I. IT HAS CHRIST FOR ITS GROUNDWORK. Being "over all God blessed for ever," His life was not derived from, nor dependent on, any other. His life was not only innocent of every transgression, in thought, word, and deed; but He was "Jesus Christ the Righteous." He neglected no duty, personal, relative, or official. His life was a service; His death was a sacrifice — of propitiation for the sins of the world.

II. IT HAS FAITH FOR ITS PRINCIPLE, OR INSTRUMENT OF APPROPRIATION. Is faith, then, in itself, a meritorious, or deserving act or exercise? No more than the outstretching of the arm, the opening of the hand to receive Christ, or of the opening of the eye to look to Him, or the moving of the feet to come to Him. It is simply the instrument, the graciously furnished, and Divinely appointed instrument, the only Divinely appointed instrument, or organ, by which the sinner receives, and becomes united to "Christ the righteousness of God." "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace."

III. IT HAS THE HEART FOR ITS SEAT. Justification is a change of state, by which we are freed from condemnation; sanctification is a change of nature, by which we are brought into resemblance and communion with Him. The one indicates a relative change in relation to the law; the other, a real and personal change in God's sight. By the one, we receive a title to the promised recompense of reward; by the other, we are "made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light."

IV. IT HAS THE LIFE FOR ITS EVIDENCE. A man is not certainly known by what he says, but he is known by what he does, and does habitually in every condition and relation of life.

(G. Robson.)

1. In describing the righteous, we must distinguish them —(1) From the great mass of mankind, from the world that "lieth in wickedness" (Romans 3:10).(2) From mere moralists, who trust in themselves that they are righteous, and despise others (Romans 10:3).

2. In describing the righteous, we characterize them.(1) By the genuineness and spirituality of their faith. Righteous men are men of faith (Hebrews 11:3-7). Righteousness is obtained by faith (Romans 4:3, 5, 18, 20, 22; Galatians 3:6). But faith must have an object; this is the Lord Jesus Christ, who became sin for us.(2) By the rectitude and purity of their principles.(3) By the consistency of their conduct.

II. WHAT IS THAT REWARD TO WHICH THE RIGHTEOUS ARE ENTITLED?

1. A gracious and voluntary reward (Romans 6:23; Revelation 2:7, 10, 17).

2. Distant and remote.

3. Suitable and proportionate.

4. Glorious and eternal, and therefore worthy of its Author. In the descriptions of this reward we remark two things; a complete freedom from all evil, both moral and natural, and from all possibility of evil; and the eternal enjoyment of all the good of which their natures are capable.

III. WHAT EVIDENCES HAVE WE FOR CREDITING THE ASSERTION IN THE TEXT?

1. The character of God. He is a being of infinite goodness, and His goodness will incline Him to reward the righteous. He is a being of infinite justice, and His justice prompts Him to render to every man according to his works.

2. The positive declarations of Scripture (Genesis 15:1; Matthew 19:28, 29; Hebrews 11:6; Revelation 22:14).

3. The general consent of mankind.

(Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.)

(The Quiver.)

II. A DAY WILL COME, WHEN THE TRUTH WILL BE SEEN AND ACKNOWLEDGED BY ALL, that "verily there is a reward for the righteous; doubtless there is a God that judgeth the earth." While we reflect upon these things, as certain and true, it is most important to inquire particularly into the nature of this judgment, and of this reward. The Bible gives us full instruction in this matter. It tells us, that "the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good"; and that God "will render to every one according to his works."

(J. S. Pratt.)

II. In consequence of that constitution of things which His creative wisdom hath established, and which shows undeniably the goodness of His intentions, THERE ARE CERTAIN MEASURES OF DIVINE JUSTICE IN CONTINUAL EXECUTION, FOR THE PUNISHMENT OF VICE AND THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF VIRTUE. Here begins the moral government of God; and the marks or proofs, by attending to which, we may be convinced that there is verily a God that judgeth in the earth. The subordinations of human society are appointed by the Author of nature for the purposes of His governing justice, civil and domestic government, etc. We may further trace the footsteps of Divine justice in the natural resentments of mankind against the perpetrators of wicked actions; who thereby expose themselves to a general indignation or contempt; for the passions and affections of men, even of vicious men, naturally rise in favour of virtue and detestation of vice in others. There is an order, also, in the constitution of the human body, for the punishment of some vices. As those crimes which are most injurious to society are generally punished, by the public resentments of that society which they injure; so those vices that are of a personal nature find their own punishment nearer home. Finally, there is the most certain and effectual provision of nature, far the punishment of wickedness and the reward of virtue, in the frame of the human mind. There is as it were a tribunal of justice erected in every man's own heart, where conscience sits as judge, to whose approving or condemning sentence men are continually exposed, and most of all in the seasons of retirement and reflection.

