There is no God like Thee. — These words, often used in the Psalms (Psalms 71:19; Psalms 86:8; Psalms 89:6), and especially found in the thanksgiving of David after the great promise (2 Samuel 7:22), are evidently suggested by more ancient utterances of devotion; as for example, in the first recorded Psalm at the Red Sea (Exodus 15:11). In them we trace the spiritual process by which the Israelites were trained from the polytheism of their forefathers to the knowledge of the One only God. He is known to them, first, in the close personal relation of “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” to whom “none is like” of all gods whom others worshipped; but next, in His universal relation to the universe as the “God Almighty, and the Judge of the whole earth” (Genesis 17:2; Genesis 18:25); lastly, as Jehovah, “God,” indeed, “of Israel,” but, by the very meaning of the name, the One Self-existent Being, source of all other life. Thus, in the thanksgiving of David to the words, “none is like Thee,” is added at once the higher belief, “there is no God beside Thee.” In this prayer of Solomon there follows at once the striking confession that the “heaven of heavens cannot contain” His Infinity.
Who keepest covenant and mercy. — This phrase, again, familiar in prayer (see Deuteronomy 7:9; Nehemiah 1:5; Daniel 9:4), is clearly traceable to the conclusion of the Second Commandment (Exodus 20:6), and the special revelation of God to Moses in the Mount (Exodus 34:6-7). It is notable, not merely because it describes God as manifesting Himself “most chiefly by showing mercy and pity,” but also because it declares this manifestation of mercy to be pledged to man as a chief part of His covenant. So in the New Testament it is said that, to those who claim His covenant in Christ, “He is faithful and just to forgive sins.”