Psalms chapter 89 and verse 1. We're not going to read the entirety of the psalm, there are 52 verses in all. So we're going to read verses 1 to 4 and then we stop at verse 4 and pick up at verse 19 and read down to verse 37. So we'll go that way. First one, Psalm 89. I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. With my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, mercy shall be built up forever. Thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens. I have made a covenant with my chosen. I have sworn unto David my servant. Thy seed will I establish forever. throne to all generations, Selah. And then verse 19, Then thy spakest invasion to thy holy one, said, I have laid help upon one that is mighty, I have exalted one chosen out of the people, I have found David my servant, with my holy oil have I anointed him. with whom my hand shall be established, mine arm also shall strengthen him. The enemy shall not exact upon him, nor the son of wickedness afflict him, and I will beat down his foes before his face and plague them that hate him. But my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him, and in my name shall his horn, his rule, be exalted. I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the river. He shall cry unto me, Thou art my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven. If his children forsake my law and walk not on my judgments, if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the things that has gone out of my lips. Once I have sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established forever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah. Shall we pray? Father, we thank Thee tonight for Your Word. We thank You for all of the covenants of God. And we thank You tonight, Lord, that because You are faithful to Your promises of old, and to the saints of old, and to the Jewish people, we can be confident all the more of Your faithfulness to Your promises to us. And so, Lord, we draw great confidence from the truths that we are going to look at tonight and we've considered even in times past. And Father, we pray that you would bless us, perhaps for some for whom this may be a first visit to this subject. We pray, Father, that you would help them to understand it and to appreciate its importance. And for those, Lord, who are more familiar with these truths, may we be affirmed in the things we already believe. Bless and encourage each head bowed and each one that's gathered here for Jesus' sake. Amen. OK, so we come this evening to the 89th Psalm, and you may have noticed from the title of the psalm, it is a psalm of Ethan the Israelite. Now, who is he? Well, he is one of King Solomon's counselors. He is sometimes known as Jeduthin, and he is considered one of the wise men of Solomon's kingdom. Now, it's generally accepted that the occasion whereupon this psalm was written follows that moment when Solomon is told by God, because of his disobedience, that after his death the kingdom will divide, that his son will retain a very small part of it, but the larger part of it is going to break away and his kingdom is going to essentially shatter in two. Look in 1 Kings chapter 11. 1 Kings chapter 11 and let's pick up our reading in verse 9. 1 Kings chapter 11 verse 9. Now the context of this is that Solomon has taken many wives and as we discussed even on Sunday morning with David's own action in taking many wives, this is a political maneuver. It's a means whereby one secures allegiances with other neighboring states. And Solomon has taken on many, many wives. And the consequence of that is that his wives have led his heart astray. And he has given himself to following their gods and to offering sacrifices to them. In verse 9, the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he kept not that which the Lord commanded. Wherefore the Lord said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant. Notwithstanding, in thy days I will not do it for David the father's sake, but I will rend it out of the hand son. Howbeit I will not repay all the kingdom but will give one tribe to thy son for David my servant's sake and for Jerusalem's sake which I have chosen. Now this revelation is really shocking when you put it in the context of history, when you appreciate what is being said here in the light of what was already said. It was especially shocking for those, when it actually works itself out, for those who end up in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. who end up cut off from the temple, cut off from the capital, from the city of David, end up under Jeroboam's rule, end up being led into idolatry. And so there's a real question as to their relationship with the Messiah. Now, you see, God had made a promise to David. He made this promise that there would always be one of his line ruling and reigning upon the throne. And that promise we know is the Davidic Covenant. Look in 2 Samuel Chapter 7 Here's the promise in part, it says... Now when you read that and imagine hearing it for the first time, your thought would be... that your kingdom and your lineage, your succession is absolutely watertight, that it's secure, that nothing will ever befall your family's rule over the nation. That's how you would read that, wouldn't it? And so when you get into 1 Kings chapter 11 and you read, well, wait a minute, now the kingdom's being divided and the larger part of the kingdom is ending up with somebody else, that throws real question marks over what we've just read. Because what we've just read applies to the whole