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I. THE STRONG GRASP THAT IS ABLE TO HOLD US UP. "The only God." There is one in whom is strength, to whom is to be the praise, and on whom ought to be fastened all our confidence. And here is the blessing of a true religious trust, that it does not need to go wandering and seeking for many supports and stays, but can concentrate all confidence on the single arm which is able to sustain. Then, further, note that in this doxology the designation "Saviour" is applied to God Himself, teaching us that, though Christ be indeed eminently the Saviour, He is so in full harmony with the Father's will, and that in all the process of our redemption we are not to think of Him as more gracious, or tender, or full of saving love and power than the Father, whose will He executes, whose image He is. Then note, still further, that the words "from falling" might be more accurately rendered "from stumbling." It is much to keep us from falling; it is more to keep us from stumbling. Mark the emphasis of the language of my text. "He is able to keep you from falling." There is no absolute promise or assurance that He will, but there is the broad declaration of the ability. That is to say, something else is needed than the Divine power if I am to be kept from falling. And what is that else except my grasp of the power, my opening of my heart to its entrance, my clutching His hand with my hand? God is able, but that the possibility shall become an actuality with us, there is needed our faith.

II. THE GREAT END TO WHICH THIS UPHOLDING LEADS. "Faultless — before His presence — with exceeding joy." As to the first, it indicates moral purity. Here the nature may be one field of black, broken only by narrow and short streaks of contradictory light; but yonder all the foulness may be discharged from it, and sin lie behind us, an alien power that has nothing in us. And then, as the purity makes the enjoyment of His presence possible, so the purity and the presence make the third thing possible. "With exceeding joy." The joy comes from cleansing, from communion, from the leaving behind of weariness and struggles. Change and monotony, danger and fear, sin and fightings, partings and death, are all done with.

III. THE ETERNITY OF THE PRAISE THAT COMES FROM SUCH AN ISSUE. All His work is the making visible and the enshrining in act of that four-sided glory of His character. Glory and majesty, dominion and power, are shown in all that He has done. But this ascription of these to God in the present connection teaches us that, upon all the rest of the manifestations of these perfections, God sets the shining summit and topstone in this — that He takes men, being such as we are, and by slow education and patient inspiration, and wise providences and merciful forbearance, moulds and cleanses and quickens, and lifts at last to perfect purity, communion, and gladness. That is the greatest thing that God has ever done. And, says my text, if in the process of redemption God has especially magnified His own majestic nature, and done a mightier thing than when He flung flaming worlds like sparks off an anvil to revolve with music in the heavens, then the first duty of all Christian men is to offer to Him in the depths of their grateful hearts, and in words and deeds of self-surrendered and God-blessed lives, the praise which such a manifestation demands.

(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

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KJV: Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,

WEB: Now to him who is able to keep them from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory in great joy,