God is Faithful to His Covenant-Trust Him (Psalm 89:19-37)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
5/18/2012 8:20:57 AM
My Worship Time   Focus: God is Faithful to His Covenant—Trust Him
Bible Reading & Meditation     Reference:  Psalm 89:19-37
 Message of the verses:  In the last SD we began to look at Psalm 89 by looking at the first main point along with several introductions from different Bible Scholars including Warren Wiersbe who wrote the following at the end of his commentary: “The psalm gives us four assurances about the faithfulness of the Lord.” 
God Is Faithful to His Covenant—Trust Him (vv. 19-37):  “19 ¶  Once You spoke in vision to Your godly ones, And said, "I have given help to one who is mighty; I have exalted one chosen from the people. 20  "I have found David My servant; With My holy oil I have anointed him, 21  With whom My hand will be established; My arm also will strengthen him. 22  "The enemy will not deceive him, Nor the son of wickedness afflict him. 23  "But I shall crush his adversaries before him, And strike those who hate him. 24  "My faithfulness and My lovingkindness will be with him, And in My name his horn will be exalted. 25  "I shall also set his hand on the sea And his right hand on the rivers. 26  "He will cry to Me, ’You are my Father, My God, and the rock of my salvation.’ 27  "I also shall make him My firstborn, The highest of the kings of the earth. 28  "My lovingkindness I will keep for him forever, And My covenant shall be confirmed to him. 29  "So I will establish his descendants forever And his throne as the days of heaven. 30  "If his sons forsake My law And do not walk in My judgments, 31  If they violate My statutes And do not keep My commandments, 32  Then I will punish their transgression with the rod And their iniquity with stripes. 33  "But I will not break off My lovingkindness from him, Nor deal falsely in My faithfulness. 34  "My covenant I will not violate, Nor will I alter the utterance of My lips. 35  "Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David. 36  "His descendants shall endure forever And his throne as the sun before Me. 37  "It shall be established forever like the moon, And the witness in the sky is faithful." Selah.”
 God is speaking in this section of the psalm, and He is speaking about David and his reign, and how He chose David to rule over Israel.  I first want to go back to the end of the book of Genesis in order to see what Jacob had to say about his son Judah.  “10  "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.”  (Genesis 49:10)  “Judah was the royal tribe of which the King of Kings would come from and so the description of the king of beasts was a good one.  In the book of Revelations John describes Jesus as both a lion and also a lamb.  All of the kings of Judah came from the line of David to which God had given him a covenant that this would happen.”  (I wrote these word on 02/11/2008 in my SD commenting on Genesis 49:8-12)  As the Bible give a line from the time that sin entered the universe through Adam and Eve to when the Lord Jesus would come to earth we see in Genesis 49:10 that the line goes through the tribe of Judah, and then in 2Samuel 7 that the line then goes through David and will continue through the line of David until Jesus Christ is born.  In the book of Matthew we see the genealogy of Jesus Christ from His birth back to Abraham.  Many scholars believe that this is the line from David through Joseph who is the step father of Jesus Christ.  We also see another genealogy in the book of Luke and this goes all the way back to Adam, and there are many Bible scholars who believe that this is the genealogy from Mary back to another son of David, Nathan.  Matthews goes back to David’s son, Solomon.  There was a great sin committed by one of the kings that came from David through Solomon, and I must confess that I do not remember which one it was, but that sin was so awful that many believe that is why there are the two lines from the two Gospel accounts and Mary’s line comes through Nathan, while Joseph’s line comes through Solomon.
 God tells a short version of David’s calling and his rule in this section of Scripture and I want to briefly comment on some of these verses.  Dr. Wiersbe’s title for this main point is important for the covenant that God made with David was not broken at the time when Babylon captured Judah so they can trust the Lord to fulfill that covenant in spite of Judah being captives in Babylon.
 In verses 19-24 we see that God chose David to rule Israel and that He would be faithfulness will be with David.  I want to put in a note from Charles H. Spurgeon on verse 25 at this point: 
““Ver. 25. I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers. He shall reach far beyond the little rivers which stand for boundaries in Palestine; he shall by his power embrace all lands from sea to sea. He shall have his hand in the ocean and his right hand in earth’s mightiest streams. As monarchs hold in their hands a globe to set forth their dominion over the earth, he shall grasp the far more unconquerable sea, and be Lord of all. This power is to be given him of the Lord, and is to be abiding; so we understand the words "I will set." The verse has in it a voice of good cheer concerning sailors, and all dwellers on the waters; the hand of Jesus is over them, and as he found his first apostles by the sea, so we trust he still finds earnest disciples there.
“EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.
“Ver. 25. I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers. That is, he should reign from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates; figuratively expressed by his left hand being extended to the sea, and his right hand to the rivers. A similar expression is used, according to Curtius, by the Scythian ambassadors to Alexander. "If," said they, "the gods had given thee a body as great as thy mind, the whole world would not be able to contain thee.  Thou wouldst reach with one hand to the east, and with the other to the west." —Kitto’s Pictorial Bible.
“Ver. 25. I will set his hand also in the sea and his right hand in the rivers. A certain artist was in the habit of saying that he should represent Alexander in such a manner, that in one hand he should hold a city and from the other pour a river. Christ is represented here as of immense stature, higher than all mountains, with one hand holding the earth, and the other the sea, while from Eastern sea to Western he extends his arms. —Le Blanc.”
 In verse 27 we see that although David was the eight son of Jessie he was the first born of the Lord, the highest king upon the earth.  David reigned from the Mediterranean Sea on the West to the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers on the East.  (“"I will fix your boundary from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River Euphrates; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you.’ (Exodus 23:31”). 
 Dr. Wiersbe writes “It was David’s close relationship to the Lord and his desire to exalt the Lord along that made him a success (v. 26).”
 I think that in understand verses 28-37 we need to understand that it is God who made this covenant with David and it would be up to God to make sure that this covenant was fulfilled.  In the Scriptures we see conditional covenants, and unconditional covenants that God makes.  The covenant that He made with Abraham was unconditional and so was this covenant that He made with David, and even though the offspring of David would sin, God would punish them for their sin, “But I will not break off My lovingkindness from him, Nor deal falsely in My faithfulness. 34  "My covenant I will not violate, Nor will I alter the utterance of My lips.”
 Spiritual meaning for my life today:  What do all of these things have to do with me as I live in the year 2012?  I would say that they have a lot to do with me because it was from the offspring of David that Jesus Christ was born, and it is because of the birth, death, resurrection, ascension, and calling by the Holy Spirit to me that I have become a child of God.  It was all a part of God’s plan.  As I look at Romans 8:28 in view of the covenant that God made with David I can see that God used all things to work together for good in spite of sinful men.  I once heard John MacArthur say that the reason that God works with sinful men is because that is all that He has to chose from.
My Steps of Faith for Today:  Praise the Lord for the unconditional covenant that He made with David.
5/18/2012 9:25:04 AM