United Kingdom of Israel, all 12 tribes. So this is the Davidic The covenant here in 2 Samuel 7 is one of four covenants in scripture that relate to the nation of Israel. And this covenant really amplifies the seed element, the seed aspect of the Abrahamic covenant. And the promises to David in this passage are very significant. God promises, as we just read, that his line would last forever, that his kingdom would never pass away. away that it would be an eternal kingdom, even according to verse 16, thy house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee, thy throne shall be established forever. So we need to have a rethink about the covenants of Israel and let me have a have a look at this slide with you and then I'm going to just turn the light out so you can see it a little more clearly. There are five key covenants that are made with the nation of Israel. The first of these occurs over here to the left of our screen in the time of Abraham, the Abrahamic covenant that we read about in Genesis chapter 12, Genesis chapter 15, Genesis chapter 17. It's a promise relating to the seed, to Abraham's seed, his descendants, and also to the land, the land itself is promised to his seed. Now following the Abrahamic Covenant we then come to what's known as the Mosaic Law Code or the Mosaic Covenant, reading about it in Exodus 19, Exodus 20. And this is a covenant that's made with the Israelites and Sinai. And the law is established and so on. And the place of worship, the tabernacle is established within this covenant. But it's a conditional covenant. It's conditional. And what we mean by that is that God's blessing, his direct blessing, hinged upon the obedience or the disobedience of the people. So this is a conditional covenant. There's then the Palestinian Covenant, which you read about in Deuteronomy 28-30. This is an expansion, as you can see, of the Abrahamic Covenant. You see it coming right out from the Abrahamic Covenant, in our little line of connection there. It's an expansion of that covenant. It warns against idolatry, and it basically says if you enter into idolatry, you'll be removed from the land. Although they were removed from the land, there was a promise. The promise is that the removal would not be a forever arrangement, that ultimately there would be a restoration of the people to the land. And then there's another covenant here that we've just read about, and that's the Davidic covenant. And of course that's the covenant that is an expansion as we said of the seed element of the Abrahamic covenant promising someone would sit upon the throne of David forever. And then also coming out of the Abrahamic covenant you have the new covenant, Jeremiah chapter 31. What's this covenant? This covenant has to do with the restoration of Israel also and it's to do with their regeneration, it's to do with their returning on to the Lord and the realization of the Messianic Kingdom that's to come. Now if you follow these lines through these covenants, and of course the Abrahamic covenant is the root covenant. That's a very important covenant to understand. I discussed the future of Israel with a Jehovah's Witness and he came to my house and I asked him why he thought Israel no longer had a future, that the Jehovah's Witnesses had replaced Israel in the promises of God and he started his discussion here, Mosaic Covenant, Mosaic Code. But actually that's a terrible place to start discussing Israel at. Because if you notice, the Abrahamic covenant, the other three major covenants are coming out of that one covenant. And this covenant, the Mosaic Code, runs all the way up until when? Calvary. And then Jesus has basically dealt with the law for us. So that's the end of that covenant. But the Palestinian covenant continues beyond Calvary and is fulfilled in the Kingdom Age. The Davidic Covenant continues beyond Calvary and is fulfilled in the Kingdom Age. The New Covenant also continues beyond Calvary. It is realized in the Church at Pentecost with the regeneration of the Church, the coming of the Holy Spirit, but also it will continue in its fulfillment into the Kingdom Age when the Lord returns and the Israelites repent and they mourn over the death of Christ, and they're regenerated, born again, and they enter into the kingdom that was promised to them. So those are God's covenants with Israel, and it's vital that we get a hold on those truths, okay? Really important that you understand that these covenants, what they are, and why they're still in place, those that are still in place, and the impact that has upon the future of Israel. Now, of the four covenants that relate to Israel, the one that is dealt with in Psalm 89 is the Davidic Covenant. And when you think about it, at the time of writing, considering this is written by one of Solomon's counsellors, at the time of writing, the Davidic Covenant would have been the covenant that was most fresh in their minds, because it hadn't been that long since it was given. So this was a new revelation and a new aspect of truth. And so you can imagine that this was something that they held dear in Solomon's time. But one generation later, and Solomon messes up. and the kingdom is going to be divided and it's shocking. It would appear that those who perhaps rejoiced over the giving of the Davidic covenant were a little premature, that their rejoicing was misplaced and that somehow God was now not going to keep his word. to the people of Israel. And that's what makes this psalm, this Messianic Psalm 89, all the more important. It's a very