4. Diligence of providence; 'to and fro.' His care is repeated, he looks
(2.) For evil, so it notes his anger and vindictive justice. Isa. 3:8, 'Their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his glory.'
Kindness and anger appear first in the eye, one by its pleasantness, the other by its redness.
'Run,' that notes diligence and care, an industrious inspection into all things. Ps. 119:32, 'I will run the ways of thy commandments,' noting speed and diligence.
In the verse we have, I. A description of God's providence.
II. The end of it.
I. The description of God's providence.
1. The immediateness of it; 'his eyes,' his own eyes, not another's. Not like princes, who see by their servants' eyes more than by their own, what is done in their kingdoms; his care is immediate. Though angels are ministers of his providence, the guardians and watchers of the world, yet God is their captain, and is always himself upon the watch.
2. Quickness and speed of providence; 'run.' His eyes do not only walk, but run the round; they are not slumbering eyes, nor drowsy eyelids; their motion is quick and nimble.
3. Extent of providence; 'the whole earth;' all things in the earth, all the hairs on the heads of these men: the meanest worm as well as the mightiest prince; the lowest shrub as well as the tallest cedar; every cranny, corner, or chink of the earth.
4. Diligence of providence; 'to and fro.' His care is repeated, he looks this way and that way, again and again; his eyes are not confined to one place, fixed on one object, but are always rolling about from one place to another.
5. The efficacy of his providence; his care doth engage his strength; he doth not only discover dangers, but prevent them; he hath eyes to see, and power to order all things according to his pleasure; wise to see, and strong to save.
II. The end of providence; 'to shew himself strong,' &c.
1. Finis cujus, 'to shew himself strong.' Heb. to 'make himself strong,' but best translated, to 'shew himself strong.' It is not an addition of strength, but an exercise of strength that is here meant.
2. Finis cui, or the persons for whom, 'those that are perfect in heart.'
Doctrines.
1. There is a providence exercised by God in the world.
2. All God's providences in the world are in order to the good of his people.
3. Sincerity in God's way gives a man an interest in all God's providences, and the good of them.
1. For the first, there is a providential inspection and government of all things in the world by God. It is not a bare sight of things that is here meant by God's eye, but a sight and knowledge in order to the governing and disposing of them. View this doctrine at your leisure, preached by God himself, with an inconceivable elegancy, and three whole chapters spent in the sermon, Job 38, 39, 40, and by the psalmist, Ps. 147, 148.
Some observe that the society of angels and heavenly creatures is represented, Ezek. 1, by a quaternarian number, because the world is divided into four dimensions, east, west, north, and south, as intimating the extension of God's providence over all parts.*