Psalm 119:119, 120 You put away all the wicked of the earth like dross: therefore I love your testimonies.… Thou puttest away all the ungodly of the earth like dross.... My flesh trembleth for fear of thee. The good man is variously affected by the judgments of God. He is not always in the mood to view them aright. It is intended that he should be influenced by them. It is well to remember that Divine judgments never exhaust their mission in punishing wickedness, they are designed to warn the unwary, and to assure the perplexed of the living working of the great Vindicator. But good people sometimes misuse Divine judgments. They do when they exaggerate judgment as a feature of the Divine administration. They do when they dwell on the physical suffering that the judgment may involve, and pay little heed to the moral purpose which is at the heart of all Divine judgment. They do when they cherish the fear that the Divine judgments are indiscriminate, at least practically, and sweep away the righteous with the wicked. And when it seems as if, in a bodily and temporal sense, the judgment of the wicked does affect the righteous, the good man is full of fears lest his bodily calamities should destroy his heart-confidence in God. There are human calamities, such as epidemic disease; natural calamities, such as storm and famine; and national calamities, such as war and commercial panic, which the good and evil share together, and everything depends on the good man keeping the right attitude of mind in relation to such things. I. WHAT THE GOOD MAN SEES. In some moods - as that of Asaph - all he can see is the wicked prospering, and then he is tempted to question the justice of the Divine dealings. In other moods he can see how short is the tether of the wicked, and how certain and overwhelming are the Divine judgments. The difficulty is that the seeing is usually so unqualified; it is exclusive and exaggerated on the one side or on the other. II. WHAT THE GOOD MAN FEELS. Based on what he sees. He seldom can trust his feelings, because they respond to sense-conditions, and are inefficiently toned by the sanctified will. So he either feels as if God were neglecting him, or as if he would be borne away by circumstances. Then he needs the cheer of God's Word. - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross: therefore I love thy testimonies.WEB: You put away all the wicked of the earth like dross. Therefore I love your testimonies. |
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