important psalm. Because there are those who are in the church, and it's actually the greater body of the church, that believe. that the promises made to Israel, these four promises that we've highlighted, the Abrahamic Covenant, the Palestinian Covenant, the Davidian Covenant, to a lesser degree the New Covenant, but to its fullest extent the New Covenant, they believe that these promises are now null and void. That all of these promises are spiritually inherited in the Church. and they allegorize and spiritualize the truths of these covenants to apply to us and not to the nation of Israel. Now sadly in some cases that has led to the most appalling anti-semitic views within the church. Now we're not saying that everybody who doesn't hold our view is anti-semitic, that's not true, but certainly that has fed into anti-semitism within the church of God at times. And so we really need to have a look at this particular psalm because it's written post Solomon and post this declaration that his kingdom was going to fall apart, his kingdom was going to divide. And it really is Ethan's instruction. This is a mascal psalm, meaning it's a psalm of instruction, a psalm of teaching. It's Ethan's instruction to these people who are fearful. that God is not going to keep his word to Israel because of the condemnation that befell Solomon's behavior. So, Ethan probably lives long enough, I should imagine, to see Jeroboam and Rehoboam come along. You remember the story of Jeroboam and Rehoboam? Rehoboam's the young son of Solomon and he comes along. It's a very good story for young people, I think, because he comes along, he's a youth, And the elders of Israel come to him, and you remember the story, they say, you know, if you'd take things a little bit easier, take your foot off the pedal a little bit, everybody would support you, they'd get behind you, they'd help you, they'd be all for you. And he goes, he says, well, you just wait there a moment, I'll go and discuss this with my friends here. And he goes and discusses it with this group of youths, younger men. And of course, with the zeal of youth, when you're young, you always have more zeal than when you're old. When you get old, older, you get a little bit more mellow and wise and smart and you've got enough bite marks to know that you've been an idiot in the past. And so these young fellas haven't got the scars yet and so they say, what? Take your foot off? Forget it, put your foot down. You know, tell him, if you thought Solomon was bad, where do you see my rule? I'm going to rule with an iron fist. And of course, the consequence of that is that there's revolution, that there's a division in the kingdom, and this opportunist called Jeroboam comes in and he leads the revolt and becomes the king of the northern kingdom. And he sets up his own system of worship and so on. And actually, when you look at the kings of Israel, The northern kings, there's not one of them that's done any good. And every one of them is said to have sinned the sins of his father Jeroboam. So this is a tragic moment in the history of Israel. So you can imagine, as people are Now this covenant is broken into two sections. There's two main parts to it. First of all there is the faithfulness of God and we see that in verses 1 through to 37. Now in that respect we read in verses 1 to 4 a summarization, if you like, of the Davidic Covenant. It's very concisely mentioned, verses 3 and 4. So that's it, that's it in a nutshell. That's where the, if you like, the introduction of this psalm is and where it's leading us from this point on. And so when it uses the word David there, I've sworn unto David, understand by this point David's dead. Historically David's dead, he's passed away, Solomon's on the throne, or possibly Rehoboam's on the throne, but David's gone. All right, but the covenant is still standing. And so the term David, the word David here, the name David here is used in a dynastic sense. It's used like we speak about the House of Windsor. Okay, all the royal family, the present royal family, come from the House of Windsor, all right? Except for Barbara Windsor, who's a comedian. But anyway, but you get the point. The House of Windsor, that's a dynastic name, all right? It's a dynastic title that's carried from one generation to the next within the British royal family. I like what Augustus Toplity said in this regard. He said, This house, contrary to the fate of all subluminary buildings, will never fall down, nor ever be taken down. Fire cannot injure it, storms cannot overthrow it, age cannot impair it. It stands on a rock and is as immovable as the rock. which it stands and that's a great statement about the house of David. Now the first section deals with the definition of the covenant as we've just read in verses 3 and 4 but then in verses 19 to 37 the covenant is detailed for us. There's an expansion, there's an exposition takes place of exactly what the covenant means and the ramifications of it for Israel. So, in that respect, the central thesis of this psalm, and we'll see this in a moment, comes in two key words. But here's the second part of the outline. If the first part of the psalm speaks about the faithfulness of God, the second part of the psalm talks about the failure of men. It talks about the state of affairs in Ethan's lifetime. And it basically says, well, here's where we're at here. We've blown it. But what does that mean for the covenant? And that's basically the premise of this psalm. There are two key terms in this psalm and if you have a pen or a