The Biblical Illustrator
Psalms 100:5
The Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations.
The Divine goodness exemplified
I. An important statement. “The Lord is good.” All we see around us confirms this glorious truth. Nothing has left His hand without partaking, directly or more remotely, of His perfection; and the more deeply we contemplate the produce of His creative skill, the more accurately we track the wheels of His providence, and the more carefully we ponder the economy of His grace, the more enlarged will be our hearts, the louder our song, as we adopt the statement of the text.
II. An encouraging doctrine. “His mercy is everlasting.” Such is the uniform tenor of the announcements and declarations of the Divine Word.
1. His mercy is “from everlasting” in its source. If we look backward that we may be able to tell the period, in the past, when mercy took its rise in the heart of the Almighty, we shall find that before duration began to be measured by revolving seasons, the “Father of mercies” hath “delighted in mercy.”
2. It is “to everlasting,” in its efficacy; so that, casting the eye forward, in order to discern the length of its duration for time to come, we are lost as we contemplate it, flowing on in its effects through the amazing circle of eternity, even after the apocalyptic angel shall have proclaimed, that “time shall be no longer.”
III. A strong attestation of His faithfulness, in connection both with His goodness and His mercy. “His truth endureth to all generations.” If we regard this portion of the text as an appeal to the display of the perfections already mentioned, in times gone by, then it will carry us back, in our contemplations, to His dealings with His people of old. And here time would fail us to speak of the various examples of the Divine goodness and mercy on record, from the moment when the voice of mercy was heard in the garden of Eden, to the present hour. From these considerations may we gather confidence, that this “goodness and mercy” shall not fail us, neither the generations yet to come. Conclusion:--
1. Admire the condescension of God, in thus displaying His goodness and mercy around us, and in our behalf.
2. Examine yourselves, whether you have a personal interest in the truths that have now been stated.
3. Be grateful to the Divine Being, for the character in which He has thus revealed Himself. (John Gaskin, M. A.)
His truth endureth to all generations.
The eternal truth of God
I. God is true.
1. He is true in His very nature. Falsehood is the wickedness--I dare not call it the infirmity--the wickedness of little natures; but as for the Great Supreme, you cannot conceive Him acting in any manner that is otherwise than straightforward, upright, and truthful. A God of truth and righteousness is He essentially. He must be so.
2. The Lord our God is not only true in His nature, but He is true to His nature. You never find Him doing anything that is not godlike. Select the acts of His creation. If He makes an aphis to creep upon a rosebud, you will find traces of infinite wisdom in it: you shall submit the insect to the microscope end discern a wisdom in it as glorious as that which shines in yonder rolling stars. If in providence some minor event comes under your notice, in that event you shall find no deviation from the constant rule of right and love by which the Most High characterizes all His doings. There are no emergencies with God in which He could be driven to an act of untruth; no pressures, no difficulties, no infirmities which could produce falsehood in Him. “I am Jehovah: I change not,” saith He.
3. He is true in action. The covenant of grace has many promises in it, but not one of them has failed. As on Christ’s side the covenant was kept by His death, so on the Father’s side the covenant has been kept by the salvation of those whom Jesus redeemed from among inert when He gave Himself a ransom for many.
4. He is true to His promises.
5. He is true in every relation that He sustains.
II. God is true in all generations.
1. He has been true in the past. All history, sacred and profane, goes to prove that.
2. God is true still. All things are moving according to the decree of goodness and wisdom, and you must not doubt it. Like Jacob, you sometimes say, “All these things are against me”; but they are not, they are all for you. God is ordering all for the best.
3. God will be true. I do not know how far we have to go before we shall reach to our journey’s end; but this I know, the whole of the road that we have to travel is paved with love and faithfulness, and we need not be afraid. (C. H. Spurgeon.).