Psalm 86:10 Surely the wrath of man shall praise You; the remainder of wrath shall You restrain.
We frequently hear this text of Scripture quoted. But few get from the rendering in our common version all the strength that they should. The Hebrew word rendered "restrain" means "to gird," "to bind about," and the word rendered "remainder" means, as one can see by a moment's thought, at the extremity, the last portion.
The idea therefore is that God takes the utmost limits of human wrath and girds himself with it. See Revised Version. So far is He from being troubled by the raging of the heathen, that He takes all the strength of their wrath and binds it about himself as a girdle. This is the way that He restrains it, and makes it praise Him. He even wears it as clothing.
What comfort is there in this for us? This: that since God can give glory to himself out of the raging hate of men, surely He can much more be glorified by our sincere and loving, and even though feeble and blundering, efforts to serve Him.--Present Truth, May 30, 1901--Psalm 86:10.