Love's Full-Flowing Spring
S. Conway Psalm 145:7 They shall abundantly utter the memory of your great goodness, and shall sing of your righteousness. This is what is meant by the abundant utterance told of in this verse. It is as the waters bursting out from a full spring - irrepressible, perennial, abundant; so when the memory of God's great goodness possesses the soul, it leads to such outpouring of grateful expression as the psalmist here tells of. Now let us speak - I. OF THE SPRING ITSELF. It has two great sources. 1. God's great goodness. The psalm tells much of God's providential goodness - how "the eyes of all wait upon thee, and," etc. (vers. 15, 16). And what a theme for never-failing praise this is! Who can reckon up the mercies of God given to us here and now, for the supply of our temporal wants, and for the comfort of our lives? Since this life is brief, earthly, inferior, of comparatively little worth; and yet how doth God care for it! He crowneth it with loving-kindness and tender mercy. But his "great" goodness has to do with the eternal life; and when we think of what he has done for that, we can see that his goodness is indeed great. Whether we contemplate the depths of sin and misery from which his grace has brought us up; or whether we tell of the glorious heights of joy, sanctity, and service, to which he is bringing us; or of the pure beauty and grace which prompted him thus to deal with us so utterly undeserving; or of the fearful cost at which he purchased us - even the precious blood; or of the present blessed help of his Holy Spirit, which we daily enjoy, and by which we are enabled to serve and glorify him, and to become channels of blessing to others; - when we think of all this, or of any part of it, our souls are lost in wonder as we gaze with awe and unspeakable gratitude on his great goodness. 2. The other source of this spring is God's righteousness. "They shall sing of thy righteousness." To the guilty soul, trembling with fear of God's condemnation, God's righteousness is a source of terror rather than joy. But to him who has received God's salvation aright, it causes his soul to sing for joy. For deep down in the heart of man is the conviction that nothing but righteousness can endure for ever; it is the permanent element in all things that do endure. Without it that which seems most stable, fixed, and sure will ere long perish and disappear. And even the goodness of God - his great goodness, unless there were righteousness at the heart of it, could not give the soul rest. It is because Christ is the Lord our Righteousness, as well as the Lord our Redeemer, that therefore we believe he is our Redeemer. In him we see how God can be just, and yet the Justifier of him who believeth in Jesus. And the righteousness of God is our soul's support amid the manifold and many sorrowful mysteries of life. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" That is our deep conviction, though we cannot understand all that he does. We are sure that in good time all will be seen to be right, which now often seems to us most wrong. And there is yet another clement of joy in God's righteousness - that it is sure to reproduce itself. "Good and upright is the Lord, therefore will he teach sinners in the way." Then he will teach me, he will satisfy my soul's hunger after righteousness. II. ITS CHANNELS. They are pointed at in ver. 6. 1. Men have been convinced of God's righteous judgments. They" speak of the might of thy terrible acts." A solemn fear of God takes possession of them, they tremble with deep alarm, they are pricked to the heart. "When thy judgments are abroad, then the inhabitants of the earth will ]earn righteousness." Like the men of Nineveh under Jonah's awful preaching, and like many a sinful soul since. Deep conviction of sin is wrought by the Holy Spirit, and it is along this channel God's great goodness flows. 2. The proclamation of God's exceeding grace. "I will declare thy greatness." The psalmist sees and seizes the opportune time; and now, when the conviction of the Holy Spirit has prepared the way, sets forth the grace; for that is the greatness of God. Of the greatness of his justice and his power they already know; now they are told of the greatness of his mercy and of his readiness to forgive. Well is it when the Christian teacher can find hearts thus prepared; for then it is speedily seen that God's Word does not return to him void. 3. For there follows the reception into the heart of the truth of God's great goodness. They could not have afterwards abundantly uttered the memory of that great goodness, unless first they had believingly received it. Thus along these channels of conviction, proclamation of the grace of God, and believing reception of it, we come next to - III. ITS RESERVOIR. Its storage in the memory. The truth of God's grace had not merely glanced on the minds of those here spoken of, but it had come to stay. Hence it was treasured up in the reservoir of memory. Well is it when our minds are thus stored with memories of the grace of God - his great goodness to our souls. IV. ITS OUTFLOW. 1. In abundant utterance. Some keep a wretched silence, and say never a word for God; others, it' they do speak, do so in such a half-hearted way that they might almost as well be silent. But those who have known the grace of God in truth, and realize the greatness of the salvation they have experienced, they will "abundantly utter," etc. Not alone their lips, but their lives, their look, their whole spirit and temper, will tell forth the vividness of their memory of God's great goodness. And: 2. In song. "They shall sing of thy righteousness." The utterance will be a joyful one - a glad sound, - not a dirge or any other such mournful strain, but a song befitting the glad tidings of great joy which have been made known to them. May we learn this song! - S.C. Parallel Verses KJV: They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness. WEB: They will utter the memory of your great goodness, and will sing of your righteousness.