Because thy lovingkindness [is] better than
life
For life without the love of God is nothing else than death: a
man that has no share in the love of God is dead while he lives;
all the enjoyments of life, health, riches, honour, friends are
nothing without the love of God; the meanest temporal blessings
with it are preferable to the greatest without it, ( Proverbs
15:17 ) ; it lasts longer than life, and therefore must be
better than that; death cannot separate from it; it continues to
all eternity. And that the saints prefer it to this natural life
appears by their readiness to lay it down for the sake of Christ
and his Gospel, in which the lovingkindness of God is so richly
manifested unto them; to which may be added, that it is the love
of God which gives to his people spiritual life, and which issues
in eternal life, and therefore must be better than a temporal
one. The Targum is,
``for better is thy kindness, which thou wilt do for the righteous in the world to come, than the life which thou givest the wicked in this world;''my lips shall praise thee;