HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-26.-The Divine constancy. The refrain of each verse of the psalm may supply us with a guiding thought in our treatment of it. From the first beginnings of creation (as we are affected by them) to the last hour of human experience, we have evidence of the goodness, the "mercy," of the Lord. It has endured through all generations, is with us now, will attend our race (we are sure) to the end of time, We find it- • I. IN THE DIVINE PROVISION. God gave us sun, moon, and stars at the first. These have been giving light to men everywhere and in all ages. They have been regulating the seasons of the year and the tides. of ocean, and they have been counting time for us with unbroken constancy. Seed-time and harvest have not failed; food has been gil'cn to all flesh, to man and beast, through all the centuries (ver. 25). If the earth has been barren in one part, it has been fruitful in another. Nothing has been needed to supply all mankind with the necessaries and the comforts of life but man's own diligence, enterprise, and economy. God has supplied his part. His kindness is constant. II. IN DIVINE RETRIBUTION. (Vera. 10-15, 17-20.) No doubt this recurring sentence, "His mercy endureth for ever," is written by the psalmist from Israel's point of view. 'l'hat is quite obvious from the words with which these verses are connected. The destruction of Israel's enemies meant the deliverance, in mercy, of Israel itself. But we may pause to remember that all righteous retribution is a part of Divine good- ness. No greater calamity could befall us than Divine indifference to sin and nnlimitcd permission to indulge in it; no more serious injury, therefore, could be done us than the withholdiug of Divine penalty when sin and wrong are done by us. 'fbat would inevitably issue in the loEs of all reo.l reverence for God, and of all respect for ourselves. It would mean the simple annihilation of hnman cbarnctcr, of human worth, of the distincti,e excellency of human life. God's abiding hatred and punishment of sin is an element of his constant kin<lness to our race, as well as a pcrnmnent feature of bis own Divine character. III. IN DIVINE COMPASSION AND REDEMPTION. God has ever been pitiful, and his compassion has called forth his power to eave. 1. There are two notable instances of this in Hebrew history-the deliverance from Egyptian hardship and bondage (Exod. iii. 7, 8), and the restorn.tion from captivity in Babylon (Ezra i.). God" remembered them in their low estate,'' and "redeemed them from their enemies." 2. 'rhere was one culminating and tran~cendent illustration of this in the advent of our Lord. He saw us in our " low estate." The world was sunk in superstition, in vice, in violence, in misery, in spiritual death. No" estate" could be lower than that of the human world when Jesus Christ came into it; and then he accomplished that work which is to issue i.:J. it11 "redemptio11." 3. We have individual illnstmtione of it now. The eye that koked down in pity < n the earliest sorrows nnd struggles of his chil,lren regards to-day with tender commiseration the sufferings and tho trials of his people. In nil our affliction he is afflicted. He is" touched with the feeling of our infirmities" (Heb. iv. 15), He is mindful of our danger when in the mi<lst of temptation, and, in answer 288 THE BOOK OF rsALMS. [PS. CXXXVI, 1-26,
to our prayer, redeems us from the power of our adversary. To tho latest hour of individual life, to the last hour of time, we shall be able to look u~ with holy con- fidence for sympathy and succour; "for his mercy endureth for ever,'