They saw that He was worthy of their trust. They
saw that He was to be honoured, not merely for His boundless wisdom
and His boundless power: for a being might have them, and yet make a
bad use of them. But He was to be trusted, because He was a good
God. He was to be honoured, not for anything which men might get out
of Him (as the heathen fancied) by flattering Him, and begging of
Him: but He was to be honoured for His own sake, for what He was in
Himself--a just, merciful, kind, generous, magnanimous, and utterly
noble and perfect, moral Being, worthy of all admiration, praise,
honour, and glory.
The Psalmist saw that God was good, and worthy to be praised. But he
saw, too, that he and his forefathers would never have found out that
for themselves. It was too great a discovery for man to make. God
must have showed it to them. God had showed His word to Jacob, His
statutes and ordinances to Israel.
He had not done so to any other nation, neither had the heathen
knowledge of His laws. And, therefore, they did not trust God; they
did not consider Him a good God, and so they worshipped Baalim, the
sun and moon and stars, with silly and foul ceremonies, to procure
from them good harvests; and burnt their children in the fire to
Moloch, the fire-king, to keep off the earthquakes and the floods.
God had not taught them what He had taught Israel--to trust in Him,
and in His word which ran very swiftly, and in His laws, which could
not be broken: a faith which, my friends, we must do our best to
keep up in ourselves, and in our children after us.
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