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for he not only passed through vast changes of fortune, but he had a life of the heart and of the spirit correspondingly vast and various ; and so his experience of life may be said to be universal, which cannot be said of Csesar or Napoleon — men whose lives outwardly correspond to his. Hence, when some stress of cir- cumstance was heavy upon him and faith rose superior to it, or perchance when the whole lesson of life had been gone over and he grasped its full meaning, he sang this hymn of faith and content,
^ This Psalm of reminiscence is not simply a leap over inter- vening years into the first of them, but, starting thence with a metaphor, it is a review of life and an estimate of it; it is an interpretation of life. On looking it over and summing it up, the author states his view of life ; his life, indeed, but what man ever had a better right to pronounce on life in general ? If life is evil, he certainly ought to have known it. If life is good, he had abundant chance to prove it by tasting it in all its widest variety. We are not to read these words of flowing sweetness as we listen to soothing music, a lullaby in infancy and a death-song in age, but as a judgment on human life. It is Oriental, but it is logical ; it is objective, but it goes to the centre ; it is simple, but it is universal ; it is one life, but it may be all lives. It is not the picture of life as allotted and necessary, but as achieved. Live your life aright and interpret it aright, and see if it is not what you find here.^
3. The Psalm now passes from faith and gratitude forward to hope. The preceding part of it contemplates the past mainly; this closing verse contemplates only the future. We see a man going through life with goodness and mercy, like angel-guardians, following him, and home full in view. It supplies an illustration of the way in which " experience worketh hope." David has reposed his trust in the Lord, and surrendered himself to His holy and loving will ; he has had proof of His faithfulness and mercy and all-sufficiency in the ever-varying circumstances of many years, and so he hopes in Him for the days or years to come ; and as a bird sings forth its pleasant song even in the faint noontide from the coolness and greenness of sheltering leaves, his soul sings forth its joyful hope in God. " Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice."
1 T. T. Hunger, The Appeal to Life, 69.
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This verse coming at the end of the Psalm is full of blessing. It is like the great " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." After the falls of the third verse, after the fears of the fourth, after the temptations of the fifth, still it is "goodness and mercy" that he has to think of. "My song shall be alway of the lovingkindness of the Lord : with my mouth will I ever be shewing thy truth from one generation to another." ^
Thou Heart ! why dost thou lift thy voice ?
The birds are mute ; the skies are dark ; Nor doth a living thing rejoice ;
Nor doth a living creature hark;
Yet thou art singing in the dark.
How small thou art ; how poor and frail ;
Thy prime is past; thy friends are chill; Yet as thou hadst not any ail
Throughout the storm thou liftest still
A praise that winter cannot chill.
Then sang that happy Heart reply:
" God lives, God loves, and hears me sing.
How warm, how safe, how glad am I, In shelter 'neath His spreading wing, And there I cannot choose but sing."^
The Puksuit.
" Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life."
1. Goodness and mercy. — At once these words, " goodness and mercy," attract our attention. It was " goodness and mercy " that led us first out of the fold, with an aim and object in life. There was "goodness and mercy" in that shelter from the noontide heat. But now it is " goodness and mercy " all the days of my life. And we think of grace, which is not only preventing and accompanying, but also subsequent. We owe a
^ W. C. E. Newbolt, Penitence and Peace, 142. ' D. C. Dandridge, Rose Brake. JOB-PS. XXX. — 32
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great deal to the grace that comes after, the grace that follows us ; not only the gi-ace that gives us the wish to do what is right, not only the grace that starts us and helps us in what is right, but also the grace that helps us to finish.
Here is that striking characteristic of the love of God Almighty which comes out in all His dealings with us, namely, its complete- ness. " Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end." Creative love, which placed man in the world, did not exhaust the goodness of God towards him: re- demptive love met him when he fell. And as if redemptive love itself were not sufficient, sanctifying love came in to fill up where redemptive love seemed to lack. So it is with each single soul. God completes His work.