The Divine goodness.
"The Lord is good." The word "good" is used herein the sense of the desire to promote happiness. The prophet affirms that "the Lord" possesses this disposition—that whilst he is powerful he exerts this power in saving, not in destroying, "judgment" being "his strange work;" that whilst his presence fills all space, and his omniscient eye penetrates all, he is concerned, in his watchfulness, that none of the creatures he has formed should lack the blessings his bounteous hand has to bestow; and that as he is eternal in his duration, so the streams of his bounty shall ever continue to flow. "The Lord is good." This inspiring truth was revealed even from the earliest times, and is inscribed in Scripture upon every page. Abram in the vision by night (Genesis 15:1-21.), Jacob in his weary wanderings (Genesis 28:10-22), and Moses in "the holy mount" (Exodus 33:19), were alike favoured with special revelations of it. The very thought of God thus woke up within the psalmist the faculty of song, and led him to strike his lyre and to sing with holy fervour, "Thou, Lord, art good and ready to forgive" (Psalms 86:5); "They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness," etc. (Psalms 145:7); "Oh, taste and see," etc. (Psalms 34:8). And prophets unite with psalmists in bearing this testimony (Jeremiah 33:11; Isaiah 63:7). Very different was the conception formed by the heathen. We think of the tyranny, caprice, and revenge supposed to characterize heathen deities, the acts of cruelty ascribed to them, the impurity of heathen rites, and the wearisomeness of heathen penances, and we rejoice that the voice from heaven has spoken unto us, and that the truth which heathen worshippers did not know has been so clearly revealed to us in the bright assurance, "The Lord is good." "The Lord is good." Nature, with bar ten thousand voices, bears emphatic testimony here. Benevolence marks all the operations of the Creator's hands. All his works declare his goodness. The majestic sun, the full-orbed moon, the stars countless in number and sparkling in the vault of heaven, the refreshing and fertilizing shower, the gentle breeze, the woods re-echoing with the notes of little songsters, the varied landscape, the carpeted earth, the tinted flowers, all seem to speak and to say, "The Lord is good." "O Lord, how excellent is thy Name in all the earth!" (Psalms 8:1); "O Lord, how manifold," etc.! (Psalms 104:24). "The Lord is good." As in creation so in providence, the same testimony is borne. Specially is this so in the Divine dealings with men, supplying his wants, ministering to his necessities, scattering blessings in his path, and daily, yea, hourly, sustaining and preserving him from peril and danger. His goodness, too, is seen in that he is "kind even to the unthankful," and bestows his flowers not only upon "the just" but also upon "the unjust," sustaining even these who live in rebellion against him. Nor does the fact that whilst the ungodly often seem to "prosper in their way," "waters of a full cup are wrung out to his people," militate against the declaration of this text; for God's providence takes into account the entire welfare of his servants, and adverse scenes may be necessary in order to the promotion of this; and, the discipline accomplished, deliverance shall be theirs, whilst the arm of the oppressor shall be bracken (Nahum 1:12, Nahum 1:13). "The Lord is good." This truth, impressed upon the pages of the Old Testament, receives its highest exemplification in the records of the New. In him whose advent prophets predicted, and whose work was shadowed forth in type and symbol, and in the free redemption he has wrought; in the seeking and self-sacrificing love and the compassionate mercy and grace of God as thus expressed, we see the noblest, purest, brightest token that "the Lord is good." In this Divine goodness, ever watchful to guard us; almighty, and hence equal to every emergency of our life; immutable too, and therefore an unfailing dependence amidst the mutations and fluctuations of our earthly lot,—let us rest with unswerving trust, until at length, every bond sundered, we, as "the ransomed of the Lord, come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon our heads," there with adoring gratitude to reflect upon the memory of his great goodness, and to praise him for his mercy and grace and love forevermore.—S.D.H.