Psalms

All righteousness was silent in Israel. The wicked were such and nought else. The godly man looks for judgment on them, for, let favour be shown to them, they will not learn uprightness. In the land of uprightness will they deal unjustly (Isaiah 26:9-10). They cannot, says David of the same, be taken with hand; one must be fenced with iron to touch them (2 Sam. 23). Hence the godly looked for judgment — the only possible means, by God's own testimony, of removing the evil; for patience had been fully exercised towards them, but when even God's hand was lifted up they would not see. And the vengeance of deliverance would come, and men would say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous; doubtless there is a God that judges in the earth (see Isaiah 26:9). This is the meaning of these terrible judgments: they establish the government and righteous judgment of God in the earth. Grace has taken us out of the world; we are not of it, as Christ was not of it. Christ will, as to our deliverance, even from suffering, come and take us out of the evil, so that we have in no way need to seek the destruction of our enemies. But for the persecuted remnant, it is the only and promised deliverance; and not only that — it establishes God's government of the earth.