Psalms 17:7

Show thy marvellous loving kindness,....

"Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness." Marvellous in its antiquity, its distinguishing character, its faithfulness, its immutability, and above all, marvellous in the wonders which it works. That marvellous grace which has redeemed us with the precious blood of God's only begotten, is here invoked to come to the rescue. That grace is sometimes hidden; the text says, "Shew it." Present enjoyments of divine love are matchless cordials to support fainting hearts. Believer, what a prayer is this! Consider it well.

"Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness." Marvellous in its antiquity, its distinguishing character, its faithfulness, its immutability, and above all, marvellous in the wonders which it works. That marvellous grace which has redeemed us with the precious blood of God's only begotten, is here invoked to come to the rescue. That grace is sometimes hidden; the text says, "Shew it." Present enjoyments of divine love are matchless cordials to support fainting hearts. Believer, what a prayer is this! Consider it well. O Lord, shew thy marvellous lovingkindness; shew it to my intellect, and remove my ignorance; shew it to my heart, and revive my gratitude; shew it to my faith, and renew my confidence; shew it to my experience, and deliver me from all my fears. The original word here used is the same which in Psalm 4:3 is rendered set apart, and it has the force of, Distinguish thy mercies, set them out, and set apart the choicest to be bestowed upon me in this hour of my severest affliction. "O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them." The title here given to our gracious God is eminently consolatory. He is the God of salvation; it is his present and perpetual habit to save believers; he puts forth his best and most glorious strength, using his right hand of wisdom and might, to save all those, of whatsoever rank or class, who trust themselves with him. Happy faith thus to secure the omnipotent protection of heaven! Blessed God, to be thus gracious to unworthy mortals, when they have but grace to rely upon thee! The right hand of God is interposed between the saints and all harm; God is never at a loss for means; his own bare hand is enough. He works without tools as well as with them.

IF one were about to have an audience with the Queen, or with some other royal personage, he might be apt to say, "How shall I behave myself? What am I expected to do? What is the proper form of address?" Now, in entering into the Presence of the great King of Kings, the Eternal God, we may suppose the trembling penitent saying, "What shall I do? How shall I come before the Most High God? What words shall I use and into what fashion shall I cast my desires?"

THE Lord's people, in the time of their trouble, know where to go for comfort and relief. Being taught of God, they do not hew out for themselves broken cisterns which can hold no water, but they turn to the ever-flowing Fountain, they go to the Wellhead—even to God Himself—and there they cast themselves down and drink to the full. David, when he wrote this Psalm, was evidently in very great distress and, therefore, he says, "I have called upon You, for You will hear me, O God: incline Your ear unto me, and hear my speech."

THE Lord's people, in the time of their trouble, know where to go for comfort and relief. Being taught of God, they do not hew out for themselves broken cisterns which can hold no water, but they turn to the ever-flowing Fountain, they go to the Wellhead—even to God Himself—and there they cast themselves down and drink to the full. David, when he wrote this Psalm, was evidently in very great distress and, therefore, he says, "I have called upon You, for You will hear me, O God: incline Your ear unto me, and hear my speech." What he needed was his God, as Dr. Watts expresses it— "In darkest shades if He appears, My dawning is begun. He is my soul's sweet morning star, And He my rising sun." Believers draw comfort both from God's ordinary and extraordinary dealings with them, for they regard God's loving kindness as being both an ordinary and an extraordinary thing. I have heard of a good Sister who, when a friend narrated to her some very gracious dealing of God, was asked the question, "Is it not very wonderful?" and she replied, "No, it is not wonderful, for it is just like Him." Begging her pardon and admitting the great Truth of God that she meant to convey, I think it is still more wonderful that it should be "just like Him." The wonder of extraordinary love is that God should make it such an ordinary thing, that He should give to us "marvelous loving kindness," and yet should give it so often that it becomes a daily blessing, and still remains marvelous! The marvels of men, after you have seen them a few times, cease to excite any wonder. I suppose there is scarcely a building, however costly its materials, and however rare its architecture, as to which, sooner or later, you will not feel that you have seen enough of it. But God's wonderful works never pall upon you.

IF one were about to have an audience with the Queen, or with some other royal personage, he might be apt to say, "How shall I behave myself? What am I expected to do? What is the proper form of address?" Now, in entering into the Presence of the great King of Kings, the Eternal God, we may suppose the trembling penitent saying, "What shall I do? How shall I come before the Most High God? What words shall I use and into what fashion shall I cast my desires?" Well, Holy Scripture has been very rich in answers to this question, for you have hundreds of most appropriate prayers made ready to your hand! We might readily enough compose a Biblical Liturgy, if one believed in Liturgies at all! Nor would it be difficult to find Scriptural words for every desire that could possibly strike the human heart. The Bible, besides all its other excellences, is a great and universal Prayer Book, and has in it petitions suited to all classes and conditions of men at all times, whatever their desires and necessities may be. Now I take out of this Prayer Book this one short supplication. I know the children of God will join with me in praying it, and I trust that before we have done, some who never prayed before may make this their firm prayer, "Show Your marvelous loving kindness." Now, in the first place, we may offer up this prayer— I. DESIRING THAT GOD WOULD SHOW MARVELOUS LOVING KINDNESS IN OUR MEDITATIONS. What marvelous loving kindness there is for us to look at! Old as the everlasting hills—but old as it is, and majestic as it must be—there are some eyes that never saw it! Others, too, who, though they have read their Bibles and heard Gospel sermons from their infancy, have never yet seen God's marvelous loving kindness! Let us spend, then, a few minutes in meditation, in order that the Lord may hear this prayer and show us His loving kindness while we muse upon it.

Show thy marvellous lovingkindness - David was now exposed to imminent danger; common interpositions of Providence could not save him; if God did not work miracles for him, he must fall by the hand of Saul. Yet he lays no claim to such miraculous interpositions; he expects all from God’s lovingkindness. The common reading here is הפלה חסדיך haphleh chasadeycha, “distinguish thy holy ones;” but הפלא haple, “do wonders,” is the reading of about seventy MSS., some ancient editions, with the Septuagint, Vulgate, Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic. The marginal reading of this verse is nearer the original than that of the text.

Show thy marvelous loving-kindness - The literal translation of the original here would be, “distinguish thy favors.” The Hebrew word used means properly “to separate; to distinguish;” then, “to make distinguished or great.” The prayer is, that God would separate his mercies on this occasion from his ordinary mercies by the manifestation of greater powers, or by showing him special favor. The ordinary or common mercies which he was receiving at the hand of God would not meet the present case. His dangers were much greater than ordinary, his wants were more pressing than usual; and he asked for an interposition of mercy corresponding with his circumstances and condition. Such a prayer it is obviously proper to present before God; that is, it is right to ask him to suit his mercies to our special necessities; and when special dangers surround us, when we are assailed with especially strong temptations, when we have unusually arduous duties to perform, when we are pressed down with especially severe trials, it is right and proper to ask God to bestow favors upon us which will correspond with our special circumstances. His ability and his willingness to aid us are not measured by our ordinary requirements, but are equal to any of the necessities which can ever occur in our lives. O thou that savest by thy right hand - Margin, “that savest those that trust in thee from those that rise up against thy right hand.” The Hebrew will admit of either construction, though that in the text is the more correct. It is, literally, “Saving those trusting, from those that rise up, with thy right hand. The idea is, that it was a characteristic of God, or that it was what he usually did, to save by his own power those that trusted him from those who rose up against them. […]