Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou
Thou wilt perform the truth - the faithful promise.
To Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham - thou shalt make good to their posterity the promise made to the patriarchs. God's promises are called "mercy," because they flow slowly from grace; "truth," because they will be surely performed (Luke 1:72-73; 1 Thessalonians 5:24).
Which thou hast sworn unto our fathers - (Psalms 105:9-10, "Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; and confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant"). The promise to Abraham is in Genesis 12:2-3, "I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed;" to Isaac, in Genesis 26:24, "I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed, for my servant Abraham's sake;" to Jacob, in Genesis 28:13-14, "I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth; and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee, and in thy seed, shall all the families of the earth be blessed." This unchangeable promise implied an engagement that the seed of the patriarchs should never perish, and should be restored to their inheritance as often as they turned wholly to God (Deuteronomy 30:1-2, "It shall come to pass when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord thy God hath driven thee, and shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice, according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; that then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations where the Lord thy God hath scattered thee").
Remarks:
(1) When the corruption is universal in a nation, and "the good man is perished out of the earth" (Micah 7:2), then judgment is near at hand.
(2) The ungodly are often more "earnest" (Micah 7:3) to "do evil with both hands," than the godly are to do good. All classes act in concert where their worldly aims are concerned, whereas how few join in intertwining that "three-fold cord" of united prayer which "is not quickly broken!" (Ecclesiastes 4:12.) The favour of "the great man" is generally more sought after, even at the sacrifice of principle, than the favour of God.
(3) The ungodly are like "a brier" or "thorn hedge" (Micah 7:4), hurtful to all who come in contact with them. But they shall not stand "in battle" before the Lord, when He shall come in "the day" "foretold by His watchmen," as the day of "visitation" for sin. He shall "go through the briers and thorns," He shall "burn them together" (Isaiah 27:4).
(4) When earthly friends fail us, and because of our religion "our enemies are the men of our own house" (Micah 7:6), our only and unfailing resource is, like the prophet, to "look unto the Lord" (Micah 7:7), as if there were no other one to look to in the universe.
Moreover, we must not only look unto, but also "wait for the God of our salvation." The believer, though all others forsake him, still finds unspeakable joy in knowing God to be his God. His confidence of being heard rests on this, "My God will hear me."
(5) The experience of the literal Israel and of the spiritual correspond. God chastises His children sorely, but does not give them over to death eternal (Psalms 118:18). The believer can in faith take up language similar to that of his crucified Lord in His hour of darkness (Isaiah 50:7-8; Isaiah 50:10), and such as Israel, under the Spirit's teaching, shall hereafter employ, "Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy; when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me" (Micah 7:8). God is honoured by such trust in Him, when we cannot see or feel Him, and when Satan the enemy seems to be triumphant over us.
(6) To "rejoice" at the fall of the godly is a mark of a heart at enmity with God. When the world exults, saying, "Aha, aha, our eye hath seen it, so would we have it" (Psalms 35:21; Psalms 35:25), the child of God mourns, and commits his own cause and that of the Church to God.
(7) To accept of the punishment of sin, and to bear patiently God's indignation as justly deserved, is the sure forerunner of deliverance. So long as complaining and impatience continue, the chastisement has not yet effected the gracious end designed by Him. However innocent we may, as believers, feel ourselves in relation to our earthly adversaries, yet before God we must plead guilty, and, when chastised, must confess that we deserve even worse than we suffer. When we leave ourselves wholly in the hands of God we may rest confident that He will Himself "plead our cause and execute justice for" us (Micah 7:9). And though He suffer us to fall for a time, in order to make us feel our own exceeding weakness, He shall raise us up again. "He will bring forth" His people from "sitting in darkness" (Micah 7:8-9) "to the light" which He at once gives and is. Thenceforth we shall renounce all trust in righteousness of our own making, and shall walk in the light of His righteousness. Let our feeling be continually, "With thee is the fountain of life; in thy light shall we see light" (Psalms 36:9).
(8) Satan often suggests the unbelieving thought to the child of God in trial, "Where now is the Lord thy God?" (Micah 7:10.) It is the same taunt as Satan's agents threw against the suffering Saviour, "He trusted in God: let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God" (Matthew 27:43). But faith furnishes confident hope of divine deliverance at last, and patient submission to the will of God in the meantime. The triumph of the enemy over the people of God is short, and shall soon be reversed. Though cast down, we are not destroyed. Only wait, and our "eyes shall behold" the enemy, who so lately looked exultingly at us in our trial, cast down and destroyed forever.
(9) Though Zion's walls lie long in ruins, they shall be built at last (Micah 7:4). Let not them who love her despond, even when she is in the greatest depression. Many of those who, like Assyria and Egypt, were formerly her bitter foes, shall become by conversion her zealous friends (Micah 7:12).
(10) When God is about to restore Israel, He shall, as the preliminary thereto, pour out upon her people and her friends the spirit of supplication. "Feed thy people with thy rod" (Micah 7:14). The pastoral rod of the Good Shepherd is whatever instrumentality His power, His love, and His wisdom employ to restore the soul, to comfort the troubled heart, and to lead His people in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake, (Psalms 23:1-6.) Prayer is the sure precursor of every blessing.
(11) The Lord's people are now a separate people, in the world, but not of the world, "dwelling solitarily," and yet, like Jesus their Lord on earth, "not alone, because the Father is with" them (John 16:32). Israel, the people that "dwelt alone" (Numbers 23:9), is a lively type of the spiritual people of God. These are "the flock of God's heritage" (Micah 7:14).
(12) The deliverance out of Egypt is an earnest of a still more "marvelous" deliverance (Micah 7:15) about to be vouchsafed to Israel in the face of all "the nations" hereafter (Micah 7:16). Cavillers shall be struck dumb with astonishment, and, in silent "awe of" Israel and reverent "fear toward God" (Micah 7:17), "shall lay their hand upon their mouth" (Micah 7:16).
(13) The effect of God's wonderful mercy, exceeding so infinitely all that could have been expected, shall be, in the case of both the literal and the spiritual Israel hereafter, they shall burst forth into rapturous praises of God, of which Moses' song at the Red Sea was a type, "Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity?" (Micah 7:18.) The elect "remnant" attribute the whole glory of their salvation to the sovereign grace of God, who chose a special "heritage" to Himself. His pardoning grace is no exceptional impulse, but is founded on His very nature, which "delighteth in mercy" (Micah 7:18). This is our encouragement now amidst the corrupt weaknesses of the old man within us, that as surely as He promises to take away the guilt of sin, "casting all our sins into the depths of the sea," never more to rise against us, so surely will He also break the power of sin, so that "He will subdue our iniquities" (Micah 7:19).
(14) God never can swerve from His everlasting "covenant" with Abraham, and with his seed, the literal and the spiritual Israel respectively. His "mercy" and His "truth" alike are pledged for the fulfillment of all His promises to His people; so that in His word and in His oath "we may have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us" (Hebrews 6:18).