Psalms 82:8

REFLECTIONS

READER! let us pass over all lesser considerations, which the perusal of this Psalm might open to our view in the judgment of earthly powers, to behold him who is the righteous Judge, and to whom the Father hath committed all judgment. Oh! how sweet, how very sweet it is, to consider that He who is one day to be my Judge, is every day my Brother! Jesus will indeed at the last day sit upon the judgment-seat, and before him will be gathered all nations: angels, principalities, and powers, will be brought under his unerring judgment. And while such views are enough to check all unrighteous decrees among men, which will there be fully reversed; they are, or ought to be, enough also to carry conviction to the heart, that nothing can escape his all-seeing eye, nor escape his righteous judgment. But, Reader! hath Jesus already brought us under his righteous judgment? Hath he, by his blessed Spirit, made us to flee from a covenant of works, to take refuge under his own covenant of grace? Then is there no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. And if Jesus be my Judge, who hath already been my Surety; if he, who died the just for the unjust, hath wrought out a righteousness to justify the souls of his people, and shed his blood to wash them from all sin; surely, if he hath born their sins, he will not condemn their souls. He once died for them, and rose again to justify them; and when he comes to judge both quick and dead, then will he claim them as his own, and declare their righteousness in him, before a congregated world. The very words which he will then utter are already recorded; and what shall reverse his sentence? Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Well might the church cry out of old, and well may every believer now join in the declaration:, The Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver; the Lord is our king; he will save us!