GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

This psalm celebrates two of the great attributes of God seen vividly in His dealings with king David. The keynote is struck at the outset, “the mercies” and “the faithfulness” of God. Each of these two words occurs seven times in the psalm; the first is sometimes happily translated “lovingkindness”, meaning much more than withholding punishment, though it includes that. It means positive practical “goodness” and in recent versions is often translated “stedfast love”.

God is not only merciful and gracious, but faithful, reliable, trustworthy. His goodness and faithfulness are seen in His covenant to make Jesse’s son the king of Israel. These two attributes cause Him to be reverenced by both the godly on earth and the holy inhabitants of heaven.

The righteousness of God condemning sin may seem to prohibit God’s grace being lavished on us. But mercy and truth met together, righteousness and peace embraced and kissed each other at the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. In dread darkness, He suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God, who now righteously dispenses mercy freely to the penitent, Psa. 85. 10.

The psalm is a reminder that God’s purposes will never be thwarted and His promises will never be broken. The psalmist warns of God’s governmental dealings, but He says, “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips”, v. 34. The psalm was written when it seemed that God had “made void the covenant of thy servant”, v. 39, but the gifts and calling of God are without repentance, irrevocable.

The N.T. confirms the O.T. Our Lord Jesus is called “the faithful and true witness”, Rev. 3. 14; He is faithful as God’s messenger to men in reaching them with the gospel. He is also “a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God”, Heb. 2. 17; faithful in His ceaseless intercession for His own. God Himself is called faithful as having called us into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, 1 Cor. 1. 9. Again, when Paul prays that believers may be preserved blameless till the coming of our Lord, he concludes, “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it”, 1 Thess. 5. 24.

“He abideth faithful”, 2 Tim. 2. 13.