The wicked glory in their own works, and their triumphs are but the precursors of their overthrow; but the righteous find no cause of glory in themselves. They have no confidence in the flesh, but all their confidence is in God.
The Psalmist, in setting forth the beauty of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, exclaims: "For You, Lord, have made me glad through your works; I will triumph in the works of your hands." (Psalm 92:4)
The Psalmist recognized that there was no occasion of triumph for him or any man in any other works than the works of God. And therefore, since men glory only in that which they regard as a triumph, his only occasion of glory was in the works of God, and he ascribed to God all the glory, and took none of it to himself. And so is it with all the righteous.
But far different is it with the man who has not faith. He neither sees the hand of God in that which befalls him, nor is he able to discern between victory and defeat. In his ignorance he is compared to the brutes that pass unwittingly to the slaughter. "O Lord, how great are your works! and your thoughts are very deep. A brutish man knows not, neither does a fool understand this. When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is that they shall be destroyed for ever." (Psalm 92:5-7)
What a terrible significance is given to the prosperity of the wicked, and how far are all their imaginations from such a truth. Being destitute of faith, he cannot see beyond the present hour, and his pride goes before his fall. "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." (Proverbs 16:18)
Yet there is nothing more common among men, or more natural to human nature, than to triumph in the works of the flesh and give praise and glory to self. All the works of the flesh are against the works of the Lord, and therefore no real triumph can ever attend them.
And because they are against the Lord, they are against His people. "The wicked plots against the just, and gnashes upon him with his teeth." (Psalm 37:12)
They will oppress the just and rule over them and persecute them, and because of the prosperity of their wicked devices they imagine that their power has caused them to triumph; but the very triumph of the wicked are defeats, while the seeming defeats of the just are their victories. For we read that: "The prosperity of fools shall slay them." (Proverbs 1:32)
But neither persecution, nor distress, or even death in any of its forms can bring defeat upon the righteous, for, "In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us." (Romans 8:37)
The victory of the saints is not always made manifest in the things of this world, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." (Ephesians 6:12)
And the weapons of their warfare are "not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)
Their weapon is: "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." (Ephesians 6:17)
And their victory is the victory of faith. "For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world: and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith." (1 John 5:4)
God works with their faith, and in the works of His hands there is always triumph.--Present Truth, July 12, 1894--Psalm 92:4-7.