Jehovah is gracious and merciful; slow to anger, and of great loving-kindness.
Psalm 145 praises God for the day when He sets up His kingdom on earth, and verse 8 is the heart of what the singers have learned about Him. They praise His character before His works — and the words they use are not their own.
Commentators read verses 8 to 12 as the thoughts of the remnant — the faithful part of Israel kept for God — as they look ahead to His reign. They quote an older translation, where "merciful" reads "full of compassion" and "steadfast love" reads "great mercy":
In the next section, Ps. 145:8-12, we have the thoughts and feelings of the remnant as they think about the coming kingdom. They have known the Lord as "gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger and of great mercy." His goodness is not limited to Israel. He is "good to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works."
These words are not new. They repeat what God said about Himself in Exodus 34:6-7.
This Psalm is a magnificent outburst of praise. It is David's praise, but it is also the praise of the Son of David, our Lord, who leads all the praises of His people... Here we read of His great loving-kindness in "The LORD is gracious and full of compassion; slow to anger and of great mercy." See Exodus 34:6-7.
Hard experience teaches two different lessons, and one writer separates them:
Israel learned about themselves in the wilderness. But here they learn God, if they had hearts to understand it: first what He is, and then how He shows Himself such to others. His greatness is not all; He has shown that in bringing everything to His own ends. He is also gracious, good, thinking of others in love, and full of compassion. He is slow to anger — perhaps the heart has complained of that sometimes in trial, yet we need it — and of great mercy. Yes, we are often like Jonah, though we need or have needed as much mercy as Nineveh.
Being slow to anger is not weak feeling. The distinction is between what God feels about evil and when He acts on it:
Are we not all of us apt to set these things against one another? But that is not true. The stronger God's feeling against what destroys His own glory, the more fitting it is that He should be slow to act on His anger... Indeed, slowness to anger is normally the proof of moral greatness... Not that it is of God, or even of man, that there should be slowness to feel; but to act on feeling is another thing.
God is not slow in everything He does:
We understand God's gracious slowness. There is only one thing God is always slow about, and that is judgment. He never judges until He has warned and given room for repentance. How swift He is to save! How quick to bring peace to the troubled conscience! He is only slow to judge.
These four qualities do not describe us. The contrast holds even for God's own people:
The psalmist celebrates the grace of God... How different to man; and even His own people, who too often lack grace and compassion, are quick to anger and show little mercy.
God's power and His kindness do not compete. But people can still refuse His goodness.
But the power of God does not in any way lessen His loving-kindness. He remains marvellously gracious and full of compassion... He will show His goodness to all (not only Israel), and certainly if any refuse Him, they are refusing His goodness... If men refuse this, they are choosing their own doom.
One writer, reading of Christ feeding a hungry crowd, sees the psalm's own words fit Him.
Was He not Himself the LORD, gracious and full of compassion? (Ps. 145:8). So, in keeping with His many mercies, His heart yearned over their weakness. He purposed in Himself to satisfy their mouth with good things and renew their strength for their journey home.
- Name — these words are what God first said about Himself in Exodus 34:6-7; the psalm sings them back to Him.
- Learned — Israel learned themselves in the wilderness; here they learn God. Character known by experience, not just repeated.
- Slow — being slow to anger is not being slow to feel evil. It is slowness to act. God is slow only about judgment, and swift to save.
- Wide — that goodness reaches beyond one nation to all; to refuse it is to choose your own doom.
- Seen — Christ showed the same heart, yearning over a hungry crowd and feeding them.
Jehovah is good to all; and his tender mercies are over all his works.
Psalm 145 praises a kingdom that is coming. Here the psalm measures how far God's kindness reaches — past Israel, out to everything He has made — and that raises a question: what does this goodness give, and what does it not give?
The verses around it belong to a people looking ahead to the reign of their Lord. Verse 8 has just described His character; verse 9 says how far it reaches.
In the next section, Psalm 145:8-12, we have the thoughts and feelings of the faithful remnant of Israel as they think about the coming kingdom. They have known the LORD as "gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love." And His goodness is not limited to Israel, for He is "good to all, and His mercy is over all that He has made." When the Lord takes His kingdom, all His works will praise Him, and all His saints will bless Him.
"Good to all" leaves no room for a list of who qualifies. One writer presses that home for anyone who feels unworthy.
"The LORD is good to all" (Ps. 145:9). Sweet dewdrops lie on the thistle as well as on the rose. God's mercy is free. To claim merit is to destroy mercy. Nothing can deserve mercy, and nothing can force it. We may force God to punish us, but not to love us… So do not say, I am unworthy, for mercy is free. If God showed mercy only to those who are worthy, He would show none at all… God's mercy overflows; it is infinite. The vial of wrath drips, but the fountain of mercy runs.
"All that he has made" — older translations read "all His works" — takes in more than people. The book of Jonah ends with God pointing to the cattle of Nineveh, a foreign city the prophet Jonah was sent to warn. One writer reads this verse behind that closing line.
There were two things the prophet had not yet learned — and may we not add, many Christians as well? First, that God's tender mercy is over all His works (Psalm 145:9). The words "and also much cattle" show this so beautifully! God will display this tender mercy in a coming day, when Christ takes His rightful power and reigns over the earth. But the heart of God is always the same.
The same reach sets a standard for how we treat what is under our care.
Next we find people tested by how they treat the creation God placed under mankind. Not caring about your animal is unworthy; cruelty is worse… The LORD's tender mercies are over all His works, and the day is coming when everything that has breath will praise Him.
Some stretch the verse to mean that every soul will be saved. One writer shows what this kind of language is really about.
In 2 Kings 6:1-7 we see God's goodness to His own people; in the verses that follow, the same goodness reaches others too. This follows the principle of 1 Timothy 4:10, which calls the living God "the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe." Only folly would read the salvation of the soul into such a passage. It only affirms God's providential care for all His creatures.
You can watch this goodness at work without opening a Bible.
As Creator and Governor of the universe, God delights to pour out His gifts on people, in spite of their unworthiness and ingratitude. "The LORD is good to all, and His mercy is over all that He has made" (Ps. 145:9). When the Lord Jesus told His disciples to love their enemies, He said, "so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matt. 5:45)… The seasons come and go right on time, and they are lasting evidence of God's gracious care for His creatures.
Because the goodness is universal, no one can plead that it passed them by.
His goodness will be plain to all, not only to Israel. If any refuse Him, they are refusing His goodness. For His part, "His mercy is over all that He has made" (v. 9). If people refuse this, they are choosing their own doom.
- Free — The mercy in this verse is not wages. Dewdrops fall on the thistle as well as the rose, and if God only helped the deserving, He would help no one.
- Wide — His mercy reaches past Israel, past the good, past people, down to the cattle of Nineveh.
- Visible — Sun, rain and the turning seasons are its daily proof, given to the evil and the good alike.
- Limited — This is God's providential care for His creatures. It is not a promise that every soul is saved.
- Answerable — Goodness this wide leaves no excuse. To refuse it is to choose your own doom.