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, &c.
are nothing without the love of God; the meanest temporal blessings with it are preferable to the greatest without it, Pr 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.