Psalm 31:19 Oh how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for them that fear you… There are, as it were, two great masses of what the psalmist calls "goodness"; one of them which has been plainly manifested "before the sons of men," the other which is "laid up" in store. There are a great many notes in circulation, but there is far more bullion in the strong-room. Much "goodness" has been exhibited; far more lies concealed. If we take that antithesis, then, I think we may turn it in two or three directions. I. THE GOODNESS ALREADY DISPOSED — "WROUGHT BEFORE THE SONS OF MEN"; AND THAT "LAID UP," YET TO BE MANIFESTED. That distinction just points to the old familiar thought of the inexhaustibleness of the Divine nature. God's riches are not like the world's wealth. You very soon get to the bottom of its purse. Its "goodness" is very soon run dry. II. The contrast here suggests THE GOODNESS THAT IS PUBLICLY GIVEN AND THAT WHICH IS EXPERIENCED IN SECRET. God does not put His best gifts, so to speak, in the shop-windows; He keeps these in the inner chambers. He does not arrange His gifts as dishonest traders do their wares, putting the finest outside or on the top, and the less good beneath. It is they who inhabit "the secret place of the Most High," and whose lives are filled with the communion of Him, who taste the selected dainties from God's gracious hands. III. THE GOODNESS WROUGHT OF DEATH, AND THE GOODNESS LAID UP IN HEAVEN. Here we see, sometimes, the messengers coming with the one cluster of grapes on the polo. There we shall live in the vineyard. Here we drink from the river as it flows; there we shall be at the fountain-head. Heaven's least goodness is more than earth's greatest blessedness. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) 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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