Psalm 33:4

EXPOSITION

Verse 4. For the word of the Lord is right. His ordinances both natural, moral, and spiritual, are right, and especially his incarnate Word, who is the Lord our righteousness. Whatever God has ordained must be good, and just, and excellent. There are no anomalies in God's universe, except what sin has made; his word of command made all things good. When we look at his word of promise, and remember its faithfulness, what reasons have we for joy and thankfulness! And all his works are done in truth. His work is the outflow of his word, and it is true to it. He neither doth nor saith anything ill; in deed and speech he agrees with himself and the purest truth. There is no lie in God's word, and no sham in his works; in creation, providence, and revelation, unalloyed truth abounds. To act truth as well as to utter it is divine. Let not children of God ever yield their principles in practice any more than in heart. What a God we serve! The more we know of him, the more our better natures approve his surpassing excellence; even his afflicting works are according to his truthful word.

"Why should I complain of want of distress,
Afflictions or pain? he told me no less;
The heirs of salvation, I know from his word,
Through much tribulation must follow their Lord."

God writes with a pen that never blots, speaks with a tongue that never slips, acts with a hand which never fails. Bless his name.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 4. The word of the Lord is right. His word of promise given to the church. The divine revelation to all setting forth what is to be believed, hoped for, and done. The decrees of God and his penal judgments. The whole counsel and determination of God in the creation and government of the world. Is right, without defect or error. The word right is opposed to tortuous; it means true or certain. John de Pineda (1577-1637); D.H. Mollerus (1639), and others, in Synopsis.

Verse 4. All his works are done in truth.

Truth is in each flower
As well as in the most solemn things of God:
Truth is the voice of nature and of time --
Truth is the startling monitor within us --
Nought is without it, it comes from the stars,
The golden sun, and every breeze that blows --
Truth, it is God! and God is everywhere!
William Thomas Bacon.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 4. God's word and works, their rightness, and agreement, and our view of both.

Verse 4. (first clause). The word doctrinal, preceptive, historical, prophetic, promissory, and experimental, always right, i.e., free from error or evil.

Verse 4. (second clause). God's work of creation, providence, and grace, always in conformity with truth. His hatred of everything like a sham.

Verse 4-5. A fourfold argument for praise, from the truth, the faithfulness, the justice, and goodness of God:

1. For the word of the Lord is right.
2. All his works are done in truth.
3. He loveth righteousness and judgment.
4. The earth is full of his goodness.

Adam Clarke.