Psalm 119:142 Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and your law is the truth. Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness. The psalmist uses the word "everlasting" in a figurative way. He would never take the trouble to say so small, and indeed so unnecessary, a thing as that God's righteousness would last forever. That is a truism. All righteousness, God's and man's, lasts forever: it can do nothing else. There are no forces that can stop it or kill it. Goodness is in its very nature eternal. And everlastingness is but one Of the qualities or attributes of righteousness; but in view of the limitations of human language, it may be used to represent all the qualities of it; or, as we have expressed it, everlasting righteousness may stand for complete, all-round righteousness. I. ALL-ROUND RIGHTEOUSNESS IS THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD. This is true not only of that abstract idea of righteousness which we connect with God, but also of that practical idea of righteousness which concerns his relations with men and dealings with them. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Find God where you may, he is always doing right. You never take him at unawares; you never find him below himself. His righteousness is an always righteousness, and "always" includes "everlasting," but suggests much more than "everlasting." We think of man as a dual being, having an internal life of thought and feeling, and an external life of action and relation. As man is made in the image of God, we may think of God's righteousness as including himself and his doings. There is no kind of falling harmony, but righteousness all round and quite through. A righteousness that never fails. II. ALL-ROUND RIGHTEOUSNESS IS TO BE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF MAN. Can man be satisfied with the assurance that the righteousness he may gain will last forever? Must he not say, "I am: quite willing to leave that, if I can only be assured of the quality of the righteousness'? The man who wants a present righteousness, and must have an all-round one, alone gains what is worthy to receive the everlasting stamp. All-round righteousness is the sublimest conception a man may form. It includes right thinking, right willing, right feeling, right acting. Righteousness within. Right relations. And a bloom on all - the Christly bloom - wonderful and beautiful as that which lies on autumn fruits. - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.WEB: Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness. Your law is truth. |
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