highlighter or a pencil or however you mark your Bible you should probably mark these two words in this psalm. The first of these is the word faithfulness. The faithfulness of God is highlighted for us throughout the psalm and it's mentioned seven times. Notice in verse one it says at the end of the verse with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations in verse 2 in the latter half of that verse thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens you go down to verse 5 and the heavens shall praise thy wonders oh lord thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints Verse 8, O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee, or to thy faithfulness round about thee? Verse 24, but my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him. In verse 33 in the latter end it says, I will not Nevertheless, my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. And verse 49, it says again, Lord, where are thy former, not verse 49, I'm sorry, verse 37, it will be established forever as the moon and as a faithful witness in heaven. So another reference to God's faithfulness. So that's the first word, okay? The second word is the word mercy or loving-kindness. This is the same Hebrew word, okay? It's translated with both Psalm, mercy and loving-kindness, but it's the same Hebrew word. It means the same thing. And we see again there are seven references to the mercies of God. I will sing in verse one of the mercies of the Lord. forever. In verse 2, for I have said mercy shall be built up forever. Verse 14, justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne, mercy and truth shall go before thy face. Again verse 24, but my faithfulness and mercy shall be with him. Verse 28, my mercy will I keep for him Now this is tremendous because it's telling us something about the promises of God. Do the promises of God rely on the character of men or do they rely on the character of God? And which character in particular, which characteristic in particular? His faithfulness and his mercies. His faithfulness and His mercies. You know, it's a good thing for us that we're the recipients of God's faithfulness and mercies. If it wasn't for that fact, we would be wasting our time gathering here tonight. We'd be done for and doomed and damned for sure. So every day, we say it over again, every day the faithfulness of God, the mercies of God are new, every morning. And it's tremendous truth. So really the future of Israel doesn't hinge upon the conduct of Israel. It hinges upon the character of God. It hinges upon the character of God. And, you know, I think it's a great mistake on the part of our brethren who say, well, you know, Israel put Jesus to the cross and therefore they forfeit the promises that were made to them. Well, what have they done? They've taken the promises of God and they have made those promises dependent upon the fickleness of men. And if you apply that same standard to ourselves, are we any better than the Jew? No. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Isn't that what the scripture says? There's no difference. There's no difference between Jew and Gentile. So, let's think tonight about the faithfulness of God. David, as we know, was a man after God's own heart. Even the most godly men, when you think about it, they experienced failure. They experience sin in their lives. We see this throughout David's life. You think about, as we discussed Sunday, his polygamous marriages. That was a sin in his life. What is sin? Sin is transgression of the law. What did the law say? The law said you were not to take many wives. What did David do? He transgressed the law. And as I said Sunday, he might well have justified that in the culture of the day, but you cannot justify sin by means of the culture. Even if the culture changes, God's word remains the same. So there was his polygamous relationships, there were other problems in his life that we've even seen some already in our studies of David on a Sunday morning. And of course there's that biggie that comes along, his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah the Hittite. I mean I would think if you had that on your spiritual CV, it's not looking good, is it? Okay, so, I mean, even our church has standards, you know, we would, if somebody came in and said, I'd like to be a Sunday school teacher, but I'm an adulterer and a murderer, we'd say, you know, we're not sure you're right for the job. But here's David, he's king of Israel, and he has these flaws, and he has these fallings. And what's true of him is true of us also, because although we've never murdered anybody, and trust we've never, physically committed adultery with anybody. We can all testify to the fact that it's the faithfulness and the loving kindness of the Lord that saves us day by day from the shortcomings of our own nature. I remember as a young Christian it was one of these, you don't hear it so much now, but You do hear it occasionally, but when I was a young Christian, everybody that gave their testimony always ended their testimony in the same little line. They say, you know, I've not always been faithful to him, but he's always been faithful to me. It was almost like that's the end of the testimony. But everybody finished on that line. And it was true. It was true. Okay. Now, As we look into this psalm, we come to verse 19, and at verse 19, as I say, there's an extension of the covenant, an exposition of the covenant takes place, and here we find our Messianic references and why we number this psalm among the