Bewilderment & Blindness by a Covenant Breached
The Davidic Covenant and the third promise therein was intended for Solomon, but God, through holy repentance, did change His mind because of the sinful offenses of Solomon & his seed. Consequentially, the eternal counsel that was hidden at first (the predestinated purpose for Christ to fulfill the Davidic Covenant and become the everlasting, enthroned King) is now manifest, but it was through the fall of Solomon & his seed, through repentance of the former counsel of God, and through the disannulment of the Covenant wherein Solomon would have had an everlasting throne from generation to generation in his immediate seed. In terms of the third promise of the Davidic Covenant, God did “cast his [David & Solomon’s] throne down to the ground” (Psalm 89:44). Through a divine struggle with the sinfulness of man, through a repentance of a genuine good will/counsel/Covenant of God, through the fall of men, that which was predestinated arose.
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Through Solomon’s fall, the promise was breached, and the counsel of God given in the Davidic Covenant is mysteriously fulfilled through the manifestation of Jesus Christ. The sovereign counsel of God (God in the ways of God) is manifest through the change of the first intention (God in the ways of man), and this was a change undergone because of the sinfulness of man, but man did not change God, because the sinfulness of man is a manifestation of the sovereign will of God (God in the ways of God) working through a predestinated course of their individual lives. That is to say, because God ordained it, the hearts of men were hardened against the good will, counsel, and promise of God (God in the ways of man), so they resisted God and provoked Him to the disannulment of the Covenant. All these things still rest safely under the sovereignty of God’s glorious purpose.
“Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth” – Rom. 9:18
“Who hath resisted His will?” – Rom. 9:19 |
Solomon sought God that He would give him and Israel a perfect heart to seek and serve God. A perfect heart is God-given and God-sustained; Solomon and Israel therefore sought for this “good and perfect gift” from the Father of Lights (Jas. 1:17). It was an earnest pursuit of God so that from God, as a gift from Him (Eph. 2:8-9), He would mercifully grant them a soft heart (Rom. 9:18) of saving faith wherein men can walk perfect before Him. I am reminded of the cry from Isaiah the prophet saying, "O LORD, why hast Thou made us to err from Thy ways, and hardened our heart from Thy fear? Return for Thy servants’ sake, the tribes of Thine inheritance." (Isaiah 63:17). Through the centuries, along the timeline of man’s existence, this cry has continually gone up to God. It is an expression depicting the great struggle between a salvific God and a sinful people with an acknowledgement of the sovereignty of God controlling all.
God did, through holy repentance, breach the Covenant of David as a retribution for their rebellion. Psalm 89 is devoted entirely to the lamentations, confoundedness, and bewilderment that the people of God underwent when the Lord departed from the relational grounds of His Covenant promises. The faithfulness of God is the central attribute of hope, exaltation, and prayer, but their great lamentation is that God HAS NOT accomplished what His faithful word had declared.
God did, through holy repentance, breach the Covenant of David as a retribution for their rebellion. Psalm 89 is devoted entirely to the lamentations, confoundedness, and bewilderment that the people of God underwent when the Lord departed from the relational grounds of His Covenant promises. The faithfulness of God is the central attribute of hope, exaltation, and prayer, but their great lamentation is that God HAS NOT accomplished what His faithful word had declared.
Psalm 89
- Verses 2-4 The Covenant and Faithful Word
1 Maschil of Ethan the Ezrahite. I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known Thy faithfulness to all generations. 2 For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: Thy faithfulness shalt Thou establish in the very heavens. 3 I have made a covenant with My chosen, I have sworn unto David My servant, 4 Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations. Selah.
- Verses 5-18 The Name, Works, and Blessedness of God with His people
5 And the heavens shall praise Thy wonders, O LORD: Thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints. 6 For who in the heaven can be compared unto the LORD? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the LORD? 7 God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about Him. 8 O LORD God of hosts, who is a strong LORD like unto Thee? or to Thy faithfulness round about Thee? 9 Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, Thou stillest them. 10 Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain; Thou hast scattered Thine enemies with Thy strong arm. 11 The heavens are Thine, the earth also is Thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, Thou hast founded them. 12 The north and the south Thou hast created them: Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in Thy name. 13 Thou hast a mighty arm: strong is Thy hand, and high is Thy right hand. 14 Justice and judgment are the habitation of Thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before Thy face. 15 Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of Thy countenance. 16 In Thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in Thy righteousness shall they be exalted. 17 For Thou art the glory of their strength: and in Thy favour our horn shall be exalted. 18 For the LORD is our defence; and the Holy One of Israel is our king.
