He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous: but with kings [are they] on the throne; yea, he doth establish them for ever, and they are exalted.
Ver. 7. He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous] He is so lost in love, as I may say, toward such that he cannot like to look beside them; he beholdeth them when afflicted with singular care and complacency. Then, if ever, the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears open to their cry, Psalms 34:15; then they may have anything of God, there being no time like that for heariug of prayers, Zechariah 13:9. Times of affliction are times of supplication, Psalms 50:15; Psalms 91:15. They are mollissima fandi tempora, Jeremiah 51:19,21. Then our hearts are largest, then God's ears are most open. Neither his ears only, but his eyes too, are busied about his suffering servants, as the goldsmiths are about the gold cast into the furnace, that no grain thereof be lost. He sits down by the fire, saith Malachi, and tends it, as a refiner and purifier of silver, Job 3:3. He refines them, but not as silver, Isaiah 48:10, that is, not exactly, and to the utmost, lest they should be consumed in that fiery trial: he seeth to it that the choice spirits of his people fail not before him, Isaiah 57:16, as they would do if he should bring upon them an evil, an only evil, Ezekiel 7:5, and not in the midst of judgment remember mercy.
But with kings are they on the throne] i.e. He raiseth them to highest honours, as he did Joseph; whose fetters God in one hour changed into a chain of gold, his stocks into a chariot, his jail into a palace, his rags into fine linen, &c.; yea, as Jeremiah's rags helped to draw him out of the dungeon, so do afflictions work out to God's people an exceeding, eternal weight of glory. Here, perhaps, they may be held under, but to him that overcometh will the Lord Christ grant to sit with him in his throne, Revelation 3:21. The deluge of calamities may assault them, but it shall certainly exalt them. They shall have crowns on their heads, and palms in their hands, and walk arm in arm with angels. Some of the Hebrews by "kings" here understand angels, as if it were written מלאבים, not Melachim, but Maleochim.
Yea, he doth establish them for ever, and they are exalted] Or, when they are exalted. This no earthly prince can promise himself. Dionysius, who thought his kingdom had been tied to him with cords of adamant, was at length driven out of it. But Christ's kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and he will not reign alone; if we suffer with him we shall also reign together, Romans 8:37 .