I. If any are tempted to ask why the ungodly sometimes have such power and do so much evil, here is an answer. The ungodly in power is a sort of public hangman or executioner, who is appointed to do the vile but necessary scavenger work of the universe, the destroying and clearing away that is needed.
II. The sword is the very type and embodiment of the idea of successful force. Sword-power is very strong. And many strive to forge their being into a hard perfection, hard, and keen, and glittering. The sword-power works by wounding, by cutting, by oppressing the weak, by sharp words, by selfish actions, by having its own way, by being feared, by never sparing. God permits such success; God uses such success to punish or try mankind. "The ungodly, which is a sword of Thine" a mere hard tool, without any directing power of its own, a sword, not the wielder of a sword, not working intelligently with God, not knowing what is really being done.
III. True training for true life is the learning to heal wounds, not to inflict them; to save, not to destroy; to build up, not to pull down; to be as oil to the afflicted, not sharp as a sword. Beware of the sword-power and its spirit. "They that take the sword shall perish by the sword."
E. Thring, Uppingham Sermons,vol. ii., p. 128.