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Gracious affections spring from the beauty and excellence of Divine things. "Christian love is the fountain of all gracious affections. The Divine excellency and glory of God and of Jesus Christ, the Word of God, the works of God and the ways of God, are the primary reasons why a true saint loves these things; and not any supposed interest that he has in them, or any conceived benefit that he has received from them. Self-love cannot properly be said to be the first foundation of his love to these things."

I. THE WORLD'S PEOPLE.

1. Self-love is a principle that is entirely natural, and hence cannot be the foundation of what is gracious or spiritual (Luke 6:32).

2. Self-love is also the foundation of gratitude in the world's people.

3. Self-love may give rise to a sort of love to God. False education will make men grateful to a God of their own imagination. Insensibility to the heinousness of sin may move the natural affections toward a being they imagine to be like themselves.

II. THE HYPOCRITE. The genesis of their affections follows much the order of the world's people.

1. They rejoice in themselves.

2. They secondarily rejoice in God because He is so good to them, and has made so much of them.

3. They rejoice in their own experiences.

4. Their affections are moved by impulses, pride, conceit, and selfish considerations.

5. They are great talkers about themselves. If we will believe them, they are no ordinary saints.

III. GOD'S PEOPLE.

1. They contemplate and adore the matchless perfections of God, the beauty of Christ, the sweetness of grace, the wisdom of redemption, the completeness of God's law, and the like. A natural affection does not have its chief roots in such a soil as this.

2. Secondarily, they rejoice that so glorious a Being is theirs.

3. Then they love God because of His marvellous kindness and unparalleled condescension (Psalm 116:1).

4. In God's goodness they see a mirror that reflects the beauty, the grace and the perfection of His being and attributes, and from hence are begotten a holy gratitude and a heavenly love.

5. "The saints' love to God is the fruit of God's love to them, as it is the gift of that love."

6. As is the genesis of love, so is the genesis of spiritual joy, delight, and pleasure: "All my springs are in Thee" (Psalm 87:7).

(L. O. Thompson.)

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KJV: {To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of David.} O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

WEB: Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth, who has set your glory above the heavens!