. You may not understand what God is doing with it. You may have no ability to make it turn out the way you want.
But you can decide who you are going to trust.
David doesn’t end Psalm 103 with every question answered.
He ends it worshiping.
How Can God Forgive Our Sin?
There is one part of Psalm 103 that becomes even clearer when we read it in light of the gospel.
David celebrates God’s forgiveness in Psalm 103:3 and again in Psalm 103:10–12. God does not treat His people according to what their sins deserve, and He removes their transgressions completely.
But that raises an important question: How can a righteous and just God forgive guilty people?
God cannot simply pretend sin never happened.
The sacrificial system given to Israel demonstrated that sin brings death and that forgiveness requires a substitute. Those sacrifices ultimately pointed forward to Jesus Christ.
Jesus, the Son of God, lived without sin and then willingly went to the cross. He took the judgment our sin deserved upon Himself. He died, was buried, and rose from the dead.
That is how God can remain perfectly just while forgiving guilty people. Sin wasn’t ignored. Its penalty was paid by Jesus.
Forgiveness cannot be earned by becoming religious, cleaning up your life, or trying to outweigh your bad deeds with good ones.
It is received by turning from sin and placing your faith in Jesus Christ.
Three Ways to Remember God’s Goodness This Week
Psalm 103 gives us something practical to do when life isn’t going the way we hoped.
Write down God’s faithfulness. Take some time to identify specific ways God has been faithful to you. Remember prayers He has answered, times He has provided, ways He has protected you, and circumstances He has carried you through. Most importantly, remember the forgiveness He offers through Jesus Christ.
Let Scripture define God. When you don’t understand what God is doing, resist the temptation to construct your view of Him from your circumstances. Take your questions back to Scripture. Let God tell you who He is.
Worship before anything changes. Don’t make worship dependent upon receiving the answer you want. David doesn’t wait until every difficulty disappears. He worships because God remains worthy and remains on His throne.
Is God Still Good When Life Is Hard?
Psalm 103 doesn’t tell us to pretend sickness, disappointment, injustice, weakness, or loss are good.
Instead, it reminds us that those things do not change who God is.
So how do we keep seeing God’s goodness when life doesn’t go the way we hoped?
We remember.
We look back at what God has done. We remember what He has revealed about Himself. And when everything around us feels uncertain, we lift our eyes and remember that He still reigns.
The problem in front of you may be real.
But it isn’t the whole story.
Remember God’s goodness.