Psalm 31:19 Oh how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for them that fear you… We can all understand what is meant by goodness bestowed, for it comes within the range of our own experience. And we could form an idea, though vague and indefinite, perhaps, of goodness promised. But goodness "laid up" is evidently that which we have not yet experienced and which is beyond all our expectations. Note, then, some of its marks and characteristics. I. IT CANNOT BE KNOWN UNTIL EXPERIENCED. We fret ourselves to know what the future shall bring, but we cannot know, only that there is goodness laid up for us. And this for special as well as ordinary wants. II. IT IS INEXHAUSTIBLE; it is always laid up. It is there for us through all time and eternity. There is no experience through which we may be called to pass, whether in life or death, against which God has not provided. III. SEE WHAT THIS TEACHES US OF GOD. 1. His graciousness. Even for the holiest of men it is all of grace. 2. His wisdom — how He knows and understands us and all our ways. 3. The fulness of His love. IV. AND AS TO OUR OWN DUTY. Seek for a full experience of the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. "Taste and see that the Lord is good." All our past experience confirms the truth of our text. Then seek to know the Lord yet more and more. (W. Cadman, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men! |
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