The Bible Study Hour

--Dr. James Boice--

Psalm 89 begins by praising the faithfulness of our God. And one of the great promises of his faithfulness is that David's line would be established through all generations. In fact, God goes so far as to say that he has made a covenant with his chosen one, and a covenant cannot be broken by a covenant-keeping God.

--Dr. James Boice--

Welcome to The Bible Study Hour, a radio and Internet broadcast with Dr. James Boice, preparing you to think and act biblically.

--Dr. James Boice--

The terms of God's covenant with David included choosing him as king, protecting him from his enemies, making him prominent among the nations, and continuing God's blessings to his sons. Let's join Dr. Boice as he shows us from Psalm 89 the joy of having a God that is faithful in all things and at all times.

--Dr. James Boice--

There are as many attributes of God as there are names for God because that's what the names of God signify, and there are a lot of names. I have in my study somewhere a book in which one scholar has developed a devotional for each day of the year based on a different name of God. So there are 365 different names, at least. I'm not even sure that he has them all, and that means there must be that many attributes.

--Dr. James Boice--

Now, of that great number of attributes, there's probably none that is more important for us, or means more to us in the living of our daily lives, than the faithfulness of God. God is a faithful God. We're not faithful. Men and women really can't be counted upon. We say something and then we go against what we say. We make a promise, we break it. We want to rely on other people, but we show ourselves constantly to be people that can't be relied on ourselves.

--Dr. James Boice--

Now, God's not like that. God is absolutely faithful. He has never made a promise that he hasn't kept or will keep in his own time, and he has never let his people down, though there are times that he seems to do that.

--Dr. James Boice--

Now, that's what this psalm is all about. We have a hymn where we sing about the faithfulness of God. It's based on the verse in Lamentations 3. "Great is thy faithfulness, Oh God my Father. There is no shadow of turning with thee." And that's what this psalm is developing. It's in two parts, however. The first part, the longest part, through verse 37, about six of the eight stanzas, praises the faithfulness of God. It says, God is a faithful God. And it it backs that up in all sorts of ways. It deals at great length with the covenant that God made with David.

--Dr. James Boice--

And then the second part, beginning with verse 38, says, but at the moment, God doesn't seem to be. Remember how I said when we were looking at our Psalm last week, Psalm 88, that one of the refreshing things about the Psalter is how honest the people who wrote these verses are. You and I would be afraid to write that 88th Psalm. It it talks so grimly about what the mystics called the Dark Night of the Soul. This man is so down. He doesn't see any bright light anywhere. We would tend not to do that. We think it somehow that's wrong. We have to somehow make it come out all right in the end.

--Dr. James Boice--

But the Psalmists aren't afraid to speak of things as they see them. And we have the same thing in this psalm, though it's not nearly as grim as the one that precedes it. This writer, whose name is given there at the beginning, Ethan the Ezrahite, he's mentioned a couple of places in the Bible, looks out at the situation in his day. And he says it does not seem, as I look at things today, that God has been faithful to the covenant that he made with David. So the first part says, "Great is your faithfulness," and the second half says, "Where is your faithfulness?"

--Dr. James Boice--

Now that's the way we're going to look at it. We're going to look at it in two parts, looking at the first part now. Now, as I said, this is based on the covenant God made with David. And in a certain sense, this is a poetic exposition of that Old Testament story. You find it in 2 Samuel, the seventh chapter. David reached a period in his career as king when the great battles of his youth were over. There was peace roundabout, and he had time to reflect on things that might be done besides fighting battles.

--Dr. James Boice--

He looked at the palace he was living in. He said, look, this isn't right. Here I am living in a palace made of cedar. It's an impressive building material in that day. We would probably say ivory today. And he said, here I am, and yet the ark of God, the ark of the covenant still remains in a tent. It was the wilderness tabernacle tent. And he shared that with Nathan, the prophet. Nathan said to him, you do whatever's in your heart to do. What he had in mind, of course, was to build a great temple in Jerusalem.

--Dr. James Boice--

But that night, God spoke to Nathan in a vision. And God came to to him, and Nathan came to David the next day, and he said, now this is what God says. God says, you have said in your heart, I'm going to build a house for God, but it's going to be the other way around. Instead, I'm going to build a house for David. And what he meant by that was a dynasty.

--Dr. James Boice--

Now, here's the way those words go. I'm going to read a little bit from this seventh chapter of 2 Samuel because as we go through Psalm 89, you're going to find that it's commenting on it. If you want to do an interesting study, you can lay the two passages side by side. You'll find the very phrases that appear in the historical book also appearing in the psalm. But here's a selection of what God says. This is what the Lord says.

