Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/4_200.lzh/4_225.TXT

Text File | 1994-09-08 | 7KB | 128 lines

poses of God, what he has said in his heart that he
will do, these are firm and sure; these counsels of old
are. faithfulness and truth; they are mountains of brass
settled for ever, and more unalterable than the decrees
of the Medes and Persians. The revealed will of God,
his word .of command, made known to angels in hea-
ven, is regarded, hearkened to, and done by them:
the word of the Gospel, published in the church,
which is sometimes called heaven, is the everlasting
Gospel, the word of God, which lives and abides for
ever.; what remains and will remain, maugre all the
opposition of men and devils. The word of promise
in the covenant made in heaven is sure to all the
seed; every one of the promises is yea and amen in
Christ, and as stable as the heavens, and more so;
heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall
not pass away, Matt. xxiv. 35. The firmness of God's
word is seen in the upholding and continuing the hea-
vens by the word of his power, by which they were
first made; and the certainty of the divine promises is
illustrated by the perpetuity of the ordinances of hea-
ven; see Jet. xxxi. 35. and xxxiii. 25, 26.
Vet. 90. Thy faithfulness is unto all generations,
&c .] Or to generation and generation ·; to his people in
every age, fulfilling his word, supplying their wants,
giving them new mercies every morning and every day;
never leaving and forsaking them, according to his
promise: his faithfulness never fails, it endures for
ever, and is exceeding great and large indeed; see
Lam. iii. 23. Psal. !xxxix. 33. and c. 5. Thou hast
established the earth, and it abideth : laid the founda-
tion of it so firm and sure, that it cannot be removed:
and though one generation has passed after another,
the earth abides where it was, and will do for ever;
and as firm and stable, and never-failing, is the faith-
fulness of God, which this is designed to illustrate.
So some supply it, as thou hast established the earth,
&c. {z}{; see Psal. xxiv. 2. and civ. 5. Eecl. i. 4.
Ver. 91. They continue this day according to thine
ordinances, &e.] That is, the heavens and the earth
do, before mentioned,, just as they were from the be-
ginning of the creation. The heavenly bodies have
the same motion, magnitude, distance, and influence;
the sun rises and sets as it did; the moon keeps her
appointed seasons of full and change, of increase and
decrease; the fixed stars retain their place, and the
planets have their exact revolutions: and on earth
things are as they were; seed-time and harvest, cold
and heat, summer and winter, day and night; thus
they are at this day, and will continue, according to
the wise order and appointment of God. Aben Ezra
and Kimchi interpret it, "they stand or continue
· ' .unto this day to do the will of God; to execute
"Iris judgments and decrees, or observe his order and
"ordinances." For all are thy servants; or they, or
these all ·; the heavens and earth, and all that is in
them, all the-works of God; he called them into
being, and they rose up at his command; he calls
them to service, and they stand up as obedient ones to
do his will; he commandeth the, sun, and it riseth not be-
fore its time; and he $ealeth up the stars, that they
shine not when he pleases; once he commanded the
sun to stand still on Gibeon, and the moon in the
valley of Ajalon, and they obeyed him; see Isa. xlvifi.
13. Job ix. 7. Josh. x. 12,. 13. Hence it appears that
the hosts of heaven, the sun, moon, and stars, ought
not to be served and worshippeal; but the Lord, the
Maker of them, only, since they are his servants; and
that men ought surely to serve the Lord, if these do,
and especially such who are his chosen, redeemed, and.
called ones.
Ver. 92. Unless shy law had been my delights, &c.]
Not the law of works, the voice of words, which they
that heard entreated they might hear no more; which
is terrible, and works wrath in the conscience; is a
cursing and damning law to the transgressors of it;
and so not delightful, unless as considered in the hands
of Christ, the fulfilling end of it: but the law of faitb,
the doctrine of faith, or of justification by the righte-
ousness of Christ, received by faith, which yields
peace, joy, and comfort, even in tribulation: or the
whole doctrine of the Gospel, the law of the Messiah,
the isles waited for; the doctrine of peace, pardon·
righteousness, and eternal life by Christ, which is
ceeding delightful to sensible sinners. I should then haoe
perished in mine affliction ; referring to some particular
time of affliction he was pressed with, either through
the persecution of Saul, or the conspiracy of Absalom
which was verygreat and heavy upon him, so that he
almost despaired of deliverance from it; and must
have perished, not eternally, but as to his comforts:
his heart would have fainted in him, and he would
have sunk under the weight of the affliction, had it not
been for the relief he had from the word of God, the
doctrines and promises of it; he was like one in a
storm, tossed with tempests, one wave after another
beat upon him, and rolled over him, when he thought
hhnself just perishing; and must have given all over
for lost, had it not been for the delight and pleasure
he found in reading and meditating on the sacred
writings.
Ver. 93. I will never forget thy precepts, &c.] Not
the precepts of the moral law, though he carefully ob-
served and artended to them, laid them up in his mind,
and did not forget to keep them; but the doctrines of
the word, of the word which the Lord commanded to
a thousand generations; these he endeavoured to re-
member, and not let them slip from him, since it fol
.lows: for with them thou hast quickened me: not with
the precepts of the moral law, which cannot give life,
quicken a dead sinner, nor comfort a distressed saint
it is the killing letter, and the ministration of condem-
nation and death: but the doctrines of the word, of
the Gospel, which are spirit and life; the sayour of
life unto life, the means of quickening dead sinners,
and of reviving drooping saints; of refreshing their
spirits, and cheering their souls, when in distress:
and when they are made thus useful, they are not easily
forgotten, they leave impressions which do not soon
wear off; and besides, saints are careful to remember
such words and truths, which have been of use unto
them, since they may have occasion for them again.

{y} \^rdw rdl\^ in generationem & generationem, Gejerus; in aetatem &
aetatem, Cocceius.
{z} Quemadmodum vel sicut fundasti, Gejerus.
{a} \^lkh\^ illa omnia, Junius & Tremellius; universa haec, Gejerus.