The Saint's Estimate of God's Lovingkindness
H. J. Boris. Psalm 63:3 Because your loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise you. This psalm is called "A psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah." What prayers have been prayed by men in the wilderness, — by men in the darkness and mystery of life, — by men in their perplexity seeking for guidance, — by men whose "souls were discouraged because of the way." What prayers from men in dungeons, — from men in darkened homes, — from men who said "that all God's waves and billows had gone over them." Men pray better in darkness than in light, in adversity than in prosperity; they pray then with their whole heart — they mean what they say. If you had written your prayers, and had affixed the titles, you would find the heading of one, "A prayer after I had fallen into some great sin." It would contain the wail and lament of the heart, it would breathe the truest contrition and reveal the sorrow of a broken heart. It would be your penitential psalm. You would find another headed, "A prayer after backsliding." In it you would see the shame and humiliation which marked your return to God, and the fresh and earnest consecration of yourself to His service. There would be singular tenderness about it, for its words had been baptized with tears. Another prayer would have this title, "A prayer after I had lost my child." There are men who have a conscious thirst for God. "O God, Thou art my God; early will I seek Thee: my soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth," etc. Now, do you thirst for God? Can you say that the lovingkindness of God is better to you than life? Life stands to us for all that is valuable and precious, and if we wish to express our estimate of something that is all the world to us, we say — It is dear as life. "What is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Life is valuable not only in its highest, but its lowest forms, without its accessories and its ministration. I do not speak of the life that is "clothed in purple and fine linen, and that fares sumptuously every day," but life in toil and penury. Let a man be stript of everything — like a tree on an eminence, which has been scathed by the lightning, which boars the marks of many a storm, and tosses its bare branches in the bleak wind — and he will cling to life as much as if full of strength, as if he were crowned with verdure and fruitfulness. Take life in its best estate, surround it with all that can meet its needs, and even its imaginings — life in a palace rather than a cottage — there is something better, grander — something without which life is not worth living. "Thy lovingkindness is better than life." Why is lovingkindness better than life? Because it meets all the needs of life. Man has a physical nature, and its needs are met in the outward world, or it could not live. Light is for the eye — music for the ear — a thousand influences minister to the senses. Man has a higher nature; he has mind, he has capacity for thought; he has an emotional nature, a heart with boundless wealth. What is mind without culture, education, converse, literature? What is the heart without friends, relatives, love? Without lovingkindness how little is known of life! God can come to man; lie can dwell in man; He can reveal His love to man. The mind has life only in receiving truth. The heart has life only in love. You have life only in God. There is a sense in which the lovingkindness of God is so much better than life that it even reconciles us to the loss of life. We are delivered from the fear of death. "To die is gain." So shall we, divesting ourselves of the mortal, become immortal. (H. J. Boris.) Parallel Verses KJV: Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. WEB: Because your loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise you.