--Dr. James Boice--

"Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you. When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my name." He's talking about Solomon, of course.

--Dr. James Boice--

"And I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men, but my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me. Your throne will be established forever."

--Dr. James Boice--

Now, that's a great Old Testament passage that tells of God's establishing this covenant with King David. Going to establish his throne generation after generation. Now, we know that was fulfilled in Jesus Christ ultimately. But at the time of the psalm, you see, the psalmist didn't know that, and the house of David was in decay. Perhaps it was even overthrown.

--Dr. James Boice--

And those verses I read, "forever" is the critical word, you see. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me. Even David, when he responded to that, knew that that wasn't the sort of thing that is possible for a human being. So David recognized it had to be the Messiah. That's the key word. Going to endure forever.

--Dr. James Boice--

Now, that occurs in this psalm. As a matter of fact, it occurs again and again. You find it interesting to go through the psalm and underline it, you find it eight times, that word "forever," in verses 1, 2, 4, 28, 29, 36, 37, and 48. Sounds like the results of the lottery, but I'm not doing that at all. Similarly, the word "faithfulness," which is dealing with the same thing, and that's our theme here, occurs seven times. You find it in verses 1, 2, 5, 8, 14, 33, and 39. And the word "covenant," from which both of the other ideas come, is found three times in verses 3, 28, and 34.

--Dr. James Boice--

Now, the theme of this psalm is established in the first stanza. I've given you the frequency of those words, but those words are there in the first stanza. "Forever" occurs three times just there. "Faithfulness" twice, and the word "covenant" once. Now, at this point, I think the translation in the new international version loses something, at least for people who are familiar with that hymn that begins, "I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever." You remember that? You may have sung it. We don't even have it in our hymn book, but people used to sing it.

--Dr. James Boice--

The reason I say that is that the word translated "great love" in verse 1 of this psalm, "I will sing of the Lord's great love forever," actually is the word "mercies," in a plural form. Now, it may be a minor point, but I think the word "mercies" has two ideas that the translation "great love" misses. For one thing, it makes it tangible, rather than sort of an abstract attitude. You know, God is loving toward us, but this is talking about tangible mercies.

--Dr. James Boice--

And then the second point that I think is missed by the translations is the plural. The fact that it's not just a mercy, but there are many, many mercies that we endure throughout our lives. Now, that hymn, "Great is thy faithfulness," reflects that. Remember, there's a line in it, based again on the verse in Lamentations 3, from which the hymn is derived, that says, "Morning by morning, new mercies I see." And if you ask the question at that point, well, what are those mercies that I see new morning by morning?

--Dr. James Boice--

The next verse goes on, "Pardon for sin," which we need again and again, and a peace that endureth. We find ourselves in turmoil from time to time, but God gives peace. "Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide, strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. Blessings all mine with ten thousands beside."

--Dr. James Boice--

Well, that's the way it is for Christians. We sometimes get our eyes off that. We're not aware of the mercies of God, but we're surrounded by them constantly, and the psalmist is well aware of that. So that's the way he begins. Now, he said a moment ago that the psalm is a poetic exposition of 2 Samuel 7. In case we missed that, early on in this first stanza, verses 3 and 4, the psalmist actually quotes God. This is right out of 2 Samuel 7. And it quotes him as saying this, "I have made a covenant with my chosen one. I have sworn to David my servant. I will establish your line forever and make your throne firm through all generations."

--Dr. James Boice--

Now, we're going to see the problems with living with that later on because when we get to the second half of the psalm, the psalmist is going to say, but you've renounced your covenant, at least so far as I can tell. You see, early on, you've established your covenant. A little later on, you seem to have renounced it. Sometimes we have difficulty living with that because we don't understand the mind of the ways of God. But it's significant that the point the psalmist begins with is the Word of God.

--Dr. James Boice--

You see, that's to say that the Word of God is our foundation. It's the foundation we need. It's what Jesus was talking about in the Sermon on the Mount, where he says a man who hears my word and obeys it and lives by it, builds his house upon a rock. And if you don't do that, if you're building upon the shifting sands of the world, then when the torrents of life come sweeping down upon you, you get swept away.

--Dr. James Boice--

So that's very important. If we didn't get anything out of this more than the first stanza, it's that. Regardless of the problems of his age, and they're great, this writer, Ethan the Ezrahite, says, I'm going to build upon the Word of God.

