That means, first, the great thought that God's mercy flows from the
infinite depths of His own character. He is His own motive. The fountain
of His forgiving love wells up of itself, drawn forth by nothing that we
do, but propelled from within by the inmost nature of God. As surely as
it is the property of light to radiate and of fire to spread, so surely
is it His nature and property to have mercy. He forgives, says our text,
because He is God, and cannot but do so. Therefore our mightiest plea is
to lay hold of His own strength, and to grasp the fact of the unmotived,
uncompelled, unpurchased, and therefore unalterable and eternal
pardoning love of God.

Scientists tell us that the sun is fed and kept in splendour by the
constant impact of bodies from without falling in upon it, and that if
that supply were to cease, the furnace of the heavens would go out. But
God, who is light in Himself, needs no accession of supplies from
without to maintain His light, and no force of motives from without to
sway His will. We do not need to seek to bend Him to mercy, for He is
mercy in Himself. We do not need to stir His purpose into action, for it
has been working from of old and 'its goings forth are from
everlasting.' He is His own motive, He forgives because of what He is.
So let us dig down to that deepest of all rock foundations on which to
build our confidence, and be sure that, if I may use such an expression,
the necessity of the divine nature compels Him to pardon iniquity,
transgression, and sin.

Then there is another thought here, that the past of God is a plea with
God for present forgiveness. 'Thy name' in Scripture means the whole
revelation of the divine character, and thus the Psalmist looks back
into the past, and sees there how God has, all through the ages, been
plenteous in mercy and ready to forgive all that called upon Him; and he