- Verses 19-37 The Choosing, Covenant, and Word of God spoken to David
19 Then Thou spakest in vision to Thy holy one, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people. 20 I have found David My servant; with My holy oil have I anointed him: 21 With whom My hand shall be established: Mine arm also shall strengthen him. 22 The enemy shall not exact upon him; nor the son of wickedness afflict him. 23 And I will beat down his foes before his face, and plague them that hate him. 24 But My faithfulness and My mercy shall be with him: and in My name shall his horn be exalted. 25 I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers. 26 He shall cry unto Me, Thou art my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. 27 Also I will make him My firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. 28 My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and My covenant shall stand fast with him. 29 His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven. 30 If his children forsake My law, and walk not in My judgments; 31 If they break My statutes, and keep not My commandments; 32 Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. 33 Nevertheless My lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer My faithfulness to fail. 34 My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips. 35 Once have I sworn by My holiness that I will not lie unto David. 36 His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before Me. 37 It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.
- Verses 38-52 The Lamentation & Bewilderment over a Covenant Breached
8 But Thou hast cast off and abhorred, Thou hast been wroth with Thine anointed. 39 Thou hast made void the covenant of Thy servant: Thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the ground. 40 Thou hast broken down all his hedges; Thou hast brought his strong holds to ruin. 41 All that pass by the way spoil him: he is a reproach to his neighbours. 42 Thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries; Thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice. 43 Thou hast also turned the edge of his sword, and hast not made him to stand in the battle. 44 Thou hast made his glory to cease, and cast his throne down to the ground. 45 The days of his youth hast Thou shortened: Thou hast covered him with shame. Selah. 46 How long, LORD? wilt Thou hide Thyself for ever? shall Thy wrath burn like fire? 47 Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast Thou made all men in vain? 48 What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah. 49 Lord, where are Thy former lovingkindnesses, which Thou swarest unto David in Thy truth? 50 Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy servants; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people; 51 Wherewith Thine enemies have reproached, O LORD; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of Thine anointed. 52 Blessed be the LORD for evermore. Amen, and Amen.
Notice the color coding that parallel the psalmist’s lamentations:
What God Covenanted by Faithful Promise
Verse 28 - My mercy will I keep for him for evermore
Verse 28 - My covenant shall stand fast with him. Verse 34 - My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips. Verse 29 - his throne as the days of heaven. Verse 36 - his throne as the sun before Me. Verse 33 - My lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer My faithfulness to fail. Verse 35 - Once have I sworn by My holiness that I will not lie unto David. |
What God Did By Holy Repentance
Verse 38 - Thou hast been wroth with Thine anointed
Verse 46 - How long, LORD? wilt Thou hide Thyself for ever? shall Thy wrath burn like fire? Verse 39 - Thou hast made void the covenant of Thy servant: Verse 39 - Thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the ground. Verse 44 - cast his throne down to the ground. Verse 38 - But Thou hast cast off and abhorred, Verse 49 - Lord, where are Thy former lovingkindnesses Verse 49 - which Thou swarest unto David in Thy truth? |
The psalmist is seeking the faithfulness of God (33), but the promised lovingkindness has been taken away (49). He is seeking for the keeping mercies of God (28), but God’s wrath is burning like fire as to make void the Covenant, or in other words, “alter the thing that” was spoken, and though it is impossible for God to lie, the man of God searches for that “which Thou swarest unto David in Thy truth,” because the oaths of His holiness have failed for the time. The man of God, like others, desires to declare the faithfulness of God. Yet, as he looks for the salvific promise, former lovingkindness, and wonderful mercy, instead he is forced to confess, “Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and Thou hast afflicted me with all Thy waves” (Psalm 88:7). Without remedy, but God, the cries and desperate intercessions go up as His people helplessly draw nigh to the pit of death. “Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: LORD, I have called daily upon Thee, I have stretched out my hands unto Thee. Wilt Thou shew wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise Thee? Selah. Shall Thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? Or Thy faithfulness in destruction? Shall Thy wonders be known in the dark? And Thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? But unto Thee have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent Thee. LORD, why castest Thou off my soul? Why hidest Thou Thy face from me? I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer Thy terrors I am distracted. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; Thy terrors have cut me off” (Psalm 88:9-16).
“In that day will I raise up the Tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by My Name, saith the LORD that doeth this” (Amos 9:11-12).