--Dr. James Boice--

Now, at this point, he begins to develop that theme. You see, the first four verses are sort of an introduction. They set it up, and then beginning with verse 5, he begins to explain it a little bit. He starts in heaven. That is, at the highest peak, God being worshiped by the holy angels. He calls these holy ones the assembly. That's the word that means congregation because like the church on Earth, they live to worship and serve God.

--Dr. James Boice--

Now, we ask the question, what are they praising him for there in heaven? Well, the answer is obvious. At least in this psalm, they're praising him for his faithfulness. You notice in that stanza, the second one, that the word occurs at the beginning of the stanza, in verse 5. And it also occurs there at the end, in verse 8. But it is a mighty faithfulness. It is a strong faithfulness, which is what you have in between. The angels ask, "Who in the skies above can compare with the Lord? Who is like the Lord among the heavenly beings?" And again in verse 8, "Oh Lord God Almighty, who is like you?" And then the answer, verse 8, "You alone are mighty, oh Lord."

--Dr. James Boice--

So they're concerned with the power of God that stands behind his faithfulness. Now, at this point, the next stanza, the psalm moves to consider the faithfulness of God on Earth. Looks to heaven, the angels are praising God in heaven. Now he moves to the Earth and he says, we see the faithfulness of God here as well.

--Dr. James Boice--

It is interesting, however, that the word "faithfulness" doesn't occur in this stanza. Instead, what he seems to be doing is picking up on the idea of might or strength, power, which he introduced in the second stanza. You say, well, why is that? The answer is that it requires the faithfulness of God, the power of God to stand behind his faithfulness. You say, we we could say that God is a faithful God in the sense that he would like to keep his promises. He certainly doesn't want to break them. But how would that mean anything to us if he didn't have the power actually to carry it out?

--Dr. James Boice--

And so the psalmist says, the power of God stands behind it. If God is faithful, nothing's going to frustrate him in carrying out his promises because God is stronger than all things. And so he looks around. He praises God for his power in creation. He thinks of heaven and Earth, the world, the North and the South, verses 11 and 12. He brings in two mountains, Tabor and Hermon, which are sort of representative mountains in the middle of the land. It might be North, South, East, West, something like that. He says you're you're evidently powerful, as we look around. Everything we see about us demonstrates your strength.

--Dr. James Boice--

The sea attracts his special attention. He says, when its waves mount up, you still them. We can hardly read that without thinking of Jesus. Remember that story? He's out on the Sea of Galilee in a small boat with his disciples. It's a great storm. Jesus is so tired, he's sleeping in the back. The disciples, who are seasoned fishermen, think they're going to drown. They're never going to get this boat to shore in a storm like that. They wake him up. They say, Master, don't you care if we perish? And Jesus rebukes them for their little faith, and then he says, "Peace, be still." And the wind stops, and it's absolutely calm.

--Dr. James Boice--

And now they're more impressed and terrified of Jesus than they were of the storm. And they say, "Who is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him." Well, that's our God, you see. And the psalmist in his own way is saying the same thing, that God who can still the waves is the God who can fulfill his promises, and who will.

--Dr. James Boice--

Second sphere in which he praises God for his power is his rule over the events of history. He refers to Rahab there. You remember from a study two psalms ago that Rahab stands for Egypt. So when he mentions Rahab here, he's thinking of Egypt and the way in which God delivered the people from their slavery in that country.

--Dr. James Boice--

So he has moved from heaven to Earth. Now, what he does next is begin to develop some of the other attributes of God that also stand behind the faithfulness of God because, you see, God's attributes are never in isolation. Sometimes we think that way. People say, God is love, and they forget that God is also judgment. God judges in his love. You see, all that's going to come in here. And the psalmist begins to put all these things together. Look at the stanza beginning with verse 14. He talks about righteousness there. Righteousness is the underlying principle of justice, which is mentioned next because without righteousness, there can be no justice.

--Dr. James Boice--

And one of the problems with law that is not based on righteousness is that it may be law, but it isn't justice. You can have all kinds of laws made in an unrighteous country to support those who are in positions of power and oppress the people who are disadvantaged. That's not justice. So God is a righteous God.

--Dr. James Boice--

Justice is giving to everyone what is due to him or her. Acquittal for those who are innocent and condemnation for those who are guilty. Justice is the application of righteousness. Third, he mentions love. Now, that's already mentioned in the first stanza, verses 1 and 2. He brings it back in here. The Hebrew word is hesed, which actually means a steadfast covenantal love. That's what he's developing in the whole psalm. He talks next of faithfulness. That's the attribute we've been looking at all along. And then later on in the stanza, three more attributes of God, which he develops in terms of our possession of them. That is, glory, strength, and favor. But we have the glory, strength, and favor only because it is, first of all, the glory, strength, and favor of God.