III. THESE MEASURES OF DIVINE JUSTICE ARE MORE EXTENSIVE THAN MEN GENERALLY APPREHEND OR BELIEVE. The stings of conscience are often keen and piercing to the inmost soul; the passions of vice are corroding, and destroy mental quiet and repose; the resentments of society, the disaffection of friends and relatives, are galling to the heart; the terror of human laws is grievous and burdensome; and infamy, disease and death, the frequent effects of debauchery and villainy, cannot be thought slight punishments. Now, though wicked persons may avoid some of these punishments, yet it is hardly possible that any criminal in the world can escape them all. The internal peace and pleasure which arise from innocence and conscious virtue are little esteemed or considered; nor are the troubles and pains, which ensue from guilt, in the natural course of things, much regarded as proofs of Divine justice.

IV. THE PARTICULAR INSTANCES WHICH APPEAR TO THE CONTRARY ARE BUT EXCEPTIONS TO THAT GENERAL ORDER ESTABLISHED IN NATURE. The tyranny and persecution which have raged in the world for a succession of ages, by which the best of men have been the most inhumanly treated, present the darkest scene that ever was beheld in the world, in respect to the providence and justice of the Supreme Governor. But these persecutions were the means of trying and exercising the probity and piety of numbers of men, and of producing the noblest harvest of genuine virtue. It may be reasonably thought that it was in order to this end Divine Providence permitted such an amazing tyranny to rise, prevail, and continue. In this view the Holy Scriptures teach us to look upon such scenes, and thus to reconcile them with the justice of an over-ruling Providence.

V. To vindicate the perfect justice of the Divine government, to give proper consolation to the minds of good men, and to raise virtue to the highest excellence and stability, RECOURSE MUST BE HAD TO THE DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE; and in this point the Gospel-revelation is abundantly sufficient to give entire satisfaction, and to support all good men under the severest trials.

(S. Bourn.)

1. From the description that David here gives of his enemies, we learn that —(1) They hated him with a deadly hate. They sought nothing less than his life; they were "bloody men."(2) They hated him without a cause. "Without my fault."(3) They hated him with furious rage. They are represented as furious beasts of prey, as ravenous dogs, as malignant slanderers, whose words are cutting as a "sword," from whose mouth belches the lava of abuse.(4) They hated him with persistent effort. They watch in the day, wait in ambush, return at night, and thus on until their fiendish purposes are attained.

2. The fact that men are thus enemies to men —(1) Argues human apostasy. At some time or other there has happened in human life a moral earthquake which has riven the social body into pieces.(2) Reveals the need of Christ. He reconciles man to man by reconciling all men to God.

II. THE APPEAL OF SELFISHNESS TO HEAVEN. What merit is there in such a prayer as this? Can it ever meet acceptance with that God who willeth not the death of a sinner, and who is not "willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance"?

III. THE CONFIDENCE OF PIETY IN GOD. Despite all the imperfections of David's character, the root of the matter was in him. "I will sing aloud of thy mercy," etc. Perfection of character is only gradually reached. "The acorn," it has been said, "does not become an oak in a day; the ripened scholar was not made such by a single lesson; the well-trained soldier was not a raw recruit yesterday; it is not one touch of the artist's pencil that produces a finished painting; there are always months between seed-time and harvest; even so, the path of the just is like the 'shining light' which shineth more and more unto the perfect day."

(Homilist.)

(Christian Age.)

     1075   God, justice of
     1310   God, as judge
     5358   judges
     5499   reward, divine

Psalm 58:10-11

     5493   retribution

Epistle vi. To Januarius, Bishop of Caralis (Cagliari).
To Januarius, Bishop of Caralis (Cagliari). Gregory to Januarius, &c. The Jews who have come hither from your city have complained to us that Peter, who has been brought by the will of God from their superstition to the worship of Christian faith, having taken with him certain disorderly persons, on the day after his baptism, that is on the Lord's day of the very Paschal festival, with grave scandal and without your consent, had taken possession of their synagogue in Caralis, and placed there the …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