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The verse above does prophesy of a day when God does “build” and “raise up” the Davidic Covenant, because for now, as you can see in Psalm 89, the Davidic Covenant is “fallen”, utterly broken with “breaches” (breaks), so as to crumble into “ruins” (Amos 9:11-12). The Davidic Covenant is the second major and eternal Covenant that God did breach, and upon the breach of the Abrahamic Covenant the people of God suffered the same bewilderment as those in the Davidic. Psalm 77 reflects on the salvific works in the Abrahamic Covenant, when at that time, all such “favour” (77:7), “mercy” (77:8), “promise” (77:8), and “grace” (77:9) are no more. The psalmist who wrote Psalm 77 exudes the painful experience of when the God of the Bible is overwhelmingly absent. Hurled upon his soul is the overwhelming reality that God has hidden Himself. Do you ever wonder where the God of the New Testament is? It is a damnable sin for pastors and preachers to fail to say – “Where is the LORD?” (Jer. 2:8). The Spirit-filled psalmist said, “I remembered God, and was troubled,” but most people don’t remember the God of the Bible as He has testified of Himself in the plain accounts of scripture – by doctrine, deed, and historical example. Most people worship an imaginary, self-invented, self-conforming god, a god they made up in their own mind. Children have imaginary friends, and adults have an imaginary god. In Jeremiah 2:8 men failed to say, “Where is the LORD,” because they didn’t remember the God of the Bible! In backslidden generations which span for years of time, if all this time is spent in the absence of God’s great glory and promise, it is then that the righteous are troubled and the wicked are at ease. Where is the biblical God of the 1st century today? This is a troubling question… now look carefully at the prayers of this psalmist, and you will see that remembering God is remembering the deeds of His mercy, favor, promise, grace, and tender mercies, thus he recognizes that the absence of God’s famous glory in these wonderful works is the angry casting off of the people of God. Psalm 77:3-9, “I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah. Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled I cannot speak. I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search. Will the Lord cast off for ever? And will He be favourable no more? Is His mercy clean gone for ever? Doth His promise fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath He in anger shut up His tender mercies? Selah” (Psalm 77:3-9).
God was confronting the psalmist of Psalm 77, and therefore he was troubled, and when this biblical, hidden, and holy God confronts you, you too will experience the same “enlargement of heart” (Ps. 119:32) with a divinely set hope in the written word (Psalm 119:49). There will be no hope put in men to change the hardness of your heart, but God alone. Under the intense conviction of a Covenant made void, you will cry to the Sovereign for help and hope, “incline not my heart to any evil thing” (Psalm 141:4), “And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in Thee. Deliver me from all my transgressions” (Psalm 39:7-9). “Turn Thou me, and I shall be turned; for Thou art the LORD my God” (Jer. 31:18). “Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for Thou art my praise” (Jer. 17:14). “Turn us again, O God, and cause Thy face to shine; and we shall be saved. O LORD God of hosts, how long wilt Thou be angry against the prayer of Thy people? Thou feedest them with bread of tears; and givest them tears to drink in great measure” (Psalm 80:3-5). “Return, we beseech Thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine; And the vineyard which Thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that Thou madest strong for Thyself. It is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of Thy countenance. Let Thy hand be upon the man of Thy right hand, upon the son of man whom Thou madest strong for Thyself. So will not we go back from Thee: quicken us, and we will call upon Thy name. 19 Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause Thy face to shine; and we shall be saved” (Psalm 80:14-19).
“LORD, Thou wilt ordain peace for us: for Thou also hast wrought all our works in us” (Isa. 26:12).
The Covenant is there in word, but the performance thereof is absent. The very means of salvation, the instrumentality of His ways and works, these things are gone. It is impossible to replicate the workings of God. There is subservience in the people under the sovereignty of God. They do recognize that God is the Potter and they are but clay. When a Covenant is breached, the people are rejected of God, and therefore the two are only reconcilable by the free will of God.
