The Justice and Goodness of God
Great God! my Maker and my King,
Of thee I’ll speak, of thee I’ll sing;
All thou hast done, and all thou dost,
Declare thee good, proclaim thee just.
Thy ancient thoughts and firm decrees;
Thy threatenings and thy promises;
The joys of heaven, the pains of hell –
What angels taste, what devils feel;
Thy terrors and thy acts of grace;
Thy threatening rod, and smiling face;
Thy wounding and thy healing word;
A world undone, a world restored;
While these excite my fear and joy,
While these my tuneful lips employ,
Accept, O Lord, the humble song,
The tribute of a trembling tongue.
“Great God! my Maker and my King…” so begins this brief hymn. It’s a clear, sturdy hymn that sets two great attributes of God side by side: his justice and his goodness. That pairing isn’t accidental because it is the pulse of Scripture. Deuteronomy 32:4 puts it plainly:
“The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.” (Deut. 32:4, ESV)
The hymn walks us through that paradox in pastoral fashion: terror and tenderness, threatenings and promises, wounding and healing and all of them facets of the same divine character. Below, I’ll work stanza by stanza, show how the hymn belongs to Deuteronomy’s confession, and then offer practical counsel for Christians (and those we counsel) who live between God’s severity and his smiling face.
A hymn that speaks both to the head and the heart
The opening stanza sets the tone. God is Maker and King, and speaking and singing about him is the right response. Notice the confidence, “All thou hast done, and all thou dost, / Declare thee good, proclaim thee just.” Worship here is not wishful thinking, but it is testimony to what God has already shown in history and in conscience. It assumes that God’s goodness and God’s justice are not rivals but complementary truths to be held together.
This is precisely the witness of Deuteronomy 32. Moses sings of a God whose works are “perfect” and whose ways are “justice.” To the human mind, the “perfect” work of God may look like mercy to some and righteous wrath to others. The hymn refuses to limit God to a single attribute. Instead, it teaches us to sing the whole truth.
Stanza two: ancient thoughts, firm decrees, fear, and wonder
“Thy ancient thoughts and firm decrees; / Thy threatenings and thy promises; / The joys of heaven, the pains of hell…”
Here is theology with a moral spine. The hymn names God’s decrees and his threatenings alongside his promises. This can sound heavy to modern ears, and it is meant to. The Christian faith never allowed us to domesticate God into a sentimental grandparent. God’s counsels are “ancient” and “firm”; his warnings are real, and his promises are real. The same God who threatens also opens heaven. The same God who condemns sin also provides a Savior.
Pastorally, this stanza helps us correct two easy errors: (1) minimizing God’s holiness so that sin is no longer taken seriously, and (2) imagining God as only a dispenser of warm feelings. Both err. A healthy soul learns to tremble before a holy God and to hope in his promises.
Stanza three: terrors and acts of grace
“Thy terrors and thy acts of grace; / Thy threatening rod, and smiling face; / Thy wounding and thy healing word; / A world undone, a world restored;”
This is the heart of the hymn’s claim: God wounds and heals, threatens and smiles. That sounds paradoxical until we remember that justice and mercy are not two gods but two hands of the same God. Think of a surgeon who uses the scalpel to remove what would otherwise destroy, and the same surgeon then heals. So it is with our God. His rod corrects, and his face consoles. His law convicts, and his gospel cures.
In counseling, this is a lifeline. When people are crushed by conscience or by consequences, they need to be held by the truth that acknowledges the wound (God is just) and then offered the balm (God is good and merciful in Christ). To pretend only one side exists is to give a half-truth that won’t heal.
Stanza four: trembling worship
“While these excite my fear and joy, / While these my tuneful lips employ, / Accept, O Lord, the humble song, / The tribute of a trembling tongue.”
The hymn ends not with triumphant swagger but with trembling humility. That ought to be our posture: both reverent fear and grateful joy. Notice the prayerful tone, “Accept… the humble song.” Worship, in Beddome’s vision, is not an applause line, but it is an offering from a heart that knows both its danger and its rescue.
This posture is crucial for pastoral work. People worn down by shame, guilt, or despair often cannot sing loudly, and God is pleased with the trembling tongue. He receives honest, small worship.
Theology that helps people live
A few blunt practical points, because Radiant Hope exists to help people apply these truths:
- Do not separate justice from goodness. When counseling someone who has sinned or been sinned against, speak both the law and the gospel. The law reveals what is wrong and why it matters, and the gospel shows where the healing is found.
- Discipline is not the opposite of love. God’s threatenings are not viciousness, but they are warnings from a Father who hates what will destroy his children. Help counselees see divine discipline as corrective, not purely punitive. That said, we must never minimize real wrongs because justice requires redress and sometimes earthly consequences.
- Hold the tension in the room. When a spouse reports coldness or cruelty, name both the hurt (justice) and the possibility of forgiveness and restoration (goodness). Practical steps like confession, restitution, and changed behavior flow from holding both truths.
- Comfort the trembling tongue. Not everyone can sing the great hymns of assurance. Give room for small prayers, brief confessions, and simple acts of trust. The humble song is acceptable to God.
- Teach people to read the whole of Scripture. Deuteronomy’s proclamation of God’s perfect work anchors the hymn. Encourage regular exposure to passages that show God’s holiness and mercy together.
A brief word for counselors and pastors
When we speak with those who suffer, we must avoid two temptations: to sentimentalize God (thereby dishonoring his holiness) or to legalize him (thereby denying his grace). Beddome’s hymn is a pastoral corrective that sings us back into biblical balance. It trains us to be honest about wrath and tender about pardon, fierce about sin and faithful about forgiveness.
A client who fears God’s anger needs the comfort that God’s anger is not the only thing he is. A client who treats God as a soft dispenser of favors needs the correction that sin is serious. We do both by pointing people to Christ, who is the just One who took just punishment and the good Physician who brings healing.
Closing prayer
Lord, you are both just and good. Make us honest in our fear, bold in our hope, and humble in our praise. Teach us to sing with trembling tongues that trust your perfect work. Amen.
