Latest / Reformed Thinking / Has God Forgotten His Covenant? (Psalm 89) | Charles Spurgeon

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Has God Forgotten His Covenant? (Psalm 89) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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Hello and welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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We are very glad you have decided to join us again.
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If you are new to this discussion, this is a space
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where we try to, well, dust off the old books, open up the
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scriptures, and really get to the bottom of what we believe.
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And we do that specifically through a Reformed lens.
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We are looking at the treasures of theology, holding fast to the
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Westminster Confession standards, and seeing how these
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ancient truths actually apply to our lives today.
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We want to know not just what the text says, but how it shapes
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our view of God and the world. That's right, we're not
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interested in history just for the sake of trivia.
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We want to know God. And today we have a a massive
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topic to cover. We are doing a deep dive into
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Psalm 89. It is a majestic Psalm.
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It is grand in scope and deep in emotion.
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It really is. And to guide us, we are going to
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be walking through The Treasury of David by Charles Spurgeon.
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Now I know Spurgeon is a favorite for many, but this
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particular exposition on Psalm 89 is something else entirely.
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Oh, it is. It's considered one of his
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absolute best works. You know, Psalm 89 closes the
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third book of the Psalms, and theologians often refer to it as
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a covenant Psalm. If you want to understand the
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backbone of biblical theology, you simply have to grapple with
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this text. The backbone.
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It lays out the legal and relational framework between God
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and His people. So let's set the scene before we
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get into the verses. Who wrote this?
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It was not David, correct? No, the title identifies the
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author as Ethan the Ezraite. Ethan, OK, that is not a name
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that comes up in every Sunday school lesson.
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Do we know who he was? Well, there is some fascinating
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speculation in Spurgeon's notes on this.
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He suggests, based on some cross referencing in the Old
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Testament, that this might be the same person as Jedathan.
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Jed Dothan, the musician. The musician who served during
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David's reign, he was noted for his wisdom in Solomon's days.
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And if it is the same man, he likely lived long enough to see
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the troubles that began during the reign of Rehoboam.
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Wow. So just think about that for a
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second. If that is true, he spans the
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glory days of Dated, the absolute peak of wisdom and
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wealth under Solomon. The Golden Age.
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And then he lives to see the Kingdom literally split in two
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under Rehoboam. Precisely, and that context is
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vital for understanding the mood of the Psalm.
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This is a believer witnessing a national disaster.
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He is watching the apparent failure of the Davidic.
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Throne, The crown is in the dust.
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Literally, the 10 tribes have split off, the Egyptians are
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coming in and looting the temple.
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And yet, amidst all that ruin, he is pleading God's
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faithfulness. That tension is palpable in the
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text, isn't it? Right.
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It is not written from an ivory tower.
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It is written from the rubble. Yeah.
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Now there's a word in the title I want to ask you about,
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Michelle. Yes, Michelle of Ethan the
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Ezraite. What does that mean?
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It translates to instructive. This isn't just a song to make
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you feel good or to help you vent your emotions.
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It is a teaching song. And Spurgeon makes a very strong
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comment here. He says this Psalm is the key to
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all theology because it unlocks the covenant, the.
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Key to all theology. That is a bold statement.
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That is what he argues. He says that the person who is
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taught by the Holy Spirit to be clear upon the covenant of grace
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is a well instructed scribe, but he contrasts that with well with
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bad theology. He says the one who mixes, works
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and grace is scarcely fit to be a teacher of babes.
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A mingle mangle of works and grace.
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I think that is the phrase he uses.
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That is the one. It is a classic Puritan insult,
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but it carries A Heggy theological weight.
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If you mix your own performance with God's grace, you destroy
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the gospel. That is a great Reformed
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distinction right out of the gate.
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We are dealing with the covenant of grace here, so let's get into
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the text. Section 1, the song of mercy and
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faithfulness. It starts with verse one.
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I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever.
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It is a devout resolve and remember the context we just
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established. Things are falling apart
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politically and nationally. But Ethan says I will sing.
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Spurgeon has a beautiful line about this.
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He says synth sings but now and then.
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But Faith is an eternal songster.
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That is brilliant, isn't it, since our physical perception,
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our emotions, our reaction to the immediate environment only
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sings when things are going bad, when the sun is shining, when
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the bank account is full, Sun says God is good.
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Sure, easy to sing then. But faith sings when the
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Providence of God seems to frown.
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Faith knows that God's love has not changed just because the
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circumstances have. It is the difference between
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singing because you feel like it and singing because it's true.
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Correct. And notice he says he will make
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known God's faithfulness with his mouth.
