I. First, then, we have here the Psalmist's thought of God. 'Good and
upright is the Lord.'

Now it is clear that the former of these two epithets is here employed,
not in its widest sense of moral perfectness, or else 'upright,' which
follows, would be mere tautology, but in the narrower sense, which is
familiar too, to us, in our common speech, in which _good_ is tantamount
to _kind_, _beneficent_, or to say all in a word, _loving_. _Upright_
needs no explanation; but the point to notice is the decisiveness with
which the Psalmist binds together, in one thought, the two aspects of
the divine nature which so many people find it hard to reconcile, and
the separation of which has been the parent of unnumbered misconceptions
and errors as to Him and to His dealings. 'Good _and_ upright, loving
_and_ righteous is the Lord,' says the Psalmist. He puts in no
qualifying word such as, loving _though_ righteous, righteous and _yet_
loving. Such phrases express the general notions of the relation of
these two attributes. But the Psalmist employs no such expressions. He
binds the two qualities together, in the feeling of their profoundest
harmony.

Now let me remind you that neither of these two resplendent aspects of
the divine nature reaches its highest beauty and supremest power, except
it be associated with the other. In the spectrum analysis of that great
light there are the two lines; the one purest white of righteousness,
and the other tinged with a ruddier glow, the line of love. The one
adorns and sets off the other. Love without righteousness is flaccid, a
mere gush of good-natured sentiment, impotent to confer blessing,
powerless to evoke reverence. Righteousness without love is as white as
snow, and as cold as ice; repellent, howsoever it may excite the