Mercy... faithfulness. — These words, so often combined, express here, as commonly in the psalms, the attitude of the covenant God towards His people. The art of the poet is shown in this exordium. He strikes so strongly this note of the inviolability of the Divine promise only to make the deprecation of present neglect on God’s part presently more striking.
Shall be built up for ever — Better, is for ever being built up. Elsewhere figured as a “place of shelter,” a “tower of refuge,” God’s faithfulness is here presented as an edifice for ever rising on foundations laid in the heavens. (Comp. Psalms 119:89.) The heavens are at once the type of unchangeableness and of splendour and height. Mant’s paraphrase brings out the power of the verse: —
“For I have said, Thy mercies rise,
A deathless structure, to the skies;
The heavens were planted by Thy hand,
And as the heavens Thy truth shall stand.”
And Wordsworth has sung of Him: —
“Who fixed immovably the frame
Of the round world, and built by laws as strong
The solid refuge for distress,
The towers of righteousness.”
(Comp. Psalms 36:6.)