The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.
The Word of God enduring forever
We are to consider the abiding and habitual effect of the Word of God upon believing hearts. And this effect is expressed in this phrase, “the fear of the Lord.” Note what is said of it.
I. It is clean--its purity. It is so, because it is the only true and sound basis of a due social regard to man, and the only valid bond of union, whether domestic, private, or public. Every believer ought to bear witness to the cleansing, purifying power of the fear of the Lord.
II. Its perpetuity--“enduring forever.” This tells of the effect of the principle rather than of the principle itself, though this latter is not to be omitted. But in its effects it is consistent, unswerving, abiding, all-powerful. It enters into the man, and goes with him wherever he goes. He cannot and would not shake it off. And its effects are eternal, they can never pass away. And all may possess it, through Christ. It shall be for your peace here and happiness hereafter. (Thomas Dale, M. A.)
The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
The Word of God altogether true and righteous
I. Consider these judgments as matters of fact. Take--
1. The expulsion of our first parents from Eden. None can understand why God created man capable of falling, and foreknowing that he would fall. But this does not say that God made him on purpose that he should fall. This would be to assume that we know all God’s purpose in creating man, which we do not. We cannot reconcile the supremacy of God and the free agency of man. It is of no use to attempt to be “wise above what is written,” but our duty is to take man as he is--capable of understanding and obeying God’s command, which Adam unquestionably was. There was in him no moral difficulty as in us, since the imagination of his heart was not, as ours, “evil continually.” We must deplore the instability of the man, bat we cannot on that account take exception to the judgments of the Lord. And the transmission to offspring of the properties of the parent--this law had been ordained before this fatal event, and what right have we to think that He who made all things “very good” should remodel or reverse His laws in consequence of that event? Hence, although “in Adam all die,” was it unrighteous in God to act in accordance with His own previously established law? Adam himself caused, of his own choice, that it should work ill to him and his. But are we to blame God for that?
2. The judgment upon Cain. Surely this was far less than he deserved. And the gate of mercy and of grace was not closed upon him.
3. The deluge, the overthrow of Jerusalem, and many others. In reference to each of these we might prove it to be “altogether righteous.” For by righteous we understand perfect consistency with previous revelations given by God--with the laws enacted and bearing on each case, and with the penalties threatened by God and consciously incurred by man. And when men object to these judgments they do not attempt to justify the conduct of the sinner, but only to condemn the law under which, and the Judge by whom, he was condemned. They affirm that God is without compassion for human frailty, and without consideration for human folly.
II. As matters of faith--they are altogether true. Necessarily, many of the judgments of God are matters of faith. For the interpositions of God, though sometimes seen in the crisis and agony of nations, are, in the case of individuals, scarcely, if at all, discernible.
III. In their bearing upon ourselves. As we cannot impeach God’s righteousness in His judgments in the past, can we, in what we expect in the future, doubt His truth? Meantime “the victory that overcometh the world is this, even our faith.” (Thomas Dale, M. A.)