Times of abounding wickedness have been times of unbelief. Evil hinders themanifestation of God in the world. His laws seem to have no executive force; His righteousness is obscured; His very existence is questioned, see text. This question may be asked--
1. By the righteous in their distress.
2. By the wicked in their fancied security.
3. By the sceptic in his reluctant doubting.
4. This question will be answered by God--
(1) To the joy of the righteous;
(2) to the confusion of the wicked;
(3) to the satisfaction of the honest doubter;
(4) to the full vindication of the Divine justice.
Faith is needed. The laws of God execute themselves most vividly in the invisible regions of the soul. Men look for God in the destructive hurricane rather than in the stings of conscience; in terrible thunderings rather than in the still small voice. Mercy, too, causes judgment to linger, but in the end every one will receive his sentence according to his deeds. (W. Osborne Lilley.)
God is a God of judgment
There was lately a judge in England, whom I need not be afraid to name as the honour of his robe and profession, namely, Judge Doddridge, whom they commonly called “the sleeping judge.” Indeed, he had an affected drowsy posture on the Bench, inasmuch that many persons unacquainted with his custom, and having cases of concernment to be tried before him, have even given up all for lost, expecting no justice from a dormant judge; when he all the while did only retire himself within himself, the more seriously to consult with his own soul about the validity of what was alleged and proved unto him, as appeared afterwards by those oracles of law which he pronounced. Wicked men, in like manner, erroneously suppose God to be a sleeping God,. . . but in due time He will assuredly confute their mistake. (Thos. Fuller.)
