TWO Promises, Their Conditions and "No" is an Answer

Now I want to consider two specific promises of God which are basic to everything we’re going to talk about. They’re both found in the psalms. The first is Psalm 34:9–10. I’ll read the King James Version. Basically there’s no significant difference in any of the versions.

“O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.”

Then a similar promise in Psalm 84:11. Keep your finger in Psalm 34 because I’m going to give you a little test on it in a minute.

“For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.”

Notice the clear statement at the end of Psalm 34:10, “They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.” At the end of Psalm 84:11, “No good thing will God withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Before we plunge into claiming the promises let’s do this logical thing and examine the conditions. Here’s where many people go astray. They say, “Ooh, that’s a beautiful promise, I want that,” but they don’t pause to examine the conditions. Most of God’s promises are conditional. He says, “If you do this I will do that.”

There are some unconditional promises of God, Acts 2:17:
“I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.”

I understand that to be an unconditional promise of God at a certain time. His promises of the restoration of Israel is unconditional. Thank God it is because if either the church or Israel ever had to qualify, it would never happen. There are some things that God says “I’ll do unconditionally when it suits me.” But most of them are conditional.

Now, just a little exercise in analysis. I find in those three verses, Psalm 34:9–10 and Psalm 84:11, I find three conditions. Those promises are only for people that meet three conditions, that have three qualifications. I’d like you to look for a moment and see if you can pick out the three simple conditions. We must fear the Lord, seek the Lord and walk uprightly. Let’s say that again. We must fear the Lord, seek the Lord and walk uprightly.

Provided we meet those three conditions then the scripture says God will withhold no good thing from us. Isn’t that exciting?

One more thing that you have to see and here you have to use your best logical mind. There’s still one further point. As you know, I was a logician before I was a preacher and I find it sometimes useful. I better not say any more about that! When we say God will withhold no good thing we’ve got to consider the full implications of the word “good.” I suggest that before we jump in and say this is for me or why didn’t God do it, we need to ask two questions. First of all, is the thing good in itself? Or, in a philosophic phrase, absolutely good? Okay? That’s invariable. A thing that’s absolutely good is always good.

The second thing that we have to ask is is the thing good for us in our particular situation? That’s the variable. A thing that is absolutely good in itself may not always be good for us in our particular situation. You will find if you haven’t already discovered that when God deals with us he doesn’t just hand out the absolutely good, he determines if it’s good for us in our particular situation. Sometimes he withholds the absolutely good because it wouldn’t be good for us in our particular situation. How many of you have ever discovered that?

You take the father of a young boy growing up who’s just got to the age where he can qualify for his driving license. The father would like to give him a beautiful sports car. That in itself, let’s say, is a good thing. But the boy is undisciplined and he’s presumptuous and he doesn’t give heed. The father knows that if he gave the boy the car at that particular point in his life he might kill himself. So he doesn’t give him the car. That’s a very crude example but over and over again you’ll find that we are in a situation where we ask God for something that’s good, God doesn’t say it isn’t good but he says it’s not good for you just now in the light of your character, your situation, your weaknesses, your problems, your misunderstandings.

You know, looking back over a walk with the Lord that has lasted 37 years, I thank God for the prayers he’s answered but I also thank God with all my heart for the prayers he didn’t answer. Do you know that? Oh, when I see where I could have been if God had answered some of my prayers I just say, “God, thank you that you were wise enough not to give me what I asked for.” Not because God withholds the goods, He never withholds the goods in the sense if it’s good for us. But much that is absolutely good may not be good for us in our particular situation. I think if you see that it solves a lot of the problems of unanswered prayer.

It isn’t really unanswered prayer, just God answered a different way from what you expected! A lot of people say some people don’t even realize no is an answer.