Messianic psalms. Look in verse 27, it says, And I will also make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him forevermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven. Now right off, if you know your Bible, you come to that 27th verse, there is a word that should reach out and slap you. Do you see what word it is? Firstborn. That's the word. That's a very important word. Okay? The firstborn. He, it says, I will make him my firstborn. Now, in prophetical terms, this is a title that only refers to Christ. In prophetical terms, it's a title that only refers to Christ. Paul uses it in connection with the creation and redemption, and he states the glory of Christ in terms of his deity by usage of this term, firstborn. Look in Colossians chapter 1. I want you to pay really close attention here. because I'm going to share something with you that's really, really important and that you will one day, possibly, need to draw upon in discussion with folks about these matters. Look in verse 15, speaking of Christ it says, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things and by Him all things consist. He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleases the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. And we'll leave it there. This is one of the favorite proof texts of the Jehovah's Witnesses. They will often take you to this text to prove that Jesus was the first created being that Jehovah made and that having created Jesus, he then went on, Jesus went on to create the universe and everything that we see around us. and so they point right there to verse 15 they say look he's the firstborn of every creature you see he's the first created that's not what it says it doesn't say he's the first created they said it says he's the firstborn and there's a difference between the two you see This term doesn't mean first created, it means actually the very opposite. You think about it, Exodus chapter 4 and verse 22 speaks of Israel as being the Lord's firstborn, as the firstborn of the nations. But was Israel the first nation? No. In Genesis 10 there's a whole table of nations. Israel wasn't the first nation to come along, yet Israel is referred to as the firstborn of the nations. When you think about this psalm, Psalm 89, it's referencing David in terms of historical context, and it refers to him as the firstborn. Was he Jesse's firstborn son? No, he's the youngest son, he's the eighthborn. That's pretty poor. He's the bottom of the list. He's the last one on the Christmas card list, so to speak. Not only that, was he even the first king of Israel? No, it's the second king. Saul was the first king of Israel. So this phrase firstborn has nothing to do with chronology. It has no bearing whatsoever upon temporal events. The word that Paul uses for firstborn is prototokos, which means of first importance or rank. And that's what it's saying there in Colossians chapter 1, that Christ is the invisible God, the first of importance or rank, the one who is primarily important, the one who is all important, the one who is above everything. And notice the two-fold use of the term. Paul uses it in verse 15 with respect to creation, but he uses it in verse 18 with respect to the resurrection from the dead. And what he's telling us here is this, Jesus is not a creature, he's the creator and he's the redeemer. That's what he's telling you. Exactly the opposite of what the Jehovah's Witness is telling you. Exactly the opposite in his little simplistic theology and his foolish use and definition of the term firstborn. The term is used again in Revelation chapter 1. Let's have a look there. Revelation chapter 1. And it's the fifth verse of this chapter that we want to think about. Revelation chapter 1 and verse 1. It says, And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead. And that phrase, first begotten of the dead, literally means the firstborn from the dead, indicating he's the first fruit of the resurrection. Now you think about this. Was Jesus the first person ever to be raised from the dead? Lots of people were raised from the dead before Jesus was raised from the dead. Remember the bones of Elisha that the guy was thrown into the grave and he touched the bones of Elisha and he came alive, remember that? And there are others in scripture that were raised from the dead long before Jesus. You even think about some of the ones that were raised in Jesus' life. Lazarus, Jairus' daughter, the widow's son, the bear touched the coffin. They were all raised. So how can Jesus, if he's not the first to be raised, how can he be called the firstborn from the dead? Because he's the first to be raised who is not subject to corruption. He's the only one who's raised in corruption. In other words, all those other people did die again. But Jesus never died again. I always think that's kind of curious, you know, to die a second time like that. I wonder what it was like. Because you wonder, don't you, what the experience of death is going to be like. You just think, what's it going to be like? How am I going to feel? Am I going to be floating above my body? Am I going to be zapped into space? What's going to happen? You're just kind of curious. Well, if you've done it once already. Especially if it wasn't a very good experience. You may always want to do it a second time. But anyway, these guys all had to die a second time. But Jesus didn't. And so in that respect, he's the firstborn from the dead. He's the first one of order, of rank, in terms of resurrection. He's the first fruits of the