God's love is unconditional, unlimited and complete

God's Loving kindness Better than Life

The lovingkindness of God is his mercy. The Dutch has the word, "goedertierenheid." That is a beautiful word. God's lovingkindness is His mercy; and God's mercy is that He is from everlasting to everlasting filled with the desire to make His people happy. That is God's mercy. It is the divine will to bless his people. It is the divine will to make them partakers of His own happiness, and that in the highest sense. That is God's mercy. Therefore it is that will of God to bless.

That becomes manifest in the death and resurrection of Christ, as Peter expresses it,"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." That will to bless his people, as it became manifest in the death and resurrection of Christ, is God's mercy. This becomes all the more merciful because His people are temporarily in misery; and this lovingkindness of God is His desire to bring his people out of that misery, and to lift them up to the highest glory.

Because thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Psalm 63:3

To give thanks is the highest expression of the Christian's life.

It certainly means that we see God's name and God's glory and God's goodness in the things that pertain to our experience, whether it be as individuals, as families, or as a congregation.

Therefore to give thanks means to praise. It is impossible to give thanks truly without praise; and it is impossible to praise unless we see that God is praise-worthy.

To praise and give thanks requires a heart that is thankful in the Lord; and to really give thanks our thanks must be such, and the reason for our thanks must be such, that it excludes nothing. And the reason for our thanksgiving must be the same to all. All must be all to give thanks, if God is praise-worthy.

Our circumstance are not all alike. There is a great difference between us as we are gathered here. If the reason for our thanksgiving is to be sought in earthly things, in an abundance of food and drink and money, then there is considerable difference between us. Then some, looking merely at these things might say that they have fairly prospered, that they have been fairly successful in business, that they have done fairly well. But others would have to report that they had to be satisfied with the bare necessities of life, which perhaps came to them by way of free relief, or charity.

Yet that ought to make no difference if we are to really give thanks. Else we might as well go home. For, if the reason for our thanksgiving is to be sought merely in things, then those that have prospered will praise, and they that have not prospered will grumble. Some have enjoyed health and strength; others have been thrown upon sick beds and in hospitals, are in pain and agony. There are some who can expect nothing else but death in the near future. 

But that ought to make no difference. And your thanksgiving is to be real. This is to be intended, or otherwise our thanksgiving will be, in the evil sense, aristocratic. If our thanksgiving is to be real, it ought to include all. So it is with the poet. Notice the poet in the verse following our text says, "Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name," which means, he will bless as long as he lives and in everything, in all circumstances always. Then we can always give thinks.

That lovingkindness of God is better than life because it is eternal. Life is not. Life is but for fifty, sixty, or seventy years. If our thanksgiving is in things, it is only for a time. I don't say that things may not be the occasion for our thanksgiving. Certainly we give thanks and praise God for these things. But we do not find our joy in them. They are not an end for us. But if the reason for our thanksgiving is in the lovingkindness of God, it lasts forever.

But the lovingkindness of God does satisfy the soul with marrow and fatness. We don't always experience that. Is it not true, even though the lovingkindness of God has become our experience, that we often act like the children of the world and say to our soul, "Thou hast much good?" And, if these goods are taken away from us, do we not say to our soul, "Now grumble?" It is true; and it is a shame; but it is no wonder. We have but a small beginning of that true obedience. There is so much in us that is still carnal. And when that carnal element begins to speak in us, and to dominate, we say with the wicked, "Let us eat and drink and be merry for tomorrow we die." And we do not say in such circumstances, "The lovingkindness of God is better than life to me." We do not say that often. We only say it in principle; and it is for us a fight to say it.