409. Saturday after Twentieth Sunday after Trinity.
Psalm 36, 5-12. Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O Lord, thou preservest man and beast. How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light. O continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee; and thy righteousness to the upright in heart. Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove me. There are the workers of iniquity fallen: they are cast down, and shall not be able to rise.
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The lovingkindness of God is his undeserved goodness toward us; that we, in place of punishment and wrath, receive nothing but benefits. David praises it as something glorious in itself and precious to his heart. “How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God!” “Excellent,” of great worth: the thought of the life and blood of God’s Son is brought before us. “Excellent,” precious; that is, a gem of value above all others. Such is the Lord’s lovingkindness; there is nothing can be compared with it. It is of infinitely greater value than a thousand worlds full of the most precious things which could be created. That God loves us, and is good to us; — is there any price at which we would sell this truth? When David speaks of it as excellent (“jakar”) it is as if he said: “Thy rich and priceless lovingkindness, O my God, is to me more precious than the pearls of greatest price, and is worth more to my heart than heaven and earth; it is excellent in itself and excellent to me!” I hope that you also, dear reader, know the lovingkindness of God, and prize it highly. How sadly blind and how terribly depraved are they who regard lightly the mercy of God! — I do not by any means say too much; truly they are “evil eyes” which do not see this sun, and do not heed its glory. When the Spirit of God enlightens us we understand that without it we were the most wretched of all creatures, abandoned to temporal and eternal misery, having no peace, given up to hate one another and to be trodden under foot by the devil; we understand that it is the mercy of God in Christ which gives us all good things, and we say with David: “Thy mercy, O God, is infinitely precious; it is better than life, and more excellent than heaven.” Yet we feel that we do not grasp its full value. Of the bottomless ocean of the Divinity we can hold but a few drops; the love of God is a glorious sun, of which our poor eyes are able to see but a feeble reflection.
God, continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee; and thy righteousness to the upright in heart. Amen.*
Every human tie may perish,
Friend to friend unfaithful prove,
Mothers cease their own to cherish,
Heaven and earth at last remove:
But no changes
Can attend Jehovah’s love.
In the furnace God may prove thee
Thence to bring thee forth more bright,
But can never cease to love thee;
Thou art precious in his sight;
God is with thee,
God, thine everlasting light.
* Here the head of the family says a short morning or evening prayer in his own words, and closes with the Lord’s Prayer and the Benediction. This is to be done every day. If the stanzas are not sung, they may be read in their proper place before the impromptu petition and the Lord’s Prayer.