Psalm 25:8 says: “Good and upright is the Lord; therefore He instructs sinners in the way.”
This verse reminds us that because God is good, He is gracious towards sinners; He is patient with them, and seeks to instruct them in His way. He does not just abandon them to their own devices, or give them what they deserve. Psalm 103 says: “He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.” Many of us can bear testimony to how patient He is with us, and how He has not given us what we deserve.

And He does all this, Psalm 25:8 tells us, because He is GOOD! Because God is good, He does NOT reward sinners with what they “deserve.” He does NOT deal with them according to their sins; He is gracious to them, and instructs them instead. And He does this, the Psalm asserts, because He is, in His very nature, GOOD. God could be just and let sinners in the world go their own way – but He could not be love, and He could not be good – and that is what this passage declares that He is. Romans 2:4 reminds us: “The kindness of God leads you to repentance.”

There is application in this verse for our treatment of others too. Because God is good, and gracious to us, WE should show that same goodness and grace towards other sinners as well. Just as God has not dealt with US according to our sins, or rewarded us according to our iniquities; so we are not to deal with OTHERS according to their sins, nor reward them according to their iniquity. Instead we should be good to them, and treat them with grace – in the very same way that God has been good to us!