Psalm 27:13—Psalm 71:5,14—Psalm 25:7; 2 Samuel 7:28—Psalm 23:6
I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.—For thou art my hope, O Lord GOD: thou art my trust from my youth…But I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more.—Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O LORD.
And now, O Lord GOD, thou art that God, and thy words be true, and thou hast promised this goodness unto thy servant.—Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): I want to urge you to observe the goodness of God carefully for your soul’s good. There is a great difference between eyes and no eyes—yet many have eyes and see not. God’s goodness flows before them and they say, “Where is it?”
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): All that emanates from God—His decrees, His creation, His laws, His providences—cannot be otherwise than good.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): What improvement shall we make of this subject?
DAVID CLARKSON (1622-1686): Study much the all-sufficiency, the power, the goodness, the unchangeableness of God—His all-sufficiency and power make Him able, and His goodness makes Him willing to do for His people under the cross what His all-sufficiency and almighty power can afford. His goodness sets His mighty power a-work for His suffering saints. His goodness sets His all-sufficiency, His fullness, in action for them, so that it runs freely upon them; and never more freely than when they are under the cross. “I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord, in the land of the living,” Psalm 27:13. What is it that makes you ready to faint under the cross, or thoughts and foresight of it? Look to the goodness of God—there is support.
CHARLES SIMEON: Study the character of God as drawn in the Holy Scriptures. Some think of Him as a God of all mercy; and others, as clothed only in the terrors of inexorable justice. But the true character of God is, that He is “a just God and a Saviour,” Isaiah 45:21. In the Lord Jesus Christ this union of justice and mercy is fully displayed. Once view Him as dying, rising, reigning for sinful man, and then all the description given of God in our text will be seen in its true light, and all the brightness of the Godhead irradiate your souls.
C. H. SPURGEON: David was a man of many troubles. Especially in the latter part of his life, he was incessantly in the furnace and he says that he would have “fainted” under those many troubles if he had not “believed to see,” in the particular matter of his trials, “the goodness of the Lord” in that land which is the special sphere of trouble. David believed to see the goodness of the Lord, not only in the Glory Land yonder, but also in this land here below. He believed to see the goodness of the Lord, not merely when he emerged from the furnace, but also while he was in it! As a pilgrim and a stranger, he believed to see the goodness of the Lord during the days of his pilgrimage. He did not always see it, but he believed to see it—he believed in it and anticipated it and, by believing in it—he did actually come to see it with the eyes of his mind and to rejoice in it!
TIMOTHY CRUSO (1657-1697): When we thus see the goodness of the Lord, it encourages our subjection to His government.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Do not let tears so fill your eyes that you cannot see the goodness of the Lord. Do not let thunderclouds, however heavy their lurid darkness, shut out from you the blue that is in your sky.
CHARLES SIMEON: Let David’s confidence be ours also.
THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): “According to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O Lord.” These two import not barely His affording outward favours, which we call kindness, or God’s being good to us in benefits communicated; but they connotate a root that is in God’s nature, from whence these outward kindnesses proceed. The Lord is first good in Himself, and thence and therefore doth good; and in like manner He is of a kind heart and nature in Himself first, and thence and therefore is kind to others, even to the evil and unthankful, as Luke 6:35; the abundancy of His goodness and kindness in effects is from the amplitude and largeness of the goodness and kindness in His own heart and nature.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): God does good, because He is good; what He bestowed upon us must be traced up to the original; it is according to His mercies—not according to our merits—and according to the multitude of His loving-kindnesses.
A. W. PINK: The goodness of God is the life of the believer’s trust. It is this excellency in God which most appeals to our hearts. Because His goodness endureth forever, we ought never to be discouraged: “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knoweth them that trust in Him,” Nahum 1:7.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): “He knoweth them that trust in Him”—that hover and cover under His wings, as the chicks do under the hen’s wings: for that is the force of the Hebrew word here used. Such as these God knoweth for His, 2 Timothy 2:19; He knoweth their soul in adversity, Psalm 31:7; He knoweth how to deliver them, as He did righteous Lot, 2 Peter 2:9; then, when they know not what to do, as Jehoshaphat, 2 Chronicles 20:12, yet if their eyes be toward Him, their faith in Him, He will extricate and deliver them. So well pleased is He with those that trust in Him—for that is what is meant here by His knowing of them—that He taketh such complacence and delight in them, Psalm 147:11; Psalm 33:18, and such continual care of them that they shall be sure to have whatsoever heart can wish or need require; even miraculous lovingkindness from God in a strong city, Psalm 17:7; Psalm 33:21, so great as cannot be uttered, Psalm 31:19. This is for the comfort of God’s Israel.
CHARLES SIMEON: How much more then ought we to do so, when all His glory is made to shine before us in the face of Jesus Christ! How should we love Him, serve Him, trust in Him, and delight ourselves in Him!
C. H. SPURGEON: Therefore praise Him. So good a God should not be without your gratitude. He that believes on Christ Jesus shall be satisfied with the goodness of the Lord!
WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): There are two graces, which Christ useth above any other, to fill the soul with joy—faith and hope, because both of these two graces draw all their wine of joy draw at one tap—Christ and His promise: Faith tells the soul what Christ hath done for it, and so comforts it; hope revives the soul with the news of what Christ will do.
CHARLES SIMEON: O, beloved, let your hearts ascend to Him, and your souls be devoted to Him, as the occasion demands. Is He “good?” Praise him for His goodness. Is He “a strong-hold?” Flee to Him, and dwell continually in Him. Does He “know those who trust in Him?” Let Him have joy over you as monuments of His grace, and delight in you as heirs of His glory, Zephaniah 3:17. In a word, live but for Him; and as He has “bought you with a price, see that ye glorify Him with your bodies and your spirits, which are His,” 1 Corinthians 6:20.
