290 ALL HIS BENEFITS
gardens and fields, became g, widespread heap of sand and a desolation, as it is to this day.^ -'
IIL
All His Benefits.
Of the benefits that David enumerates the first three are all negative: He forgives our sin, He heals the consequences of our sin, our diseases. He delivers us from destruction, the wages of our sin. But in the forgiveness of sin and in the healing of our diseases, in the deliverance from the devil and from everlasting hell, God gives Himself, He gives the whole fulness of His love, He elevates the soul into the very highest spiritual life ; and therefore, the Psalmist continues, he who has been thus delivered out of destruction is a king, he is crowned with lovingkindness and with tender mercies, he is enriched and satisfied with good things ; and not merely outwardly enriched, but there is a life given him which is unfading, the youth of which is perennial, continually renewing itself by the very strength of God."^,'
1. The Psalmist sets himself to count up the benefits he has received from God. He has not proceeded very far when he finds himself to be engaged in an impossible task. He finds he cannot count the blessings he has received in a single day, how then can he number the blessings of a week, of a mouth, of a year, of the years of his life ? He might as well try to count the number of the stars or the grains of sand on the seashore. It cannot be done.
^ St. Francis, dining one day on broken bread, with a large stone for table, cried out to his companion: "0 brother Masseo, we are not worthy so great a treasure." When he had repeated these words several times, his companion auswer'^^ : "Father, how can you talk of treasure where there is so much poverty, and indeed a lack of all things ? For we have neither cloth nor knife, nor dish, nor table, nor house ; neither have we servant nor maid to wait upon us." Then said St. Francis : " And this is why I look upon it as a great treasure, because man has no hand in it, but all has been given us by Divine Providence, as we clearly see
^ Aloxandi-r .McLeod.
PSALM cm. 1-5 291
in this bread of charity, in this beautiful table of stone, in this clear fountain." ^
^ I was walking along one winter's night, hurrying towards home, with my little maiden at my side. Said she, " Father, I am going to count the stars." " Very well," I said ; "go on." By and by I heard her counting — " Two hundred and twenty- three, two hundred and twenty-four, two hundred and twenty- five. Oh ! dear," she said, " I had no idea there were so many." Ah ! dear friends, I sometimes say in my soul, " Now, Master, I am going to count Thy benefits." I am like the little maiden. Soon my heart sighs — sighs not with sorrow, but burdened with such goodness, and I say within myself, " Ah ! I had no idea that there were so many." ^
2. But if he cannot remember them all, he may at least try not to forget them all. He may try to remember some of them. But this also is a hard task. For memory is weak, and the blessings are many and manifold. How can he help himself not to forget? How shall he help himself to remember those benefits which he values most highly ? He sets himself to find helps to memory, helps not to forget. So he falls upon a plan which he finds to be most helpful, and which others ever since have found to be so. He takes those benefits which he desires not to forget, and he ties them up in bundles. And then, to make sure that he will not forget them, the Psalmist shapes the bundles of God's benefits into a song. A song is the easiest thing of all to remember. So he shapes them into a song, which people can sing by the wayside as they journey, can carry with them to their work, and brood over in their hours of leisure.
^ By tying the benefits up in bundles, and by shaping them into a song, the Psalmist earned for himself the undying gratitude of future generations. Specially has he earned for himself our gratitude, for he gave us a song which we sing in Scotland to-day, and have sung for more than three hundred years, when our religious emotions are at their highest and their best. We sing this song when the feeling of consecration has been renewed, widened, and deepened by communion with God at His table. I never was at a communion-time at which this song has not been 8ung, and no other song could do justice to the feelings of gratitude
1 E. Meynell, The Life of Francis Tlmnxj&oii (1913), 283. « M. G. Pearse.
292 ALL HIS BENEFITS
of the Lord's people. So we sing, " Bless the Lord, 0 my soul, and forget not all his benefits : who forgiveth, who healeth, who redeemeth, who crowneth, and who satisfieth." ^
Forgiveness.
"Who forgiveth all thine iniquities."