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Yes, with my mouth will I make known life faithfulness to all
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generations. There is a distinction Spurgeon
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draws here between the mouth and the pen.
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Ethan spoke with his mouth, which has a certain warmth to
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it. The spoken word is immediate.
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It conveys the passion of the speaker to those standing right
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there. But he recorded it with his pen.
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Which gives it longevity. It lasts.
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Right. The mouth instructs the present
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generation. The pen instructs posterity.
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Spurgeon calls writers the schoolmasters of succeeding
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ages. We are reading this thousands of
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years later and benefiting from Etho's faith because he used his
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pen. And what he's writing about is
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the building of mercy. Verse 2 For I have said Murphy
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shall be built up forever. I love this architectural
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metaphor. Mercy is not this static thing.
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It is a glorious palace. It is an edifice being
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constructed over time, stone by stone.
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It is being built up continuously.
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And where is the foundation? That is the critical question
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for any builder, isn't it? Spurgeon points out that it is
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not built on Earth. Why not?
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What's wrong with an earthly foundation?
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Because Earth is fickle, it changes like the moon or the
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sea. If you build your hope on
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earthly circumstances or on the stability of a human government,
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the foundation is going to crack, the psalmist says.
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God establishes His faithfulness in the very heavens.
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It is immutable, unchanging. It is fixed, and for us, coming
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from a Reformed perspective, we see this building as the fabric
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of salvation. It is the church.
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It was planned from everlasting. It is not a makeshift Hut put up
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in hurry because Adam sin. It is a planned eternal
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structure. And the blueprint for this
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structure is the covenant. That brings us to verses 3 and
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4, which are really the heart of the matter.
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I have made a covenant with my chosen.
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I have sworn unto David, my servant.
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This is the covenant proper. Now, historically, the parties
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here are God and David. God promised David a dynasty.
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But theologically and typologically, who are we really
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talking about? We are talking about Christ, the
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true David, the greater David. That is the only way this Psalm
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makes sense. Spurgeon is very clear on this.
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David is the type but Jesus is the anti type and look at that
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word chosen. I have made a covenant with my
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chosen. We cannot escape the doctrine of
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election here, can we? You cannot.
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The Reformed view holds that God chooses the undertaker for the
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covenant. Man in his fallen state cannot
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contract for himself. We are bankrupt.
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We cannot sit across the table from God and negotiate terms.
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Right. It is not a bilateral
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negotiation where we bring our assets to the table.
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We don't have any, no. God chooses one who is mighty,
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He chooses Christ to represent the people, and the content of
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this oath is establishing the seed and the throne to all
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generations. So the stability of the covenant
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depends on God's choice, not man's performance.
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That is the anchor. If it depended on man's
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performance, the building would have collapsed in the Garden of
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Eden. Let's move to Section 2 then.
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We've established the covenant. Now the psalmist moves to the
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nature of the God who makes this covenant.
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Verse 5. And the heavens shall praise thy
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wonders, O Lord. This is cosmic praise.
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When he speaks of the heavens here, Spurgeon suggests he is
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referring to the angelic hosts. They're looking down at this
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plan of redemption, this covenant of grace, and they are
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prying into the mystery of it. And it mentions the Congregation
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of the Saints too. Which refers to the holy ones on
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earth. So you have this beautiful
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picture of the unity of the Church.
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The family in heaven and the family on earth are joining
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together to adore this covenant God.
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And the reason they are adoring him is found in verse 6.
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Who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord?
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This is the challenge. It's a rhetorical question, of
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course, but it's a powerful one. Bring out your best.
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Bring out the highest angels. Bring out the mightiest earthly
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Princess. Who can compare?
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The answer is obviously no one. But it is deeper than just God
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is better. Spurgeon notes that God is in a
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separate category entirely. It is not that he is at the top
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of the ladder. He is not on the ladder.
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He made the ladder. He made the ladder.
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He is distinct. He is wholly other.
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That distinctness leads to a very specific reaction in verse
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7. God is greatly to be feared in
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the assembly of the Saints. Now we need to unpack this word
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fear. In our modern context, fear
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usually means being scared of something that might hurt you.
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Like being afraid of a snake or a tyrant, that kind of fear.
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Right, that Spurgeon distinguishes between the fear
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which hath torment, that servile fear of a slave cowering before
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a master, and holy fear. Is that a good word for it?
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Yes, but it is a trembling aw, he says.
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Familiarity must be seasoned with reverence.
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Sometimes in our evangelical circles, we get a little too
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casual with God. We forget the holiness, Spurgeon
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says. Holiness creates awe.
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God is terrible in the assembly meeting, meaning he creates a
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sense of overwhelming magnitude. But at the same time, verse 8
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describes him as having faithfulness round about him.
