“Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared, and was still, when God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth. Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee: the remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain” — Psalms 76:8, 10.
NOTHING perplexes the average believer in the justice of God more than the mystery of His long toleration of evil. But the man of faith can afford to wait in quietness and confidence (Isa. 30:15), assured that He who is the righteous Judge of all men will never permit anything in this universe which will not prove at last to have been under His overruling hand and allowed for some good purpose. He will never have to apologize to any of His creatures for anything He ever does or which He permits to be done by Satan and those who are subject to the great Adversary. All things are so ordered or overruled that He will be glorified and man will be blessed when the mystery of God is finished (Rev. 10:7) and the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ, (Rev. 11:15).
“Thy calmness bends serene above
My restlessness to still,
Around me flows Thy quickening life
To nerve my faltering will;
Thy presence fills my solitude,
Thy providence turns all to good.
Embosomed deep in Thy great love,
Held in Thy law, I stand;
Thy hand in all things I behold,
And all things in Thy hand;
Thou leadest me by unsought ways,
And turn’st my mourning into praise.”
—Samuel Longfellow.