--Dr. James Boice--

Now, you say at that point, what is the proper response of the people of God to these attributes that he's just enumerated? And the answer, of course, is they are to praise God and rejoice in him. And that's what verses 15 and 16 say, "Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you. They rejoice in your name all day long."

--Dr. James Boice--

Now, what comes? Well, he's introduced his subject in verses 1 through 4. He's explored it and developed it in relationship to the other attributes of God. Now he gets to the thing that he's really thinking about, and that is the covenant of God with David. So beginning with verses verse 19, going through 29, he begins to comment specifically on the seventh chapter of 2 Samuel. They really are an unfolding of the points that you find there in that historical book.

--Dr. James Boice--

Now, there are six critical features of God's covenant with David. They're all mentioned here. You find them verse after verse. First of all, God's choice of David to be king, verses 19 and 20. That's to say, God's covenants are God's idea. They're not our idea. The covenant is an agreement, but in the Bible, it's not the kind of agreement we might have. You know, we we enter into a business agreement, and it's like the ad says, you see it in the magazines. In business, you don't get what you deserve. You get what you negotiate. And so we get into negotiations. You know, you do this, I'll do that. It's not that way with the covenants of God. God says, I'm going to make a covenant and these are the terms.

--Dr. James Boice--

And so right at the beginning, we're reminded that God chooses David. David didn't say, I'd like to enter into a covenant with God and be King of Israel. And if you'll do this for me, I'll do that for him. God said, I'm going to choose David to be king. And if you're a Christian, that's the way it was with you. You didn't choose him. Jesus said that, you didn't choose me. He said, I chose you. You'd better be thankful that it's that way because if it was up to you, if you chose God, well you're going to unchoose him as soon as you get into a little bit of trouble. We'd have fallen away many, many times already. But you see, the strength comes from the fact that the choice is of God.

--Dr. James Boice--

Secondly, God strengthened David for his work as king, verse 21. He doesn't abandon those that he has entered into a covenant with or chosen. In David's case, this covenant meant that God strengthened him to do his work as king. And in our case, it means God will strengthen us to do the work that he's given us to do, and the strength comes from him. You see, Jesus said when he was talking to his disciples before his arrest and crucifixion, "Without me, you can do nothing." Absolutely true.

--Dr. James Boice--

But then the Apostle Paul gives the other side of that. And he says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." If God has chosen you and has given you work to do, he's going to give you the strength to do it. Number three, God protected David from his enemies, verse 22. He had many enemies, but God protected him from all of them. So also does God protect us. What's our greatest enemy? Our greatest enemy is the devil, Satan.

--Dr. James Boice--

You remember that story that involved Jesus and Peter before the arrest and crucifixion? Peter was feeling pretty good about himself. He thought he was the leader of the disciples. Certainly, he'd be able to stand firm, even if the others would deny Jesus, not Peter. And Jesus said, "Look, Peter, Satan has desired to sift you like wheat. But I've prayed for you that your faith will not fail. And when you're turned back, you're going to drift away, but when you've turned back, use that experience to strengthen your brethren."

--Dr. James Boice--

You see, if Jesus hadn't protected Peter from his great enemy, the devil, Peter would have fallen away and been a lost cause. But here, Jesus says, I've prayed for you. And so it is with us. You know, if God wasn't doing that in our lives, every single one of us would be a lost cause. Not one of us would be here today. We'd be off living like the world, doing the world's thing, but God protects us. You see, it's part of the covenant of grace.

--Dr. James Boice--

Number four, God gives David victory over his enemies. He not only protects him from them, he gives them victory. Remember what Paul said when he was talking about those who benefit from the covenant of grace today? He said, "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God, he gives us the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15, 56 and 57.

--Dr. James Boice--

Number five, God exalted David to prominence among the kings of the nations, verses 24 to 27. The greatest thing they tell us about David's prominence, although they are speaking about his prominence as a king, is that he was given a special relationship to God. Notice the words that are used there. For his part, David would call out to God, "You are my father, my God, my rock, my Savior." And for God's part, God would appoint David his firstborn. That is, the position of prominence in his kingdom. Now, it is our prominence that we are made sons and daughters of the Most High.

--Dr. James Boice--

The world looks at Christians and doesn't care much for them. It says, well, who are they? You know, unimportant people. The important people are those that are in high positions of government, those who get Nobel prizes. Those are the important people. God says the most important thing of all is to be a son or daughter of mine. No matter where I call you from, whatever kind of background, whatever kind of talents you may have, whatever opportunities or lack of opportunities you may have, the important thing is to be a son and daughter of the Most High. And it's a result of the covenant. That's our version of what we have here.

