Psalms 119:64

The earth, O Lord, is full of Thy mercy: teach me Thy statutes.

Man and the earth

I. Man realizing the abounding of God’s mercy on the earth.

II. Man imploring God’s counsels on the earth. “Teach me Thy statutes.” These statutes are required in order to guide men--

1. To a right appreciation of His goodness.

2. To a right use of His goodness. (Homilist.)

God’s bountihood in Nature

I. It fills the earth. Goodness streaming from the heavens, flowing in the atmosphere, budding on the earth, sparkling in the river, and bounding in the ocean.

II. It entails moral obligation. “Teach me Thy statutes.”

1. A knowledge of the Divine statutes. Unless we know them they cannot regulate us.

2. An instruction in the Divine statutes. We must have God to interpret them to the mind and heart. (Homilist.)

A God-filled world

The psalmist looks all around and everywhere sees the signature of a loving Divine hand. The earth is full to brimming of Thy mercy. It takes faith to see that; it takes a deeper and a firmer hold of the thought of a present God than most men have to feel that. For the most of us the world has got to be very empty of God now. We hear rather the creaking of the wheels of a great machine, or see the workings of a blind impersonal force. But I believe that all that is precious and good in the growth of knowledge since the old days when this psalmist wrote may be joyfully accepted by us, and deep down below it we may see the larger truth of the living purpose and will of God Himself. And I know no reason why nineteenth-century men, full to the finger-tips of modern scientific thought, may not say as heartily as the old psalmist, “The earth, O Lord, is full of Thy mercy.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.)