The great purpose of the divine Commandment is to show us, for our own
sakes, the path that leads to all blessedness.
Peace and Righteousness, or, in more modern words, all well-being and
all goodness, are the sure results of taking God's expressed Will as
the guide of life.
These two are inseparable. Indeed they are one and the same fact of
human experience, looked at from two points of view.
The force of the metaphor in both clauses is substantially the same. It
suggests in both--Abundance--Continuity--Uninterrupted Succession. But
regarded separately each has its own fair promise. 'As a
river'--flowing softly, not stagnant--that suggests the calm and gentle
flow of a placid and untroubled stream refreshing and fertilising. 'As
waves of the sea,' these suggest greater force than 'river.' The image
speaks of a righteousness massive and having power and a resistless
swing in it. It is the more striking because the waves of the sea are
the ordinary emblem of rebellious power. But here they stand as emblem
of the strength of a submissive, not of a rebellious, will. In that
obedience human nature rises to a higher type of strength than it ever
attains while in opposition to the Source of all strength.