--Dr. James Boice--

Finally, God extended his blessing to David's sons. He promised it to Solomon. Some of these words are directly applicable to him. He was the one that would build the temple, but then also to Solomon's descendants, and his descendants' descendants. And eventually to Jesus Christ because we know that ultimately the covenant was fulfilled in him.

--Dr. James Boice--

Well, there's one other thing. The last stanza of the ones we're looking at that is in the first half, there are eight stanzas in all. Six stanzas are in the first half. The last of those, the sixth stanza, has to do with God's faithfulness and discipline. Because you remember what I said, God is love, but he's judgment as well. You have covenant faithfulness, but you also have discipline, and the faithfulness expresses itself in discipline to those who fall away, to those who are going contrary to the will and ways of God.

--Dr. James Boice--

When he says of Solomon and his descendants, as if he disobeys me, if he goes his own way, then I'll chastise him. I'll punish him. It's what same thing you have in Hebrews, you know, in Hebrews 12, especially verse 6, it says, "The Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son." That's what's going to happen to Solomon, and his descendants, and to you, and to me if we go our own way. But, says the psalm, the covenant, nevertheless, is going to remain firm. I'm going to be faithful to the covenant.

--Dr. James Boice--

You know, in one of his writings, the Bible teacher Harry Ironside has an interesting story about something that happened very early in his ministry. He was doing itinerant ministry out in California. It was in Fresno. And the time came, much to his surprise, when he absolutely had run out of money. He had to check out of the hotel because he didn't have any money to pay the bill. He didn't have any money to pay anything for dinner that night. And so he he checked his bag in at a drugstore there, asked them to keep it until he'd come back and pick it up later. And then he he went out and sat down under a tree in the lawn of the courthouse in Fresno to settle down for the night.

--Dr. James Boice--

And as he was sitting there, he began to think of Philippians 4:19, the verse I mentioned earlier, "My God will supply all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus." And as he thought about that, he complained. And he said, "Well, then why doesn't God do it? I need a place to stay, and I need food to eat, and here I am sitting under a tree on the lawn of the courthouse in Fresno, California." Well, as he prayed, God brought to his mind things that he had been doing wrong or things that he'd been neglecting. He doesn't specify it in his story, and he prayed about that, and God said, "A number of those things straightened out."

--Dr. James Boice--

And in time, God did provide. Friends came along and gave him a place to stay, and the meetings went well. Finally, at the end, they took a collection, which was necessary because that allowed him to get home on the train. But here's the interesting part of the story. Just before he left, after this time of ministry, he went to the post office to pick up his mail. He hadn't really expected this, but there was a letter from his father. His father had kept in touch with him. His father knew he was there. He sent this letter, and this is what the father said. He said, "I was reading the Bible today, and God spoke to me through Philippians 4:19. He has promised to supply all our need. Someday he may see that I need a starving," which is what Ironside was experiencing, "and if he does, he'll supply that."

--Dr. James Boice--

And Ironside realized when he got the letter that God had been using what seemed to be a breaking of his covenant to provide something he needed, which was actually a fulfillment of it. Let me end with a quotation from Arthur Pink, a great Bible scholar. He's writing about faithfulness and unfaithfulness. "Unfaithfulness is one of the most outstanding sins of these evil days. In the business world, a man's word is with rare exceptions no longer his bond. In the social world, marital infidelity abounds on every hand. In the ecclesiastical realm, thousands who have solemnly covenanted to preach the truth have no scruples about attacking and denying it. Nor can the reader or the writer claim complete immunity from this fearful sin." He means you and I.

--Dr. James Boice--

"How refreshing then, and how blessed to lift our eyes above this scene of ruin and behold one who is faithful, faithful in all things, and at all times." Let's pray. Our Father, we are thankful that you are the way you are. If there's any faithfulness to be found in us, it's because you were first faithful. And we rejoice in that. We we confess our unfaithfulness. We thank you that when we come to you, we we come to one whose word is his bond. We come to a rock upon which one can safely build. We come to one who knows the best of all things for us, and who because he loves us, will certainly accomplish that in our lives and in practical ways. Our Father, at this time of year, strengthen our understanding of who you are and our appreciation for who you are. May we grow in our love for you. And as you work in our lives, grant that we might be found faithful to in increasing measure, for Jesus' sake. Amen.

--Guest (Male)--

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--Guest (Male)--

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