When the Abrahamic & Davidic Covenants were breached, this left the people bewildered, blind, and in darkness. They became people and generations marked by blindness and rebellion. There are ways to be reconciled, called “the means of intercession,” but these means cannot avail but by the free decision of the LORD to accept them. When the Lord arose in the zeal of His wrath, when He bent and aimed the bow of destruction to His people who were worthy of death, at this time Abraham interceded for Lot with success. This prayer of intercession arose while the prophet beheld the kindled wrath of God going forth on a purposeful pursuit. The will of God was in motion, active, and mounting to its execution, and thus the prophets do behold the vision of it bursting upon their sides, and thus we see them gasping for salvation. The Spirit-filled prophets did always cry for mercy! Like this, God makes manifest the manifold motives and bright attributes of His Person – justice against mercy wrestling in Divine tension. Prophetic intercessors were the sole human audience of these heavenly scenes. In similar ways throughout time, the prophets Moses, Samuel, David, Elijah, and Daniel did cast themselves at the feet of God to grasp the edge of His garment for healing, hope, and mercy. God was not always stopped from the pursuit of justice. The prophets could not always stay the heat of His anger against sin. Moses, Samuel, David, and Jeremiah could not avail. The Spirit of love in God was in hurtful mourning, but it was willing and yielding to a greater cause of justice upon criminal creatures.
How many religious men claim to be prayer warriors or intercessors? Intercession is to intercede between the wrath of a holy God impending upon a sinful people: God’s people. An intercessor prays against the genuine, willing, and destroying wrath of God! Many men claim to be intercessors, but they know neither what it is nor what it is for! Intercession is for the promises of God to be performed, the love of God to be sustained, and the salvation of God’s people to be persevered or restored! Amazingly, the doctrines from Calvinism and eternal security make impossible this work of intercession. Such men deny that God could be angry with His people, thus how would they intercede for them? For what purpose would they plead the promises to God if there was ONLY an everlasting, unchanging love at work in God? Without a condescended reality in God, then there would be no reason to intercede for the Covenanted, saved people of Israel, for, there could be no change of mind possible in God, and whatever anger had begun to be manifest within the realm of time would always be appearing now, because it was galloping from eternity past in a relentless hatred to destroy predestinated vessels of wrath, and thus, if a man stood against it so as to fill a gap, or turn it away, not only would this be vain, but such a one may be burned up and run over in the attempted intercession. It is an unthinkable endeavor to stand against an eternal, unchanging, irresistible, and destroying wrath of God! But it is not so; God can repent by the means of a condescended relationship with man, and therefore intercession is not a foolish, unsound, unthinkable, vain, and suicidal endeavor! Men do take hope in the fact that God repented in time past from His anger over His people, so that, even though they are in such a generation of a Covenant breach, they cry out and pray – “Save us, O LORD our God”. See Psalm 106:44-48:
God was confronting the psalmist of Psalm 77, and therefore he was troubled, and when this biblical, hidden, and holy God confronts you, you too will experience the same “enlargement of heart” (Ps. 119:32) with a divinely set hope in the written word (Psalm 119:49). There will be no hope put in men to change the hardness of your heart, but God alone. Under the intense conviction of a Covenant made void, you will cry to the Sovereign for help and hope, “incline not my heart to any evil thing” (Psalm 141:4), “And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in Thee. Deliver me from all my transgressions” (Psalm 39:7-9). “Turn Thou me, and I shall be turned; for Thou art the LORD my God” (Jer. 31:18). “Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for Thou art my praise” (Jer. 17:14). “Turn us again, O God, and cause Thy face to shine; and we shall be saved. O LORD God of hosts, how long wilt Thou be angry against the prayer of Thy people? Thou feedest them with bread of tears; and givest them tears to drink in great measure” (Psalm 80:3-5). “Return, we beseech Thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine; And the vineyard which Thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that Thou madest strong for Thyself. It is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of Thy countenance. Let Thy hand be upon the man of Thy right hand, upon the son of man whom Thou madest strong for Thyself. So will not we go back from Thee: quicken us, and we will call upon Thy name. 19 Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause Thy face to shine; and we shall be saved” (Psalm 80:14-19).
“LORD, Thou wilt ordain peace for us: for Thou also hast wrought all our works in us” (Isa. 26:12).
The Covenant is there in word, but the performance thereof is absent. The very means of salvation, the instrumentality of His ways and works, these things are gone. It is impossible to replicate the workings of God. There is subservience in the people under the sovereignty of God. They do recognize that God is the Potter and they are but clay. When a Covenant is breached, the people are rejected of God, and therefore the two are only reconcilable by the free will of God.