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It is like a girdle, a belt. He cannot look in any direction
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without seeing his own faithfulness.
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It binds His attributes together.
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His power is faithful. His justice is faithful.
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His mercy is faithful. And this God, who is faithful
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and fearsome also has power over chaos.
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Thou rulest the raging of the sea, the.
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Sea is almost always a symbol of chaos in the ancient Aries.
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It represents the uncontrollable forces of nature and, well, the
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abyss. So like literal storms?
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Literally, yes. Think of the Red Sea or Jesus
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calming the Sea of Galilee. But metaphorically, Spurgeon
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connects this to the tumult of peoples, the fickle wills of
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men, the rage of the nations, the political instabilities that
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Ethan was watching in his own time.
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And the rage of hell. That too.
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He mentions Rahab here. Thou hast broken Rahab in
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pieces. He is not talking about the
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woman in Jericho. He is talking about Egypt.
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Egypt was the proud one, the sea monster.
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God crushed that power at the Exodus.
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So if he can crush Egypt and calm the sea, he can handle
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whatever political disaster Ethan is watching in his day.
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Exactly, the logic is you defeated the Dragon of the Sea.
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Surely you can handle the rebellion of 10 tribes, and the
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basis of this rule is found in verse 14.
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This is one of the most famous verses in the Psalm.
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Justice and judgement are the habitation of thy throne.
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The foundation, The basis. This is political theology at
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its best. Earthly tyrants rely on force.
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They rely on arbitrary will. I do this because I am the King.
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But God's sovereignty rests on equity.
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It rests on rectitude. He cannot be unjust.
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And then it says, Mercy and truth shall go before thy face.
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They are the heralds. They are the runners clearing
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the path. Spurgeon makes a great point
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here. If God came without mercy and
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truth paving the way, his coming would just be swift destruction
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for guilty man. We need mercy to run ahead of
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him. That is a beautiful image.
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The king is coming, but mercy is running ahead to get us ready so
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we are not consumed by the justice that sits on the throne.
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It changes everything about how we approach him.
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It does, and that leads us right into Section 3.
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Because if you know this God, you are a blessed people.
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Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound, the.
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Joyful sound. That is a very specific
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historical reference. It is the silver trumpets, isn't
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it? The Jubilee it.
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Is it is the trumpet of Jubilee? It is the sound that proclaims
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liberty and the Day of Atonement.
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But notice the verb. It doesn't say blessed are the
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people that hear the joyful sound.
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It says no. There is a world of difference.
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Many people hear the gospel. They hear the words, but few
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know the distinct note of free grace.
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Knowing implies distinguishing you know 1 sound from another.
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Yes, knowing the difference between the music of heaven and
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the noise of the world, Spurgeon talks about distinguishing truth
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from error. It is about recognizing the
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clear, unmixed note of grace versus the clouded note of works
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righteousness. If you think you hear the gospel
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but it sounds like do this and live, you don't know the joyful
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sound. And when you know that sound,
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what happens? They shall walk, O Lord, in the
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light of thy countenance. Walking.
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It is active. It is not sitting.
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It is not lying down. Spurgeon notes that this implies
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progressive motion. We are moving from sin to
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holiness. We are active in our faith
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because we have heard the music of grace.
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And where does our strength come from?
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Verse 17. For thou art the glory of their
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strength. This is pure Reformed doctrine.
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We are not exalted by our own righteousness.
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Spurgeon calls our own righteousness filthy rags.
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We are exalted in His righteousness.
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It mentions the horn and thy favor.
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Our horn shall be exalted. What's that about?
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That is an Eastern symbol. The horn represents power,
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confidence, dominion. Think of a wild ox lifting its
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head. But the believer's horn is not
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lifted up because of his own self-confidence.
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It is exalted only in God's favor.
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We hold our heads high because we are in covenant with the
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King. Which brings us back to the King
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himself. Section 4 is the vision of the
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Anointed 1. We're getting deeper into the
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mechanics of this covenant now. Verse 19 Than thou spakest
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envisioned to thy Holy one. This likely refers to the
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prophecy given to Nathan regarding David, but look at the
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description of the helper I have laid help upon, one that is
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mighty. And Spurgeon applies this
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directly to Christ he. Has to think about the vast
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undertaking of redemption. Could an Angel carry the weight
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of the world's sin? No, not a chance.
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Could a mere man? Definitely not.
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Would be crushed. It had to be one that is mighty.
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The Father chose a mighty one capable of sustaining that
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weight, but at the same time, it says He was chosen out of the
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people. So he is mighty, but he is one
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of us. That is the humanity of Christ.