resurrection. He's also, according to this psalm, higher than the kings of the earth. That's a phrase applied to him in verse 27. I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. Look in Isaiah, if you would, and chapter 7. Isaiah chapter 7. Speaking of the House of David, it says here you now, House of David, is it a small thing for you to weary men? But will ye weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel. butter and honey shall he eat that he may know to refuse the evil and to choose the good so you know here's Emmanuel coming God with us off the house of David and he in that respect is higher than the kings of the earth that famous Christmas section that we quote again and again in chapter 9 of this book and verse 7 of the increase of his government there shall an office sorry the increase of his government peace there shall be no end And again another Christmas text in Micah chapter 5 It's unfortunate we often just restrict these readings to Christmas time. But Micah chapter 5 verse 2 says, That is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. By the way, this is one of the contentious verses in modern versions, because the modern versions agree with the New World Translation. And the New World Translation at this point will say that he's the one who's from old, who's from ancient times. Well, being from ancient times and being from everlasting is two different things. Alright? And so, you know, if you've got that in your Bible version, you maybe want to have a rethink on that one. But nevertheless, we come back to Psalm 89, and here we have two titles of Christ. The firstborn that we know that Paul referenced in the New Testament, and John also, and then he who is higher than the kings of the earth. And then you come to verses 30 and 30 through to verse 32, and there's a warning to the seed, to David's seed. It says, if his children forsake my law and walk not in my judgments, if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. Now here's the premise, or here's the worst case scenario if you like. I made a promise, having said that David's would rule forever. What happens if? What happens if they mess up? What happens if they break God's law? What happens if they forsake the Lord? What happens if they walk in their own way? What happens then? And the answer is God will be chasing them. Alright? And if you know anything about the nation of Israel and the Jewish people, They have been chastened, like no people on earth. I mean, even tonight in the news, was there not, if you were watching the news tonight, there was an item about the footballer Nicholas Sinelka making his anti-Semitic gesture. And there are people who are coming to his defense and saying, no, it's not an anti-Semitic gesture, he's just making a statement against the system, oh poppycock. That's an anti-Semitic gesture. It's been made at the Western Wall. It's been made outside a school in Toulouse where Jewish children were killed. It's made in all kinds of Jewish contexts. People who make that symbol stand outside synagogues and have their photographs taken making that symbol. It's a Nazi salute. It's a neo-Nazi salute. And so for Anelka to try and pull the wool over people's eyes and say, no, I wasn't being anti-Semitic. Bear in mind, several years ago that footballer converted to Islam. and that's coming out now in his behavior. But, be that as it may, that's minor in comparison to many of the other things that have happened to Jewish people down through the centuries, not least of all, of course, last century with the appalling events surrounding the Holocaust. So God says, you know what, if you guys break the law, if you guys go your own way, if you reject my truth, I'm going to come down on you like a ton of bricks. Life's going to be tough for you. It's going to be hard. I'm going to chase you, and it's not going to be easy. I'm going to come down on you with a rod and with stripes. Now, where does that then leave the Davidic covenant? Nowhere. It leaves it actually standing forever. Nothing's changed. It's irrevocable. Look in verse 33. Nevertheless, my what? Loving kindness. Will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my what? faithfulness to feel or to lie. My covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips. How in the world does the average Christian say that God's covenant with Israel has been altered to apply to the church when God explicitly states that he will not alter the thing that's gone out of his lips? He says, once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. Now, David in that context, is that the king? Or is that the dynastic name? Where's the king? The king's dead. Okay, so it's applying to his house, to his lying. In other words, it's applying to the Jews. and to the people from the tribe of Judah in particular. Once I have sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David, his seed shall endure forever and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established forever as the moon and as a faithful witness in heaven, say So there we have it. We have the firstborn, that Greek term. We have the higher than the kings of the earth, a reference to Christ's rulership. And we see that despite man's sin, the covenant is irrevocable. And the key verse is that 34th verse. