For destruction [from] God [was] a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure.
Ver. 23. For destruction from God was a terror to me] Such an eminent and exemplary calamity or misery, as is mentioned in the former verse, frightened me from wrong dealing. I foresaw the evil event of such practices, and therefore dared not venture. We may not fear the punishment only, and not the offence (for that is a servile fear, and hath torment); neither may we fear the punishment more than the offence. But to fear the punishment with the offence, the offence being feared in the first place, and most, this is incident to saints, and commanded, Matthew 10:28 .
And by reason of his highness (or excellency) I could not endure] Non praevaluissem, saith Tremellius. The Hebrew is, I could not; sc. Prevail or subsist. If there be no standing before a lion, or bearing up sail before a tempest; why should any one think to contest with omnipotence, to strive with his Maker, whom nothing can disarm or pacify, but a humble yielding to his justice in hope of mercy, with a resolution to fear before him continually, as the Scripture phraseth it?