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He's the man of the people, the second Adam.
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He represents us because He is of us, but He can save us
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because He is mighty. And he is anointed with holy
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oil. Which signifies the Spirit and
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the permanence of the calling. The Father says, With whom my
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hand shall be established. God is not going to change his
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mind about this Anointed 1. There is a promise here about
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the enemy to the enemy shall not exact upon him.
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That word exact is interesting. Is the language of usury like a
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creditor demanding payment? Like a loan shark coming to
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collect. Exactly.
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The promise is that the enemy Satan shall not be able to act
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like a usurious creditor towards Christ.
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Why? Because Christ paid the debt.
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Satan cannot demand more. It is finished.
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The books are balanced. That is powerful.
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And then God says I will make him my first born, higher than
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the kings of the earth. Now we need to clarify first
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born here in the ancient world and in Scripture.
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First born is not always about chronology, being the first one
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out of the womb, it is about rank.
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Priority preeminence, the one who gets the inheritance.
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It means the air, the one with the double portion, the one with
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the priesthood of the family. Christ is the first born over
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all creation. He's not a servant of earthly
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Princess, He is the King of Kings.
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And the covenant is made with him.
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Verse 28. My covenant shall stand fast
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with him. This is the security of the
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believer. Please, if you're listening,
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catch this. The covenant is made with the
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head, with Christ. It is not made directly with the
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unstable members. If the covenant depended on my
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stability, it would fall apart before lunch.
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Or before my first cup of coffee.
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Right. But it stands fast with Him, and
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because we are in Him, it stands fast for us.
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It is an objective reality, not a subjective feeling.
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But that raises a huge question, and this is Section 5.
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What happens when we mess up Because we do Verse 30 if his
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children forsake my law. And this is where the rubber
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meets the road. This passage contemplates the
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reality of believers falling into sin.
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It's as if they forsake my statutes.
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It is a realistic view of the Christian life.
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Spurgeon has a critique here of some expositors, doesn't he?
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Yes, he says, some expositors who are afraid of Calvinistic
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doctrine try to add conditions here.
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They try to say, well, if they sin too much they lose the
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covenant. But the text is absolute.
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It supposes the sin, and then it tells you exactly what God will
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do about it. And what does he do verse 32
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then? Will I visit their transgression
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with the rod? The rod, not the sword.
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That's the key. What is the distinction?
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The sword is for execution, it is judicial.
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It is for the criminal, the enemy.
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The rod is for discipline, it is parental, it is for the child.
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So God punishes sin and his children.
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Absolutely, Spurgeon says. God hates sin too much much not
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to punish it and his children. In fact, He might discipline his
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children more strictly in this life because this is the only
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hell we will ever know. He visits the transgression in
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the house. But he does not cast them out of
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the house, no. That is the nevertheless of
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verse 33. Nevertheless, my loving kindness
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will I not utterly take from Him.
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Wait a minute, look at the pronoun there.
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Take from him, not them. That is the key.
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It does not say I won't take it from them.
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It says I won't take it from Him, from Christ.
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Our safety is bound up in the Father's love for the Son.
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God cannot withdraw His love from us without withdrawing it
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from Christ, because we are in Christ.
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That is mind blowing. It makes the discipline safe.
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It hurts, but it is safe. There's a net.
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It creates a safety net of grace.
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My covenant will I not break. It is God's own covenant.
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If he breaks it, he becomes a covenant breaker.
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And he is sworn by His Holiness. Verse 35 Once if I sworn by my
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holiness, God pledges his own character.
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If he breaks the covenant, he forfeits His Holiness.
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That is an impossibility. He would cease to be God.
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He also calls the moon as a witness, a faithful witness in
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heaven. I love this image.
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The moon changes, it wanes, it gets dark, sometimes you can
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barely see it. Like the church?
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Or like our own faith sometimes. Exactly.
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Sometimes the Church is an obscurity.
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Sometimes it is in trouble. Sometimes our personal faith is
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waning. But the moon is still there.
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It is still a faithful witness in the sky.
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It does not fall out of orbit just because it is dark.
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It reflects the sun even when we cannot see it clearly, that is.
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Such a comfort but, and here comes the big but Section 6.
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We have had all this glorious theology, all these promises and
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then verse 38 hits like a freight train.
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But thou has cast off an abhorred.
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This is the great contradiction. This is the Mashil, the
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instruction of the Psalm. We have to learn how to deal
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with this. The psalmist is looking at the
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promise, an eternal throne, and then he looks at the Providence.