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Which brings us now to the failure of Man, the failure of man. Now in verse 38 onwards there comes in this psalm a sudden and dramatic change in the whole spirit of the psalm. The song of praise, the note of hope gives way to despair and to hopelessness. And you have to ask why? Well, because the writer now starts speaking of fences being broken down, of strongholds being laid in ruins, of the crown having fallen from his head and lying in the dust, of the throne being cast to the ground. Now, we've all heard it said, hindsight is better than foresight. And you and I have this wonderful vantage point of hindsight, to see how things have worked out for the Jewish people, to see what has happened along the way. And we're able to look back over the course of history and to identify the reason for the language of despair that is so prevalent in the latter part of this psalm. You know, you think about it, you look to Israel today, you go to Jerusalem, you go to the Temple Mount, and what do you see? You see the Orthodox Jew, he's standing there basically hitting his head against the wall and he's praying there in the hope that the temple will rise again and the glory days might come back. But really that man standing there with his unusual locks and his head covered and his hat and all the rest, doing this thing, really he is a figure of Israel in unbelief. That's what he is. You see, when the Lord Jesus came and he was born in Bethlehem, the house of David was represented in his birth by Mary and Joseph. He was born, not in the palace, not in the city of David, not in some royal courtyard, but of course in that manger. He was cradled in the manger. And of course he then presents himself to the nation as their Messiah, the son of David, as the fulfiller of the covenant promise. And what? He's rejected. He's crucified. And what happens 40 years after he's crucified? The temple takes a tumble. And what happens to the Jewish people after the temple tumbles? Scattered. They're scattered. In fact, there's a decree made. Hadrian comes along and he makes a decree. They're not even allowed to live in the land anymore. And they're dispersed right throughout the entire world. In other words, the fences were down and the stronghold was in ruins. But what of God's promise? Here we are 2,000 years on from these events. What of God's promise? Look folks, if you don't know anything else about God, know this, He is a covenant-keeping God. He keeps His promises. Whatever they are, he keeps his promises. And he has not forgotten his promises. 2,000 years may well have passed since Jesus was crucified, since he was raised from the dead, but his promises to Israel, and in particular his promise to David's seed, is still good. It's still good. Look in Hosea chapter 6. Hosea chapter 6. Hosea chapter 6 and let's read verses 1 to 3 says come and let us return unto the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us. In the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord, his going forth is prepared as the morning, and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth. Now when we consider the conditions of Israel in the land today, the fact that they are situated there in unbelief, you have to wonder whether or not the third day of Hosea's prophecy is about to dawn. God's brought all these people back there. It's a miracle. It's a modern miracle. They're back there. You know, and even now they're resisting the gospel. If you're a Christian in that country, there's freedom of religion, but make no mistake, especially if you're a Jewish person who converts, they make life tough for you. I mean, the rabbis, when we were there, we were told by a Jewish Christian that the rabbi, one prominent rabbi made an announcement, a Christian who converted to Judaism, that that was acceptable. And so there's still this hostility toward Christ. Israel is a democratic nation. Essentially it's the only free country in the Middle East. You are free to worship whether you're a Jew or a Muslim or a Christian. But you go and try and convert Jews and you'll find very quickly that they're just as hateful of Jesus as they've ever been. And so God has brought them there, even in that state. Why? For what purpose? Why are they there? Because somebody else is coming there. They have a meeting with someone there. There is one who is going to, again, leave the heavens and make his way to the earth, coming not to Bethlehem, but to the Mount of Olives. And he has an appointment with them. And they will realize the error of their way. But certainly in this present age and for who knows how long, God has chastened this nation and will chasten this nation with a rod and with stripes. And we know from Revelation that the baddest things have been in the past, it's going to get a lot worse in the future for Israel. They're going to go through some terrible times, the time of Jacob's trouble. But here's the thing, even so, God's covenant with David has not been abrogated, nor has it been forgotten. In his own good time, it will be fulfilled. and the throne and the crown of the kingdom will be restored to its rightful place and the one who will occupy the throne and wear the crown is of the seed of David it is the Lord Jesus Christ David's son the firstborn the one who shall reign as higher than the kings of the earth as we sing sometimes on Sundays the darkness shall turn to the dawning and the dawning to noon day And so with that thought we say a hearty amen to the closing words of this psalm which simply reads blessed be the Lord forevermore amen and amen. Well we're going to leave it there for this evening and Lord willing next Tuesday evening we'll pick up in Psalm 102 and consider Christ as the immutable unchangeable Son of God.