When the Abrahamic & Davidic Covenants were breached, this left the people bewildered, blind, and in darkness. They became people and generations marked by blindness and rebellion. There are ways to be reconciled, called “the means of intercession,” but these means cannot avail but by the free decision of the LORD to accept them. When the Lord arose in the zeal of His wrath, when He bent and aimed the bow of destruction to His people who were worthy of death, at this time Abraham interceded for Lot with success. This prayer of intercession arose while the prophet beheld the kindled wrath of God going forth on a purposeful pursuit. The will of God was in motion, active, and mounting to its execution, and thus the prophets do behold the vision of it bursting upon their sides, and thus we see them gasping for salvation. The Spirit-filled prophets did always cry for mercy! Like this, God makes manifest the manifold motives and bright attributes of His Person – justice against mercy wrestling in Divine tension. Prophetic intercessors were the sole human audience of these heavenly scenes. In similar ways throughout time, the prophets Moses, Samuel, David, Elijah, and Daniel did cast themselves at the feet of God to grasp the edge of His garment for healing, hope, and mercy. God was not always stopped from the pursuit of justice. The prophets could not always stay the heat of His anger against sin. Moses, Samuel, David, and Jeremiah could not avail. The Spirit of love in God was in hurtful mourning, but it was willing and yielding to a greater cause of justice upon criminal creatures.
How many religious men claim to be prayer warriors or intercessors? Intercession is to intercede between the wrath of a holy God impending upon a sinful people: God’s people. An intercessor prays against the genuine, willing, and destroying wrath of God! Many men claim to be intercessors, but they know neither what it is nor what it is for! Intercession is for the promises of God to be performed, the love of God to be sustained, and the salvation of God’s people to be persevered or restored! Amazingly, the doctrines from Calvinism and eternal security make impossible this work of intercession. Such men deny that God could be angry with His people, thus how would they intercede for them? For what purpose would they plead the promises to God if there was ONLY an everlasting, unchanging love at work in God? Without a condescended reality in God, then there would be no reason to intercede for the Covenanted, saved people of Israel, for, there could be no change of mind possible in God, and whatever anger had begun to be manifest within the realm of time would always be appearing now, because it was galloping from eternity past in a relentless hatred to destroy predestinated vessels of wrath, and thus, if a man stood against it so as to fill a gap, or turn it away, not only would this be vain, but such a one may be burned up and run over in the attempted intercession. It is an unthinkable endeavor to stand against an eternal, unchanging, irresistible, and destroying wrath of God! But it is not so; God can repent by the means of a condescended relationship with man, and therefore intercession is not a foolish, unsound, unthinkable, vain, and suicidal endeavor! Men do take hope in the fact that God repented in time past from His anger over His people, so that, even though they are in such a generation of a Covenant breach, they cry out and pray – “Save us, O LORD our God”. See Psalm 106:44-48:
“Nevertheless He regarded their affliction, when He heard their cry: And He remembered for them His covenant, and repented according to the multitude of His mercies. He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives. Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the heathen, to give thanks unto Thy holy name, and to triumph in Thy praise. Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the LORD” (Ps. 106:44-48).
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Shockingly, it was revealed to David that the Covenant of God would be breached and then mysteriously fulfilled at latter times! David speaks of this in 2 Samuel 23:1-7, written below. David describes how the Davidic Covenant is breached as a result from some “sons of Belial”, and in the following account, David says, that God will not fulfill that which He has begun in David’s lifetime, which means that the Davidic house and throne will not continue to grow, and rather, it will decline and fall. David’s very last words foretold the secret hope that David had, that eventually, but not immediately, God will fulfill the Covenant which was given to him. David obviously perceives a troublesome future ahead where his house will cease to hold the Throne of Israel for a time.
“Now these be the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, said, The Spirit of the LORD spake by me, and His word was in my tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. And He shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain. Although my house be not so with God; yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although He make it not to grow. But the sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away, because they cannot be taken with hands: But the man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron and the staff of a spear; and they shall be utterly burned with fire in the same place” (2 Sam. 23:1-7).
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David said that it was “an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure” (2 Sam. 23:5); even so it is true, and God echoes this sure hope by expounding just how He will fulfill the word He spoke to David in a mysterious way, so mysterious that the wisest prophets know it not. The fulfillment of this Covenant will be “great and mighty things which thou knowest not” (Jer. 33:3), God says, and He assures that some way, somehow, Christ will be the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant so that, as is of necessity to be fulfilled: “David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel” (Jer. 33:17). In this way, though God has altered the thing gone out of His mouth so as to cause the throne of David to cease, God still affirms to later generations – “The LORD hath sworn in truth unto David; He will not turn from it; Of the fruit of Thy body will I set upon Thy throne. If Thy children will keep My Covenant and My testimony that I shall teach them, their children shall also sit upon Thy throne for evermore” (Psalm 132:11-12) – meaning that this is one of God’s eternal, everlasting purposes which He will not repent of or turn from. At the time of the psalm which contains this promise (Psalm 132), the Davidic Covenant was presently in desolation, and that is why the prophetic emphasis is that God “will not turn from” the Covenant’s fulfillment! These words affirm that God will not turn from it so as to forget it, and He will eventually fulfill it! The Lord affirms again:
“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The LORD our righteousness. For thus saith the LORD; David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel… ” (Jer. 33:14-17).
“Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break My covenant of the day, and My covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season; Then may also My covenant be broken with David My servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, My ministers. As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto Me” (Jer. 33:20-22). |
The latter verses from Jeremiah are a telling response to Psalm 89, possibly even to the cries of that very psalmist who prayed for answers. The proof which displays the Davidic Covenant’s surety is said to be as God’s covenant that He has made with the sun and moon – fixed unmovable in their places – and this is as it was said in Psalm 89:36-37: “His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before Me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah” (Ps. 89:36-37). So God says in Jeremiah 33:20-21 the very same address: “If ye can break My Covenant of the day, and My Covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season; Then may also My Covenant be broken with David My servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne”. The eventual and mysterious fulfillment of this presently breached Davidic Covenant is an eternal, unchanging purpose of God, which He has determined in the powers of His own changeless ways (God in the ways of God).
Finally, what is profoundly notable with this Covenant’s mysterious fulfillment is shown to us through what I call “the psalm of psalms,” namely Psalm 110, because it is a one of a kind, metropolis depiction of Christ’s future ministries, with astounding accuracy! In Psalm 110, we see Christ as the eternal Davidic King taking His seat at an everlasting throne, and furthermore, Christ as the eternal High Priest after an everlasting order which was before the Aaronic order! Doubtless, David knew very little of what all of these words meant comparatively to the unfolding of all the events that were yet to transpire for their fulfillment, but he knew something. Thus David knew that his throne would be eternally established, and in this way it was and is “ordered” and “sure” just as his dying words foretold. David does recognize in this psalm that, even though subsequent generations of his immediate house and throne are not ready for the Davidic Covenant’s great fulfillment, nevertheless, God’s “people shall be willing in the day of [His] power” in some latter generation wherein all these things shall be fulfilled. In this day, the King will be God Himself, David acknowledges, and some way, somehow, all earthly events shall be framed into this quintessential END where the LORD will be seated on His throne forever! Thus it is at the first of the psalm, David confesses – “The LORD said unto my Lord, sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool” (Ps. 110:1).
Finally, what is profoundly notable with this Covenant’s mysterious fulfillment is shown to us through what I call “the psalm of psalms,” namely Psalm 110, because it is a one of a kind, metropolis depiction of Christ’s future ministries, with astounding accuracy! In Psalm 110, we see Christ as the eternal Davidic King taking His seat at an everlasting throne, and furthermore, Christ as the eternal High Priest after an everlasting order which was before the Aaronic order! Doubtless, David knew very little of what all of these words meant comparatively to the unfolding of all the events that were yet to transpire for their fulfillment, but he knew something. Thus David knew that his throne would be eternally established, and in this way it was and is “ordered” and “sure” just as his dying words foretold. David does recognize in this psalm that, even though subsequent generations of his immediate house and throne are not ready for the Davidic Covenant’s great fulfillment, nevertheless, God’s “people shall be willing in the day of [His] power” in some latter generation wherein all these things shall be fulfilled. In this day, the King will be God Himself, David acknowledges, and some way, somehow, all earthly events shall be framed into this quintessential END where the LORD will be seated on His throne forever! Thus it is at the first of the psalm, David confesses – “The LORD said unto my Lord, sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool” (Ps. 110:1).
“A Psalm of David. The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool. The LORD shall send the rod of Thy strength out of Zion: rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: Thou hast the dew of Thy youth. The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord at Thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of His wrath. He shall judge among the heathen, He shall fill the places with the dead bodies; He shall wound the heads over many countries. He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall He lift up the head” (Psalm 110:1-7).
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The Lord had two simultaneous, genuine wills. Firstly, Solomon and David’s immediate seed through Solomon would be established into an everlasting house and Throne, un-fallen and fixed forever through the centuries, but since this was breached, therefore we can understand that this is manifest because of a forceful, time-changing, all-Covenant conforming purpose of God in Christ, as it were, galloping from eternity past – His brilliant incarnation into humanity, His penal, substitutionary, and atoning death, His victorious resurrection, and finally, His ascension unto the Davidic throne at the right hand of the Father.