The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 2 — Section 99

Ver. 9.- With God judgment is salvation. "When God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth." The" meek" are those who, with Hezekiah, held fast their integrity to Jehovah, and yet seemed placed in circumstances of hopeless distress. God's judgment on Sennacherib was their vindication, deliverance, and uplifting. Compare the destruction of Pbaraob's host at the Red Sea. God's judgment on the Egyptians was God's salvation of bis people. It may even be established as the recog- nized principle of Divine dealings, that judgment and mercy shall always go together. '!'hey are like the pillar of cloud, which lay dark against the Egyptians, but shone a bright light forth to guide the wonderful path of delivered Israel. It must not be assumed that in this is seen any favouritism on the part of God ; for if it is true that God's judgments on the nations were blessing for Israel, it is equally true that God'11 judgments on Israel were blessings for the nations. What we dwell on here is that, whatever may be the feature-of Divine dealing that we specially observe, we may confi- dently look for signs of that dealing being made a blessing and salvation to somebody. This introduces a very large subject-the vicariousness of all forms of human calamity and trouble. "No man dieth unto himself." No suffering ever bears exclusive rela- tion to the sulferer. You never have read its mission when you have found out what it did for him. You have never apprehended God's infinitely gracious purposes when you have only seen some one thing that he has accomplished. What mistaken views of God the man would take who persisted in seeing only what this awful night- judgment was to the Assyrians I It must be seen all round to be truly understood and appreciat,eo. L GoD WORKS IN w AYS OF JUDGm;NT. Illustrate from Bible history,' both of nations and of individuals. II. Goo WORKS IN WAYS OF SALVATION. Illustrate in a similar way. Ill. WHEN WORTHILY APPREHENDED, THESE TWO ARE REALLY ONE, AND GoD'B JUDGMENT IS SALVATIO:s'. Lead up to illustrate from the sublime case of the Lord Jesus. "The Lord laid on him the iniquity of UB all," and the judgment that fell on him was salvation for us.-R. T. Ver. 10.-Man's wrath bringing praise to God. The rendering of this verse is uncertain. The LXX. reads the verse, "The wrath of man shall praise thee; the remainder of wrath shall keep festival unto thee." And the idea of the verse seems to be-" the only result of Sennacherib's enmity to God's chosen people will be that the power of the God who overthrows him shall be more widely acknowledged; for vain will it be for the small remnant of the Assyrians to continue the invasion in which their mighty host had been so terribly foiled" (Jennings and Lowe). This idea may be worked out. Be it the seemingly overwhelming wrath of the mighty army,or be it the manifestly helpless and futile enmity of the eufeebled remnant,-God's ways with them will bring praise to hie Name. Jt will often be noticed that the mischief wrought by a remnant is more to be feared than the mischief wrought by a host. Bunyan, in his 'Holy War,' makes a few Diabolians left in Mansoul do greater mischief than Diabolus' army. So tl:ere is poiot in pressing on our attention that PB, LXXVI, 1-12,] THE BOOK OF PSALMS, 109