THE LOCAL PREACHERS' OWN BOOK. A SAVIOUR JUST AND ROYAL. "For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our law-giver, the Lord is our King; He will save us.' In the context we are shown the high honour of the upright. It is the echo of what the psalmist had before declared Israel's sweet singer had inserted in his psalm for the sons of Korah,-"The Lord God is a Sun and a Shield; the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly." And the prophet evangelic says,-"He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil: he shall dwell on high; his place of defence shall be the munition of rocks; bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure: thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty; they shall behold the land that is very far off." And these upright ones shall look upon Zion, the city of solemnities; their eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken: but there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby. For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our law-giver, the Lord is our King; He will save us. Volume Second. B I know that these words refer primarily to the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem; but they are also an universal application to all that walk uprightly. All these may say confidently and emphatically, The LORD is our Judge. The Lord is the Judge of all the earth. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of this. Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of His saints to execute judgment upon all. And Paul says,The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. But it is not this general judgment of the quick and dead of which the text speaks; it tells not of the future, but of the present: the Lord is our Judge. And verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth, and therefore there is a reward for the upright. For God judgeth the righteous; the Lord hath prepared His throne for judgment, and He will judge the world in righteousness; He shall minister judgment to the people, for His reward is with Him, and His word before Him, to give to every man according to his deserts: for I will recompense, saith the Lord. The Lord will be a refuge for the oppressed-a refuge in time of trouble; there fore, O upright one, commit thy way to the Lord; trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass; and He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as a lamp that burneth; for justice and judg. ment are the habitation of His throne, and mercy and truth shall go before His face. It is a great comfort to know that the Lord is our Judge. Men often put a wrong construction upon the words and acts of the upright, and then it is a great consolation to remember that God knoweth, and by Him actions are weighed, and His kingdom ruleth over all. The righteous have ever exultingly said,-" All Thy works shall praise thee, O Lord, and Thy saints shall bless Thee; they shall speak of the glory of Thy kingdom, and talk of Thy power, to make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, and the glorious Majesty of His kingdom. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Thy dominion endureth throughout all generations." They that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it; and a book of re membrance was written before Him of them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. The upright now often speak of the things that pertain to the kingdom of God, and their hearts burn within them; and as the fire burneth, they continue to speak with their tongues, and to bless and praise the name of the Lord, and to exalt His name together. The ungodly say,-"They are canting hypocrites! proud, boasting Pharisees;" but they can say, "The Lord is our Judge. They go into the Sabbath-school, and say,-Come, ye children, hearken unto me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Knowing the terror of the Lord, they try to persuade men to flee from the wrath to come, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and to lay hold on eternal life. They go to the rooms of the sick and the dying, and anxiously point them to the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. The men of the world say it is to court popularity, to get themselves a name, to get the praise of men, to be accounted more holy than other people; but they can say,-The Lord is our Judge. They come into the immediate presence of the Most High, and pray to their Father in heaven in the name of that Jesus who said,-Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. They pray for themselves, and the church, and the wicked world, that sin, and crime, and idolatry, and blood-shed may come to an end. The ungodly say, -Tush, it is all cant! The world will continue as it is, and there will continue to be wars and rumours of wars in spite of all their prayers! but they can say,―The Lord is our Judge. And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. And it is a great corrective to know that the Lord is our Judge. Thou God seest me! The Lord looketh on the heart! The Lord searcheth all hearts! are salutary sayings which throw a hallowed light upon the path of the just; they tend to regulate their thoughts, to cause them to hate vain thoughts, wandering thoughts, trifling thoughts, evil thoughts; and they inspire the prayer,"Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." The upright know that it is written :-" By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned;" and they guard against all words that are idle, rash, or hasty; they endeavour constantly to keep their tongues from evil, and their lips from speaking guile; and they pray,-"Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, keep the door of my lips." And, knowing that God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil, they are careful to avoid all acts and deeds that are foolish, useless, or injurious; they think,-The Lord is our Judge. The LORD is our law-giver. The Lord gives laws to the universe. He gave a law to man in Paradise :-Of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." That law was broken, and death ensued. There was no law from Adam to Moses; but to Moses God gave the two tables containing the moral law, which Jesus came not to destroy, but to fulfil and inculcate; hence He compressed and condensed it, and taught, saying, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength; and thy neighbour as thy self." Now, whatever is contrary to the sincere, earnest, and constant love of God and man, is sin; for this is the law, and sin is the transgression of the law; and whenever we love the world, or self, or any creature more than we love God, we so far sin; and if we injure our brother in his person, his character, or his property, we transgress the law of God, and sin against Him; for the Lord is our law-giver. Unregenerate man does not approve of this law, for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh: the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they who are in the flesh |
