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We have, in the words of our text — first, the perfection of God's way — next, the purity of God's Word — and, lastly, the privilege of God's people.

I. THE ESSENTIAL PERFECTION OF A "WAY" IS THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF ITS END; the contingent or relative perfection is the accomplishment of the end, with the utmost attainable extent of benefit, and with the least practicable amount of difficulty. Of the first, so far as both God and man are concerned, we are competent to judge; on the second, we can only form a judgment of beings endued and encumbered with like passions as ourselves. It is of the first that David speaks. He found himself, after the lapse of many years, after the endurance of many privations and persecutions, in full possession of all that the Lord had promised, delivered out of the hand of all His enemies, and exalted, from following the sheep, to be governor over God's people Israel. He remembers and records, indeed, that "the waves of death compassed him, the floods of ungodly men made him afraid." But this is a grateful commemoration, not an insinuated complaint. Hence, then, we infer, that we are in danger of falling into error, when we look upon the dispensations of God as an insulated or individual case. With the destinies of David, we cannot doubt, were interwoven those of many others, with whose instruction, deliverance, or confirmation in the faith, his trials and persecutions might be intimately and indissolubly connected. Whatever portion may be allotted to those who serve God, of that chastening, which "for the present seemeth not to be joyous, but grievous," they possess, if not a clue to all God's dealings, that which will be at least a balm, and a solace, and a support, under all trials, in the single emphatic assurance — "As for God, His way is perfect." He proportions the endurance to the issue, and adapts the way to the end — to many ends, for "we are members one of another."

II. THE PURITY OF GOD'S WORD. We do not here speak, however, of moral purity in its application to man's righteousness, but of the abiding excellence, the inviolable faithfulness of the Word, in reference to God Himself. None of God's people will, on reflection, ever find cause to question the purity of His Word, the integrity of His promise. And the principle on which I ground the assertion, is simply this — "The end of faith "is" "the salvation of the soul;" this is the one great object, which must be pursued through all difficulties and accomplished at all sacrifices; a true believer, therefore, can only then begin to doubt — on reflection, at least — when he is placed in circumstances, of which he can positively say, "These cannot minister either to my salvation, or to the salvation of any other living soul." Now, this cannot be affirmed even of entanglement in sin; for, "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another," exhorted the apostle James, "that ye may be healed" — the inference from which is that the acknowledgment of a fault may instrumentally confer a great benefit upon another than the commission of it has inflicted injury upon the believer himself.

III. WHAT IS THE NECESSARY CONCLUSION FROM SUCH PREMISES — the privilege of God's people. "He is a buckler to all them that trust in Him." Nothing, it would appear, could be more simple, nothing could be more reasonable. than the essential condition, imposed on all such as would be saved, of an entire and implicit trust in God; nothing more simple, from the very nature of the case — nothing more reasonable, from the impossibility of the opposite. "Hath God said, and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?" Who can even conceive of a God all power, unable — or of a God all love, unwilling — to redeem His pledge, and to accomplish His purpose? We are called, however, on the present occasion to consider the gain, the incalculable gain of those who trust God. Trust is active. The proof of it lies in action. Action is the element which is essential to its existence. He who trusts God must try at least to serve Him; otherwise trust were nothing better than presumption. And there are some who do not trust because they do not try. Religion is with them no effort, no struggle, no conflict, no sacrifice. They recite articles of faith, they respond to the utterance of prayer, they listen to the preaching of the Gospel; and then they return into the world with undiminished relish of its vanities — not, as they ought, with a livelier perception of its emptiness, and an increased repugnance to its pollutions, and a more settled abhorrence of its sins. Such men do not trust God — men whose religion is but a Sabbath parade. They cannot trust Him. They have no right to trust Him; there are no portions of His Word on which to ground their trust; for the tenour of the Scripture promises supposes consistency of life. Let me, then, exhort you to settle at once the unspeakably momentous point whether you trust God; and not only so, but whether you are warranted in trusting Him — whether it is your endeavour to walk in His "perfect way," and your desire to repose full confidence in His pure and inviolable Word. It is no time to commence all this when we are involved in calamity. Then is the time to profit by what we have already learnt — not to enter upon that lesson for the acquirement of which a whole life might be far too brief. It rests with every individual hearer to "examine himself whether he be in the faith," to "prove his own self,"

(T. Dale, M. A.)

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KJV: As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all them that trust in him.

WEB: As for God, his way is perfect. The word of Yahweh is tested. He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.