Psalm 89:3-4 – “I have made a covenant with My chosen, I have sworn to My servant David: ‘Your seed I will establish forever, and build up your throne to all generations.’”
Psalm 89:19-21 – “Then You spoke in a vision to Your holy one, and said: ‘I have given help to one who is mighty; I have exalted one chosen from the people. I have found My servant David; with My holy oil I have anointed him, with whom My hand shall be established; also My arm shall strengthen him.’”
- Ethan, the psalmist of Psalm 89, writes about the Lord’s everlasting mercies and faithfulness as he remembers the covenant that the Lord made with King David. David was chosen, exalted, anointed, established, and strengthened by the Lord as king of His people. Partial fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant is through David’s son Solomon; however, it will be perfectly fulfilled through the Lord’s son, Jesus Christ. Jesus’s mother, Mary, will descend from the lineage of King David’s son, Nathan; and Mary’s husband, Joseph, will descend from the lineage of King David’s son, Solomon. When we get to the Book of Matthew, we will see that Matthew calls Jesus the Son of David before listing His genealogy (Matthew 1:1).
Psalm 89:27-29 – “Also I will make him My firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. My mercy I will keep for him forever, and My covenant shall stand firm with him. His seed also I will make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven.”
- The Lord took Jesse’s youngest son, David, and made Him His firstborn son. God already said through the Patriarch Jacob, while he was on his deathbed in Egypt, that a king would come from the lineage of his son, Judah, and he would have an everlasting kingdom (Genesis 49:10). David was chosen by God as this firstborn king from the line of Judah. However, David’s life is just a foreshadow of the coming King, King Jesus. Paul will later call Jesus Christ the firstborn – “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29). Jesus is coming to die so that we may have life. After Jesus is crucified, He will rise from the grave three days later making Him the firstborn of many. Therefore, anyone who trust in Christ can have hope that they too will rise from the dead.
Psalm 89:30-37- “If his sons forsake My law and do not walk in My judgments, if they break My statutes and do not keep My commandments, then I will punish their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless My lovingkindness I will not utterly take from him, nor allow My faithfulness to fail. My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips. Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David: his seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before Me; It shall be established forever like the moon, even like the faithful witness in the sky.”
- When we read about the life of King Solomon and David’s descendants, we will discover that they will forsake the law and neglect the ways of the Lord; and there will be consequences because of their disobedience. However, the Lord will never break His covenant with King David. This seed that shall endure forever is the seed that the Lord promised to send back in the garden after the serpent deceived Adam and Eve. When Adam and Eve listened to the voice of the serpent instead of the voice of the Lord, sin entered the world. However, God didn’t leave them in their sin state without hope. The Lord promised to send a seed of a woman who would come and crush the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15). That seed is Jesus Christ who is coming from the outside as God and will be born by Mary, a descendant of King David. Jesus will come once and defeat death but He will come back one day for ultimate victory over Satan. Satan will be bound and thrown into the lake of fire along with anyone who rejects Christ; but for those who accept Jesus as their Savior, they shall never perish (Revelation 20-21).
So when Ethan says, “What man can live and not see death? Can he deliver his life from the power of the grave?” (Psalm 89:48)… We know the answer! Jesus Christ! And since Jesus defeated death, we can live our lives with hope that there is way more in store for us than what this shattered world has to offer. We can look with anticipation to the Day that we will stand face to face with our Lord and Creator.
Therefore, just as Paul will later write from prison to his disciple Timothy, we too can suffer for a moment knowing that one day the Lord will take us home – “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day” (2 Timothy 1:8-12).
May we live our lives with our focus on that Day, the Day we stand before the Lord. Keep reading.
(Psalms 144-145, Psalms 88-89)
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Chronological Bible in Layman's Terms 