89 For ever, Jehovah, Thy word is set fast in the heavens. 90 To generation after generation lasts Thy faithfulness, Thou hast established the earth, and it stands firm. 91 According to Thy ordinances they stand firm to-day, For all [things] are Thy servants. 92 Unless Thy law had been my delight, Then had I perished in my affliction. 93 Never will I forget Thy precepts, For with them Thou hast revived me. 94 To Thee do I belong, save me, For Thy precepts have I sought. 95 For me have the wicked waited to destroy me, Thy testimonies will I consider. 96 To all perfection have I seen a limit, Thy commandment is exceeding broad. The stability of nature witnesses to the steadfastness of the Word which sustains it. The Universe began and continues, because God puts forth His will. The heavens with their pure depths would collapse, and all their stars would flicker into darkness, if that uttered Will did not echo through their overwhelming spaces. The solid earth would not be solid, but for God's power immanent in it. Heaven and earth are thus His servants. Ver. 91_a_ may possibly picture them as standing waiting "_for_ Thine ordinances," but the indefinite preposition is probably better regarded as equivalent to _In accordance with_. The psalmist has reached the grand conceptions of the universal reign of God's law, and of the continuous forth-putting of God's will as the sustaining energy of all things. He seeks to link himself to that great band of God's servants, to be in harmony with stars and storms, with earth and ocean, as their fellow-servant; but yet he feels that his relation to God's law is closer than theirs, for he can delight in that which they unconsciously obey. Such delight in God's uttered will changes affliction from a foe, threatening life, to a friend, ministering strength (ver. 92). Nor does that Law when loved only avert destruction; it also increases vital power (ver. 93) and re-invigorates the better self. There is a sense in which the law _can_ give life (Gal. iii. 21), but it must be welcomed and enshrined in the heart, in order to do so. The frequently recurring prayer for "salvation" has a double plea in ver. 94. The soul that has yielded itself to God in joyful obedience thereby establishes a claim on Him. He cannot but protect His own possession. Ownership has its obligations, which He recognises. The second plea is drawn from the psalmist's seeking after God's precepts, without which seeking there would be no reality in his profession of being God's. To seek them is the sure way to find both them and salvation (ver. 94). Whom God saves, enemies will vainly try to destroy, and, while they lurk in waiting to spring on the psalmist, his eyes are directed, not towards them, but to God's testimonies. To give heed to these is the sure way to escape snares (ver. 95). Lifelong experience has taught the psalmist that