Abundant Utterance

They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness.    Psalm 145:7

"They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness."  They shall pour forth grateful memories even as springs gush with water, plenteously, spontaneously, constantly, joyously.  The Lord's redeemed people having been filled with His great goodness, shall retain the happy recollection of it, and shall be moved often and often to utter those recollections.  Not content with a scanty mention of such amazing love, they shall go on to an abundant utterance of such dealings with them, and to compare notes of their experiences.

God has done nothing stintedly; all His goodness is great goodness, all worthy to be remembered, and suggestive of holy discourse.  Upon this subject there is no scarcity of matter, and when the heart is right there is no need to stop from want of facts to tell.  Oh, that there were more of these memories and utterances, for it is not meet that the goodness of the living God should be buried in the cemetery of silence, in the grave of ingratitude.

"And shall sing of thy righteousness."  They shall say and then sing.  And what is the theme which impels them to leave the pulpit for the orchestra?  What do they sing of?  They sing of that righteousness which is the sinner's terror, which even good men mention with deep solemnity.  Righteousness received by gospel light is in reality the secret foundation of the believer's hope.  God's covenant of grace is our strong consolation, because He who made it is righteous, and will not run back from it.  Since Jesus died as our substitute, righteousness requires and secures the salvation of all the redeemed.  This attribute is our best friend, and therefore we sing of it.

Modern thinkers would fain expunge the idea of righteousness from their notion of God; but converted men would not.  It is a sign of growth in sanctification when we rejoice in the justice, rectitude, and holiness of our God.  Even a rebel may rejoice in mercy, which he looks upon as laxity; but a loyal subject rejoices when he learns that God is so just that not even to save His own elect would He consent to violate the righteousness of His moral government.  Few men will shout for joy at the righteousness of Jehovah, but those who do so are His chosen, in whom His soul delighteth.

~excerpt from "The Treasury of David" by Charles H. Spurgeon