The Divine mercy and judgment.
This "king's song" may reasonably be associated with the beginning of David's reign. Then we must regard "mercy and judgment" as attributes of the Divine King. David desired to frame his own rule, and his own kingdom, after the Divine pattern. He meditates on the mercy and righteousness of God till his heart glows with the thought of their surpassing excellence, as seen in the Divine government; and he longs to have these kingly virtues transferred into his own life and reign. That seems to be the first connection of the text, and such thoughts and desires are in every way suitable for a king. But we are not kings; and so we are set upon finding associations with the king's words which may fit them to our circumstances, and make them expressive of our feeling. Reviewing God's dealings with us—
1. WE CAN SING OF MERCY. That is a very comprehensive word. It includes the Divine compassions, forbearances, long sufferings, and considerations. But there is a special tone in the word. It fits exactly into God's ways with us frail, sinful men. It would hardly be fitting to speak of God's mercy to the angels who have "kept their first estate." It is not the term we should choose by which to express his relations with them. We know the word in our human spheres. It expresses the clemency of the king towards rebel subjects. The guilty man sues for mercy. When the royal rights are vindicated, we hope that justice will be tempered with mercy. We know the word in our own home spheres and relations. Fathers and mothers are merciful towards their wayward, wilful children, considerate, patient, gentle, pitiful, hopeful. And "like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." Many of us have now no father or mother in these earthly spheres; but could we put our idea of the old child relations in the old home into a single word, that word would have to be "mercy." No other word would worthily gather up their patient, pitiful gentleness. And that word best expresses our sense of our heavenly Father's dealings with us. It is so suitable because it always carries with it the assumption of the frailty and wilfulness of those to whom it is shown. Only when people try us do we show them mercy. Then let us see if we are not really needing God's mercy.
1. It is now a good many years since you discovered your easily besetting sin. Then it ought to have been done with long ago, driven out altogether. But it is there still, spoiling your best things, making trouble for yourself, and for all around you. Then you know what is meant by God's mercy.
2. When this year began you made high resolves; but after the first flush of feeling passed, you never made any really earnest effort to carry them out. Verily God has a call to be merciful.
3. God's mercy to us ought to have made us merciful to one another. And just in this we are constantly failing. Who could bear to think of the life he has yet to live, if he might no longer hope in God's mercy? Mercy bears with us. Mercy is pitiful and kind. Mercy in God is not mere good feeling; it is active, ever doing for us something kind.
II. WE CAN SING OF JUDGMENT. This may stand for "righteousness," or justice finding practical expression. We can always have this satisfaction—God's mercy is righteous. It is never weak indulgence. God never steps aside of the right in order to do a kindness. But that is hardly the precise association of the word that we want. It is rather "the corrective recognition of our faults." It is our holy joy, that our Father-God will never leave our faults and failings, our waywardnesses and self-willednesses, alone. He is ever correctively dealing with them. Punishment, as a vindication of violated law, and as the firm reassertion of defied authority, is almost entirely a human conception; it can only be applied to the dealings of our heavenly Father with extreme caution. It is far safer for us to think of God's punishments as always paternal; and paternal punishments are, primarily, corrective. And what child could do well without corrections?
1. Divine corrections may come as the natural results of our wilfulness.
2. They come as testing losses; or as wearying strain; or as painful sickness; or as that long, long enduring which is the supreme soul test.
III. WE MUST TAKE CARE THAT WE SING OF THESE TWO TOGETHER—"MERCY" AND "JUDGMENT." It is the blending of them that so brings out the charm of the Divine ways with us. Illustrate by the bright light made by combining the flames of oxygen and hydrogen gas. Never can God's full glory shine out until we learn to blend his mercy and judgment. Mercy that cannot judge cannot be the mercy of our heavenly Father. Judgment that is not tempered with mercy cannot characterize our heavenly Father's dealings.—R.T.