The Word of the Lord Commended to Our Faith by its Being a Tried Word
Joel Hawes, D. D. Psalm 18:30 As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him. A thing that has been tried is deemed all the more valuable on that account. A medicine which has been found on trial to be a sure remedy for certain kinds of disease is held in high estimation. It is thus that the Word of the Lord is commended to our high esteem. It is a tried Word. I. SCIENCE HAS TRIED IT. For though at first it denied, now it does homage to the Word of God. For example — 1. Geology. In its early development many facts were brought forward that seemed to bear hard on Scripture statements. Several years since the discovery was made, or was thought to be made, by perforating the successive lavas formed by the volcanic overflowings of Mount AEtna, that the earth must have existed, in its present form, at least fourteen thousand years. The discovery was published by Brydone, an English traveller in Sicily, and flew like light through Europe, and was seized upon by multitudes as furnishing complete evidence that the chronology of the Bible is false and the Bible itself untrue. But subsequent investigation has proved that the supposed discovery was based on an entirely false view of facts. At a later period the astronomical tables of India were supposed to furnish incontestable proof of a much higher antiquity belonging to our globe than is assigned it according to the writings of Moses. But these same astronomical tables were afterwards examined by the great French philosopher Laplace, and were demonstrated to be of comparatively modern date, and furnish not the slightest evidence against the Mosaic chronology. In like manner the variety of languages, and the diversity of colour and form which distinguish the different races of men, have often been urged with great confidence as disproving the account given in Genesis of the common origin of mankind. But the study of ethnography, or the classification of nations by a comparison of their languages, together with a better acquaintance with the natural history of man, has removed this objection, and shown to the satisfaction of the most competent judges that the human race sprang from a common pair. It is with science as it is with the human mind in youth, it is apt to be self-conceited and sceptical; but in its maturity it becomes humble, modest, and reverent of God's Word. Hence, as Professor Hitchcock of Amherst College says in his Religion of Geology, "Every part of science which has been supposed, by the fears of friends or the malice of foes, to conflict with religion, has been found at length, when fully understood, to be in perfect harmony with its "principles," "and even to illustrate them. II. TIME HAS TRIED IT. It is with the Bible as it is with its Divine Author: "One day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." III. FRIENDS HAVE TRIED IT. For they have been all made such by the transforming and subduing power of the Word itself. Consider their numbers, and what it has done for them, and the circumstances under which they have made trial of it and never found it fail. IV. ENEMIES HAVE TRIED IT: by persecution; by laws directed against it; by ridicule; by philosophy, and by every means left at their command. Still the object of all these attacks remains uninjured, while one army of its enemies after another has passed away in defeat and dishonour. Though it has been ridiculed more bitterly, misrepresented more grossly, opposed more rancorously, and burnt more frequently than any other book, or perhaps than all other books united, it is so far from sinking under the efforts of its enemies that it is plainly gathering fresh strength from age to age, and the probability of its surviving until the consummation of all things is now far greater than ever. V. IT HAS BEEN TRIED IN ITS INFLUENCE ON INDIVIDUAL CHARACTER, upon society, and all the best interests of man. See what institutions it has founded for human good, and maintains them still. Hence learn — 1. There is no fear for the future. As nature's answers are ever uniform and constant and true, so are those of the Word of the Lord. 2. It is a serious matter for anyone to set himself "against" it. Voltaire said, "It has been the boast of ages that twelve men established Christianity in the world. I will show the world that one man can destroy it." But where is Voltaire, or what did he accomplish of his impious boast? He lived long, and he worked hard and went down to the grave, cursing the horrid work in which he had spent his days. 3. Let us all prepare to meet the scenes which it tells us are yet before us: death, judgment, eternity. Prepare to meet your God, prepare, through His mercy in Christi to meet Him in peace. For the time is at hand when all that He has said in His Word of the righteous and the wicked, and of heaven and hell, will be matter of experience, of personal unchanging experience to us all. (Joel Hawes, D. D.). Parallel Verses KJV: As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him. WEB: As for God, his way is perfect. The word of Yahweh is tried. He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.