“The excellency of this mercy the Psalmist expresseth in a heavenly manner, Ps. 92:12–15:
“The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; to show that the LORD is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.”
The promise in the 12th verse respects the times of the Messiah, or of the New Testament; for so it is prophesied of him, “In his days the righteous shall flourish,” Ps. 72:7, —namely, through the abundance of grace that should be administered from his fulness, as John 1:16; Col. 1:19.
And herein consists the glory of the gospel, and not in outward prosperity or external ornaments of divine worship. The flourishing of the righteous, I say, in grace and holiness is the glory of the office of Christ and of the gospel.
Where this is not, there is no glory in the profession of our religion. The glory of kings is in the wealth and peace of their subjects; and the glory of Christ is in the grace and holiness of his subjects.”
–John Owen, “Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ,” The Works of John Owen, Volume 1: The Glory of Christ (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1684/2000), 1: 434.
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