Peaceable Principles and True: Or, a Brief Answer to Mr. D'Anver's and Mr. Paul's Books against My Confession of Faith, and Differences in Judgment About Baptism no Bar to Communion.
WHEREIN THEIR SCRIPTURELESS NOTIONS ARE OVERTHROWN, AND MY PEACEABLE PRINCIPLES STILL MAINTAINED. 'Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?'--Psalm 58:1 SIR, I have received and considered your short reply to my differences in judgment about water baptism no bar to communion; and observe, that you touch not the argument at all: but rather labour what you can, and beyond what you ought, to throw odiums upon your brother for reproving you for your error, …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Faith the Sole Saving Act.
JOHN vi. 28, 29.--"Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." In asking their question, the Jews intended to inquire of Christ what particular things they must do, before all others, in order to please God. The "works of God," as they denominate them, were not any and every duty, but those more special and important acts, by which the creature might secure …
William G.T. Shedd—Sermons to the Natural Man

Augustin's Part in the Controversy.
Both by nature and by grace, Augustin was formed to be the champion of truth in this controversy. Of a naturally philosophical temperament, he saw into the springs of life with a vividness of mental perception to which most men are strangers; and his own experiences in his long life of resistance to, and then of yielding to, the drawings of God's grace, gave him a clear apprehension of the great evangelic principle that God seeks men, not men God, such as no sophistry could cloud. However much his …
St. Augustine—Anti-Pelagian Writings

Moral Depravity.
VIII. Let us consider the proper method of accounting for the universal and total moral depravity of the unregenerate moral agents of our race. In the discussion of this subject, I will-- 1. Endeavor to show how it is not to be accounted for. In examining this part of the subject, it is necessary to have distinctly in view that which constitutes moral depravity. All the error that has existed upon this subject, has been founded in false assumptions in regard to the nature or essence of moral depravity. …
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology

An Address to the Regenerate, Founded on the Preceding Discourses.
James I. 18. James I. 18. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. I INTEND the words which I have now been reading, only as an introduction to that address to the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty, with which I am now to conclude these lectures; and therefore shall not enter into any critical discussion, either of them, or of the context. I hope God has made the series of these discourses, in some measure, useful to those …
Philip Doddridge—Practical Discourses on Regeneration

The Necessity of Actual Grace
In treating of the necessity of actual grace we must avoid two extremes. The first is that mere nature is absolutely incapable of doing any thing good. This error was held by the early Protestants and the followers of Baius and Jansenius. The second is that nature is able to perform supernatural acts by its own power. This was taught by the Pelagians and Semipelagians. Between these two extremes Catholic theology keeps the golden mean. It defends the capacity of human nature against Protestants and …
Joseph Pohle—Grace, Actual and Habitual

The Mystery
Of the Woman dwelling in the Wilderness. The woman delivered of a child, when the dragon was overcome, from thenceforth dwelt in the wilderness, by which is figured the state of the Church, liberated from Pagan tyranny, to the time of the seventh trumpet, and the second Advent of Christ, by the type, not of a latent, invisible, but, as it were, an intermediate condition, like that of the lsraelitish Church journeying in the wilderness, from its departure from Egypt, to its entrance into the land …
Joseph Mede—A Key to the Apocalypse

The Justice of God
The next attribute is God's justice. All God's attributes are identical, and are the same with his essence. Though he has several attributes whereby he is made known to us, yet he has but one essence. A cedar tree may have several branches, yet it is but one cedar. So there are several attributes of God whereby we conceive of him, but only one entire essence. Well, then, concerning God's justice. Deut 32:4. Just and right is he.' Job 37:23. Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

The Wrath of God
What does every sin deserve? God's wrath and curse, both in this life, and in that which is to come. Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.' Matt 25: 41. Man having sinned, is like a favourite turned out of the king's favour, and deserves the wrath and curse of God. He deserves God's curse. Gal 3: 10. As when Christ cursed the fig-tree, it withered; so, when God curses any, he withers in his soul. Matt 21: 19. God's curse blasts wherever it comes. He deserves also God's wrath, which is …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

Psalms
The piety of the Old Testament Church is reflected with more clearness and variety in the Psalter than in any other book of the Old Testament. It constitutes the response of the Church to the divine demands of prophecy, and, in a less degree, of law; or, rather, it expresses those emotions and aspirations of the universal heart which lie deeper than any formal demand. It is the speech of the soul face to face with God. Its words are as simple and unaffected as human words can be, for it is the genius …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament