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Translation, "Oh, if I had not believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!" "Wait on the Lord; be strong, and let thine heart take courage; yea, wait on the Lord." The psalmist is speaking to himself, to encourage himself in firmer confidence in God, the believing half of his soul addressing the despondent or weaker half. "I had fainted," or "had perished," is necessary to complete the sense of ver. 13. The passage teaches us how to become strong to meet the dangers, difficulties, temptations, and afflictions of life.

I. FAITH IN THE GOODNESS OF GOD. (Ver. 13.) The psalmist has a firm assurance that God will make his goodness manifest to us in our personal history. "He is good to all, and his tender mercy is over all his works." That he will be good to us rests on the assurance that he will be good to all, and not because we have any superior or peculiar claim. For goodness is kindness or benevolence to those who have not merited or deserved it by their character or conduct. If we cannot see the manifest proofs that God has been as good to all as he has been to us, we must believe that the evidence will come some time; or, if we cannot see the proofs that he will be good to us - delivering and redeeming us according to our need - we must believe that he is doing all that can be done for us, in seen and unseen ways beyond our power of interpretation.

II. WAITING UPON GOD. This may mean one or both of two things.

1. Service to God. There is nothing so strengthening to our whole nature - nothing that so nerves us to meet danger and difficulties - as the doing all that we know to be the will of God - doing all known duty. An educating, developing power, in obedience to duty, which nothing can take the place of.

2. Waiting for God; or, hope in him. God has his own time and method of doing things. "If we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it;" "We are saved by hope."

III. BY CULTIVATING COURAGE. Moral courage. As a habit of the mind, and not only upon occasions; gathering up those considerations that foster and nourish a courageous heart.

1. Our past successes should help us to this, and even some of our failures, when we see how they might have been avoided.

2. God is on our side, and will help with the direct aid of his Spirit all who are aiming at the right.

3. Things are possible to courageous minds which are impossible to weak, cowardly hearts. "Let thine heart be strong." "To him that believeth all things are possible" - believeth in God and believeth in himself. - S.

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KJV: I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.

WEB: I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of Yahweh in the land of the living.