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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.
Song of the Davidic Covenant
Series Songs About Jesus
| Sermon ID | 12314141740 |
| Duration | 51:50 |
| Date | |
| Category | Bible Study |
| Bible Text | Psalm 89 |
| Language | English |
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