Psalm 10:5 His ways are always grievous; your judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffs at them. In this Psalm David gives one of his emphatic descriptions of the wicked man, and the fate that awaits him. We in our day are apt to think of every bad man as partly good, and of every good man as partly bad; that character is always mingled. Hence good and bad characters do not stand out so clearly before us as they did before David and, I think I may say, as they stood out before Christ. But whilst our perception of the weakness in every man's character is very good, David's thought is, no doubt, the true one — that there is, after all, in every character determination for right or wrong. The wicked man is he whose face is not away from righteousness and is content with unrighteousness. Now one thing about this man David affirms. Ver. 5: "Thy judgments are far above, out of his sight." It is so. There are regions of which men never think, in which they are being judged every day. A man's life depends much upon the judgments passed upon him. And if he be content with the lower judgments` relating to his earthly condition, be will pass by all the higher ones, and which are judging all his life. In the heavens there is a long series of thrones, growing whiter and whiter, until the great white throne stands above them all. And the richness and sacredness of a man's life depend on his consciousness of these judgments. The condemnation of the wicked is that he has no such consciousness that God's judgments are "out of his sight." How many of us live in the lower judgments — that of pleasure, or profit, or reputation. And all the time there tower above us these great judgment seats of God. Think of some of them. I. THE UNIVERSE. As to whether we have found or are finding our own true place in it. There is such place. Are we filling it? II. ABSOLUTE RIGHTEOUSNESS. That calm abstraction which we call the right, which makes itself known so really in all the operations of the world. It casts us aside for our perversity or it takes us into its embrace. III. ALL THE PURE AND NOBLE MEN. They are forever judging us, not malignantly condemning us, but deciding as each one of us comes into their presence, whether there is any use in us. And above all there is — IV. THE JUDGMENT OF GOD. He, knowing us altogether, is judging whether we are capable of receiving Him. He ever seeking us, and we ever either inviting or rejecting His love. That love which beats at the door of our nature is judging us, the judgment of the soul being in the refusal of the offer of God. How dreadful, then, to live with all these judgments out of our sight. Sometimes you see a man, once content, now full of discontent. The world satisfies him no more. He is seeking the higher judgments. Jesus ever sought the judgment of God — to please Him. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. |
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