This psalm traces the progress of God's mercy to his people from its source in the Divine nature on to its complete fulfillment in their loving, glad allegiance, the expression of which begins and ends the psalm.

I. IT BEGINS IN THE INHERENT NATURE OF GOD HIMSELF. (Ver. 3.) "The Lord is good." From this proceeds all the rest, and in this all that follows finds its explanation. That "God is love" is, after all, the key which fits the wards and unlocks the difficult problems of life as none other does or can. On other suppositions many things - indeed, we may say most things, and these the most blessed facts of all - that we find in life are inexplicable; but with this, not even the darkest facts need be left out.

II. IT ADVANCES ON TO THE ELECTION OF HIS PEOPLE. (Ver. 4.) Back in the counsels of eternity the Divine love decreed the method of its working; and this involved the election of Israel to the especial service which they were to render. That purpose is net all worked out yet; but much of it has been - and who is there can dispute its righteousness, or wisdom, or love? How could the work have been better done?

III. THE BEGINNING OF ITS ACCOMPLISHMENT SEEN IN THE CREATION OF THE WORLD. (Vers. 5-7.) The material universe was formed, and is continued, not for its own sake, but for the sake of that which is moral and spiritual. This earth was to be the arena on which God's gracious purposes were to be developed and perfected. Hence was it created, adorned, and fitted to be, not only the dwelling-place, but the training-place, of intelligent and moral beings, who should ultimately, when made perfect, become the intimate friends, companions, and ministers of the Lord God himself.

IV. IT WENT ON IN THE TRIUMPHANT AND WONDERFUL PRESERVATION OF HIS CHOSEN PEOPLE. (Vers. 8-12.) The purposes of God, after a while, came into collision with the sin and selfishness of man; they ever do, and sometimes man's rage causes sore trouble to God's people; but his purpose is indestructible, and his enemies must perish.

V. IN HIS SORE PUNISHMENT OF HIS PEOPLE WHEN THEY SINNED, AND UNTIL THEY REPENTED. (Vers. 13, 14.) This portion of his dealing with them seems to have most of all impressed the psalmist's mind. He declares that it will cause the memory of the Lord to endure forever, "throughout all generations." We know how stern, how long-continued, were those disciplines, and how oftentimes the mercy of God in them was hidden from the sufferer's view. But it was part of that mercy all the same, as God's punishment of sin is ever part of his mercy. And it goes on until the sinner repents; and then God "repents himself concerning his servants."

VI. IN THE REALITY OF THE REPENTANCE AND REFORMATION WROUGHT THEREBY. (Vers. 15-18.) Who would ever have thought that idol-living Israel - for it was their besetting sin - would ever have come to speak thus contemptuously of idols and their worshippers? But God's disciplines accomplished this. "Our God is a consuming fire," blessed be his Name!

VII. IN THE PERFECT HARMONY OF WILL AND GLADNESS OF HEART IN REGARD TO HIMSELF, WHICH GOD AT LENGTH SECURED. This was his aim all through - to have a people like himself, filled with his love, animated by his Spirit, obedient to his will, and so a joy to themselves, their fellow-men, and to their God. Such is the meaning which lies underneath the exuberant expression of praise and love with which the psalm opens (vers. 1-3) and closes (vers. 19-21). - S.C.

Idolatry consists in giving to any object, whether animate or inanimate, the work of man's hands, or the work of the Divine hands, the love and worship which belongs to the Supreme Existence. "Thou shalt have no other God but Me." But to have Him means to love Him with all the heart, mind, and strength. The god of the man is the object he most loves. Hence gold is a divinity, and by no means an insignificant one, perhaps the chief.

I. The gold-god is the most POPULAR of the gods. It is said that ancient Greece and Rome had not less than thirty thousand divinities, and that in modern heathendom, at present, their name is legion. But throughout this civilized world the gold-god reigns supreme. Tell me, is there aught besides that engrosses so much of human thoughts, human affections, human plans, activities and time, as gold? Civilization everywhere multiplies the shrines, the altars, and the devotees of mammon.

II. The gold-god is the most MISCHIEVOUS of the gods. The ponderous wheels of Juggernaut's chariot have crushed millions; Krishna, Moloch and other heathen divinities have tortured and destroyed their devotees, but is there a divinity in the long roll of idolatrous worship more terribly destructive than the gold-god?

1. How soul-debasing! It deadens the sense of virtue, blinds moral perceptions, seals up the social sympathies, manacles the moral faculties, and chains that soul made to wing the immeasurable regions of light and truth to a mere clod of dust. It is a law that the soul can never rise above its god.

2. How peace disturbing! It keeps its devotee in a constant tumult. It breaks the harmony of families, disturbs the order of society, raises nations into war and bloodshed. "Midas," says Carlyle," longed for gold and insulted the Olympians. He got gold so that whatever he touched became gold, and he, with his long ears, was little the better for it. Midas had insulted Apollo and the gods: the gods gave him his wish, and a pair of long ears which also were a good appendage to it. What a truth in these old fables!"

(David Thomas, D. D.)