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The crown is in the dust. It says Thou has profaned his
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crown, thou has broken down all his hedges, the defenses are
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gone. The Vineyard is open to
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spoilers. It looks like total defeat.
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The days of his youth hast thou shortened.
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It looks like premature decay. The Kingdom is falling apart
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before it even reached its prime.
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And the psalmist is not afraid to say thou has done this.
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He attributes it to God. He's not blaming chance.
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That is the Reformed perspective.
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We do not pretend the devil did this behind God's back.
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Faith is allowed to argue with God.
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We can point to the Word and then point to the world and say
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Lord, These two things do not seem to match.
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Spurgeon says the visible church often looks like a ruin.
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Truth seems to be dying out. He felt this in his day.
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We feel it in hours. You look around and see heresy
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or scandal or decline and you cry out, Lord, you promised the
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gates of hell would not prevail. Why are the hedges broken down?
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That cry leads right to the plea in Section 7.
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How long, Lord, wilt thou hide thyself forever?
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He argues from the brevity of life, Remember how short my time
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is? He's saying, Lord, I do not have
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forever to see this turn around. I am dying here.
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It's an urgent, almost desperate plea.
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Then he asked a very philosophical question.
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Wherefore has thou made all men in vain?
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This is the stakes. If the covenant fails, creation
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is a blot. If the gospel is disproved,
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existence is a cruel joke. A bell, Spurgeon calls it just
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empty noise. If there is no redemption, if
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there is no resurrection, then why are we here just to suffer
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and die? If the promise is a lie, then
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humanity was made in vain. He points to the universality of
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death. What man is he that liveth, and
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shall not see death the. Inevitability of the grave
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serves as a plea for mercy now, before it is too late.
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It's an argument of desperation, but also of logic.
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Lord, act now, because we're all heading for the grave.
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And then he talks about the reproach.
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Reproach, the footsteps of line anointed.
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What does that mean? This is fascinating.
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The enemies are mocking, but what are they mocking?
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They are mocking the footsteps. The footsteps, it can be
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interpreted as the tardiness or the delay of the Messiah's
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coming. They are saying where is He?
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You said He was coming to set things right.
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We do not hear his footsteps. So it's the classic taunt.
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Where is the promise of his coming?
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Exactly. The Church bears this reproach
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in her bosom. We carry the pain of a world
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that laughs at our hope. They say your God is not doing
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anything. But how does the Psalm end after
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all this complaint, after all this arguing, this raw emotion?
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Where does he land? It does not end in despair, it
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ends in a doxology. Verse 52.
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Blessed be the Lord forevermore. Amen and Amen.
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Spurgeon says the psalmist sails around the world of grief and
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reaches port again. That is the victory of faith.
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He blesses God in the winter as well as the summer.
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He has not received the answer yet.
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The crown is still in the dust, but he seals his prayer with
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Amen and Amen. He trusts the character of God
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even when he cannot trace the hand of God.
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So let's just recap this survey we've done.
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We started on the heights of the covenant.
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Mercy built up in the heavens, established with Christ.
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We saw the incomparable God, the one who rules the chaos.
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We heard the joyful sound of grace.
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Then we saw the security of the believer that even when we are
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disciplined with the rod, we are never cut off from the love of.
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God. And then we descended into the
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valley of the shadow, the crown profane, the apparent failure of
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the promise, the mockery of the world.
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And finally we landed back on the rock of Doxology.
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Blessed be the Lord. It is a complete theology of the
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Christian life. It acknowledges the high
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doctrines of sovereignty and election, but it is totally
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honest about the gritty reality of suffering and confusion.
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And the core reformed comfort in all of this?
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What's the main take away? It is that the covenant stands
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fast with Christ. It does not depend on the
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stability of the Davidic throne in Jerusalem.
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It does not depend on the stability of my own performance.
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It depends on the oath God swore to His Holy One, and that oath
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cannot be broken. Before we go, there's one last
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thought I want to leave our listeners with.
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Spurgeon mentioned something about those footsteps in verse
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51. Yes, he connects reproaching the
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footsteps to Genesis 3.15. The proto gospel.
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The very first hint of the good news, the promise that the
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serpent would bruise the heel. The footsteps of the seed of the
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woman. So the enemy's reporting the
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heels of the Anointed. Is actually the fulfillment of
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the oldest promise. The bruising of the heel is not
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the defeat of the Messiah, it is the very method of his victory.
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So is your current suffering or the church's current struggle
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just the bruise that proves the victory?
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That is a question worth chewing on.
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Thank you for listening to Reformed Thinking.
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We encourage you to pick up Spurgeon's Treasury of David and
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read the full text. It is a goldmine.
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Absolutely. Keep thinking.
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And keep believing.