Expositions of Holy Scripture: PsalmsMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: Psalms
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. Psalms -- Commentaries
And as we look upon our daily lives, and travel back in thought, some of
us over the many years which have all been crowded with instances and
illustrations of divine faithfulness and favouring care, we have to
grasp both these exclamations of our text, 'Oh! how great is Thy
goodness which Thou hast wrought,' how much greater 'is Thy goodness
which is laid up!' The table has been spread in the wilderness, and the
verities of Christian experience more than surpass the legends of hungry
knights finding banquets prepared by unseen hands in desert places. It
is as when Jesus made the multitude sit down on the green grass and
feast to the full, and yet abundance remained undiminished after
satisfying all the hungry applicants. The bread that was broken yielded
more basketfuls for to-morrow than the original quantity in the lad's
hands. The fountain rises, and the whole camp, 'themselves and their
children and their cattle,' slake their thirst at it, and yet it is full
as ever. The goodness wrought is but the fringe and first beginnings of
the mass that is laid up. All the gold that has been coined and put into
circulation is as nothing compared with the wedges and ingots of massive
bullion that lie in the strong room. God's riches are not like the
world's wealth. You very soon get to the bottom of its purse. Its
'goodness,' is very soon run dry; and nothing will yield an
unintermittent stream of satisfaction and blessing to a poor soul except
the 'river of the water of life that proceedeth out of the Throne of God
and of the Lamb.'
So, dear brethren! that contrast may suggest to us how quietly and
peacefully we may look forward to all the unknown future; and hold up to
it so as to enable us to scan its general outlines, the light of the
known and experienced past. Let our trustful prayer be; 'Thou hast been
my help: leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation!' and
the answer will certainly be: 'I will not leave thee, till I have done
unto thee that which I have spoken to thee of.' Our Memory ought to be
the mother of our Hope; and we should paint the future in the hues of
the past. Thou hast goodness 'laid up,' more than enough to match 'the
goodness Thou hast wrought.' God's past is the prophecy of God's future;
and my past, if I understand it aright, ought to rebuke every fear and
calm every anxiety. We, and only we, have the right to say, 'To-morrow
shall be as this day, and much more abundant.' That is delusion if said
by any but by those that fear and trust in the Inexhaustible God.
II. Now let us turn our light in a somewhat different direction. The
contrast here suggests the goodness that is publicly given and that
which is experienced in secret.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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