I. Consider, first, the Psalmist's assertion, "The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works." The Psalmist here uses the language of faith. The word "righteousness" as used of God denotes that necessary perfection by which God is most holy and just in Himself, and observes the strictest rules of equity in His every dealing with His creatures. To be convinced, then, that God is righteous, is to be convinced that, whatever may be the appearance, He is guided in all His actions by the most unimpeachable principles, and has only to make known His reasons to secure the approval of all holy beings. Be it so that the dealings of our Maker are unsearchable, our business is not to penetrate these dealings, but whilst they bear us along as a ship is borne upon the waves to keep looking, as David elsewhere says, "to the hills, from whence cometh our help." There is not a billow of this deep from which you may not see land, some peak of the mountains, if you will, as it were, rest in the ship, though if you attempt to dive beneath the surface you will find only darkness, and be presently overwhelmed. Make it your constant rule never to contemplate God's dealings apart from God's attributes, but always to prepare for musing on the dealings by musing on the attributes, and David's experience will be your own.
II. The doubts and difficulties which consideration of God's dealings will necessarily excite will best be dealt with by pondering the everyday mercies which are showered upon the world. "The eyes of all wait upon Thee," etc. There is not in this creation a single living thing which is not perpetually drawing upon God, and so literally dependent on His care and bounty that a moment's suspension of His operations would suffice to extinguish its vital principle. Who can fear that, because God's ways are unsearchable, they may not be all tending to the final good of His creatures, when he knows that, with the tenderness of a most affectionate parent, this Creator and Governor ministers to the meanest living thing? Who can distrust God, because clouds and darkness are round about Him, when there is light enough to show that He is the vigilant Guardian of every tenant of this earth, that His hand upholds, and His breath animates, and His bounty nourishes the teeming hordes of the city, and the desert, and the ocean? "The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works."
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit,No. 2085.
References: Psalms 145:16. J. J. West, Penny Pulpit,No. 1823.Psalms 145:18. K. Blencowe, Plain Sermons to a Country Congregation,1st series, p. 128. Psalms 145:18; Psalms 145:19. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xii., p. 86. Psalms 146:1-3. R. Thomas, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xi., p. 1.