"For His merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the LORD endureth forever."
The focus is now on Israel. The psalmist recounts:
A. The Loving Triumph of the Lord
"For His merciful kindness is great toward us." And so it is. The expression "merciful kindness" is the usual and oftenused expression in the psalms, "lovingkindness." It has the Old Testament equivalent of the New Testament word grace. "His grace is great toward us."
This psalm is generally thought to be a song of the Jews who had returned from the Babylonian exile. God's mercy to them had just been written large on the page of history. For centuriesthe Jews had defied Him, turned their backs on Him, plunged into the grossest idolatry in which prostitution and child murder were common religious practices. They had filled the land with their abominations, injustice, pornography, and perversion. They had persecuted and killed the prophets.
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At last God has uprooted them, allowed their temple to be burned to the ground, and ploughed Jerusalem like a farmer's field. Now He had forgiven them, regathered them, given them a second chance. No wonder they sang, "His merciful kindness is great toward us."
The repatriated remnant of the Jewish people will sing these words in a coming day when they are delivered from extermination in the fires of the great tribulation, when they look on Him whom they pierced, when they recognize at last in Jesus their Messiah. "Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven," given a place of royalty in the millennial kingdom, they will sing "His merciful kindness is great toward us." We, too, heirs to the spiritual promises to Abraham, we should sing this song.
A section in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago is devoted to discoveries that have revolutionized modern medical science. Among those honored by a greaterthanlife portraitis Sir James Simpson, the man who discovered chloroform. Before the discovery of chloroform even the simplest operation was a nightmare. Simpson not only let people sleep through theworst horrors of an operation, but he opened the door to medical operations before impossible.
Sir James Simpson was a Christian. Once he was interviewedby a newspaper man who asked, "Sir, what do you consider your greatest discovery?" Sir James replied, "My greatest discovery was when I discovered I was a sinner in the sight of God.' The newspaper man tried again: "Thank you, Sir James. And now would you please tell me your second greatest discovery" "By all means," replied that great Christian. "My second greatest discovery was when I discovered that Jesus died for a sinner like me."
B. The Lasting Truth of the Lord (117:2b)
"And the truth of the LORD endureth for ever." Salvation does not rest on sentiment. It rests on truth, the truth that Godcannot deny His own character. It is not truth at the expense of mercy. If that were so, there could be no hope; it would mean thatGod would have to deny His own holy character. It would be as though a judge opened all the prisons and set free murderers and rapists, thieves and swindlers, just because He felt sorry forthem pining in prison.
