Visible Goodness
Day 302 – 29 October
Goodness Stored Up
“Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind!” (Psalm 31:19, ESV)
A Basket Among the Reeds
Pharaoh had commanded that every Hebrew baby boy be thrown into the Nile (Exodus 1:22), and in the home of a Levite couple (Exodus 2:1) a son had just been born. “The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months” (Exodus 2:2).
“When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank” (Exodus 2:3). The child she had treasured in secret was now laid at the edge of the very river that had been meant to take his life.
She Saw That He Was Good
The ESV’s “a fine child” translates a short Hebrew phrase, ki-tov hu (that he was good). His mother looked at him and saw goodness, and that sight moved her to hide and protect him. The verb for “hid” is tsafan (to hide, to treasure up, to keep safe), which Strong’s defines as “to hide (by covering over); by implication, to hoard or reserve,” and “specifically (favorably) to protect.”
Then the basket was found by the last person anyone would have expected. Pharaoh’s own daughter came down to bathe, saw the basket by the water, and had it brought to her. “When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, ‘This is one of the Hebrews’ children’” (Exodus 2:6). An Egyptian princess, daughter of the man who had ordered the drownings, felt compassion for a Hebrew baby. Goodness crossed the line that power had drawn.
Goodness Treasured Up
The same verb appears in a psalm of David, and there it describes God. “Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you.” The phrase is rav-tuvkha asher tsafanta (your abundant goodness, which you have treasured up), and tsafanta (you have treasured up) is the verb Moses’ mother lived out with her baby. Brown-Driver-Briggs lists this verse under the sense “treasure up” for blessings. In the Hebrew Bible the verse is numbered 31:20, one ahead of the English.
Elsewhere the verb gathers other treasures. Proverbs says the LORD “stores up sound wisdom for the upright” (Proverbs 2:7), and the psalmist resolves, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11). Treasured goodness is never forgotten goodness. A mother hides her child because he is precious to her, and God keeps His goodness the same way, close, ready and abundant.
This storing is no delay. A treasure laid up is a treasure already there, as present as the baby his mother kept hidden. The phrase rav-tuvkha (your abundant goodness) appeared on Sunday too, in Psalm 145:7, where people pour out the memory of it. Here we learn where that goodness is kept: safely in God’s own keeping, waiting for every hand that reaches for it.
In the Sight of the Children of Mankind
The verse closes with a surprise. This treasured goodness is also “worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind.” The verb pa’alta (you have worked, you have done) speaks of goodness put into action, and the phrase neged benei adam (in front of the sons of humanity) means it happens openly, where anyone can see.
Those who receive it are described as people who “fear” God and “take refuge” in Him, the word chosim (those who shelter, those who seek refuge). The fear in view is reverent trust, the posture of anyone who runs to God for shelter, and that door stands open to every human being. Moses’ mother hid her treasure from Pharaoh, yet God’s treasured goodness is displayed before the whole watching world, just as it was displayed that day by an Egyptian princess with a crying baby in her arms.
Thursday’s Treasure
Remember the goodness you have tucked away for the people you love, the prayers no one hears, the sacrifices no one sees. That hidden care is a small echo of how God treasures His goodness for you.
Then let some of it be seen today. Take refuge in God openly, in a prayer before a meal, a kind word to a struggling colleague, a moment of compassion for someone on the other side of a line the world has drawn. Goodness kept safe is meant, in the end, to be shown.
Declaration
I am held in a care that has kept my good safe all along. I take shelter in it without shame and let others see where I run. What I have kept back for those dear to me, I offer with an open hand. When compassion asks me to cross a line, I cross it. Let my life become a place where treasured kindness comes into full view, and let everyone who sees it find their refuge in the same Keeper.
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