Episode Transcript
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Ay Man, you may be seated. As we turned to psalm eighty nine
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this morning. It's a rather lengthy
psalm. It's fifty two versus long,
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and, knowing that I was just
going to be with you just this one
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day, I thought Psalm Eighty nine
this morning goes so well with Psalm Ninety
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for this evening. So we'll see
how these two psalms today really hang together
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and rely upon one another. So, Psalm Eighty nine, listen, for
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this is the word of the Lord. I will sing of the steadfast love
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of the Lord forever. With my
mouth I will make known your faithfulness to
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all generations, for, I said, steadfast love will be built up forever
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in the heavens. You Will Establish
Your faithfulness, you have said, I've
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made a covenant with my Chosen One. I have sworn to David, my
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servant, I will establish your offspring
forever and build your throne for all generations.
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Let the heavens praise your wonders,
Oh Lord, your faithfulness in the
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assembly of the holy ones. For
who in the skies can compare to the
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Lord? WHO, among the heavenly
beings, is, like the Lord,
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a God greatly to be feared in
the counsel of the Holy Ones and and
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awesome above all, who are around
him. O Lord, God of hosts,
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who is mighty as you are.
O Lord, with your faithfulness all
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around you, you rule the raging
of the sea. When its waves rise,
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you still them. You crushed Rahab
like a carcass. You scattered your
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enemies with your mighty arm. The
Heavens are yours. The Earth also is
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yours, the world and all that
is in it, you have founded them,
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the north and the south, you
have created them. Tabor and Hermann
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joyously praise your name. You have
a mighty arm. Strong is your hand,
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high, your right hand. Righteousness
and justice are the foundation of your
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throne. Steadfast, love and faithfulness
go before you. Blessed are the people
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who know the festal shout, who
walk, O Lord, in the light
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of your face, who exult in
your name all the day and in your
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righteousness, are exalted, for you
are the glory of their strength. By
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your favor, our Horn is exalted, for our shield belongs to the Lord,
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our King, to the holy one
of Israel. Of Old. You
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spoke in a vision to your godly
one and said, I have granted help
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to one who is mighty, I
have Exalted One chosen from the People.
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I have found David my servant.
With my holy oil. I have anointed
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him so that my hand shall be
established with him. My arm also shall
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strengthen him. The enemy shall not
out with him, the wicked shall not
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humble him. I will crush his
foes before him and strike down those who
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hate him. My faithfulness and my
steadfast love shall be with him, and
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in my name shall his horn be
exalted. I will set his hand on
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the sea and his right hand on
the rivers. He shall cry to me,
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you are my father, my God
and the rock of my salvation,
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and I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the Kings of the
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earth. My steadfast love I will
keep for him forever and my covenant will
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stand firm for him. I will
establish his offspring forever and his throne as
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the days of the heavens. If
it's children forsake my law and do not
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walk according to my rules, if
they violate my statutes and do not keep
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my commandments, that I will punish
their transgressions with the rod and their iniquity
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with stripes. But I will not
remove from him my steadfast love or be
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false to my faithfulness. I will
not violate my covenant or alter the word
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that went forth from my lips once
for all. I have sworn by my
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holiness. I will not lie to
David. His offspring shall endure forever.
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His throne as long as the sun
before me, like the moon, it
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shall be established forever, a faithful
witness in the skies. But now you
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have cast off and rejected. You
are full of Wrath against your anointed.
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You have removed the covenant. Renounce
the Covenant With Your Servant. You've defiled
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his crown in the dust. You
have breached all his walls. You have
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laid his strongholds in ruins. All
who pass by plunder him. He has
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become the scorn of his neighbors.
You have exalted the right hand of his
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foes. You've made all his enemies
rejoice. You've also turned back the edge
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of his sword. You have not
made him stand in battle. You've made
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his splendor to cease and cast his
throne to the ground. You have cut
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short to the days of his youth. You have covered him with shame.
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How Long, O Lord, will
you hide yourself forever? How long will
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your wrath burn like fire. Remember
how short my time is for advantity.
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You've created all the children of Man. What man can live and never see
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death? Who can deliver his soul
from the power of show? Oh Lord,
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where is your steadfast love of old
which, by Your faithfulness, you
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swore to David? Remember, Oh
Lord, how your servants are mocked and
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how I bear in my heart the
insults of all the many nations with which
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your enemies mock, oh Lord,
with which they mock the footsteps of your
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anointed. Blessed be the Lord Forever. Men and I'm in. As we
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see this, eighty nine psalm is
is rather long, isn't it? Fifty
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two verses Long. Some came commentators
even suggests that what we have here is
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not one song, but it's actually
two psalms which have sort of been run
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up together. But it's not because
of their length that they think you have
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two psalms here side by side.
There are psalms that are much longer than
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the psalm eighty nine. The reason
some suggest that there's is actually two psalms
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is because of how different this beginning
of the psalm is from from how it
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ends as we read it. Did
you notice that rather jarring turn this psalm
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takes about midway through. What I
want us to see this morning is not
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only does this singular psalm belong together, we'll see that this unity serves a
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purpose and we're supposed to feel this
tension this psalm creates as well. For
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you see, it's this very tension
which brings us to our knees before the
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Lord, like the Psalmist, and
there causes us to further marvel that his
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steadfast love. So as we look
at this psalm, we ought to be
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aware of its setting, and not
just as historical setting. I mean the
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setting of this psalm within this salter, for the Book of Psalms is actually
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broken up into five books, and
these five books offer a structure, they
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offer a direction within this salter,
and our psalm this morning is the final
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Psalm of book three. Tonight we'll
look at Psalm Ninety, the first Psalm
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of book for of the PSALTER.
And if you look in your bibles between
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Psalm Eighty nine and ninety, you
should see a little title right. Book
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Book for begins there. So why
does this matter? What structure do these
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five books create? Will Book One
is highly focused on King David. He
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is the Lord's anointed, and book
one is written almost entirely by David himself.
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Book two culminates at the end of
David's life with David's final psalm,
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Psalm seventy two. That's a prayer
for David's son, King Solomon. There
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David is longing for the Lord to
fulfill his promise that he will establish the
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throne of his son forever. And
Book Three here now concludes in Psalm Eighty
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Nine, which brings us not simply
to the end of David's life but what
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appears to be the end of David's
household. This appears to be the end
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of David's dynasty, the end of
his kingdom, for this psalm ends with
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destruction. This psalm ends with confusion. And this terrible conclusion is all made
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all the more terribly because of where
this psalm begins. This psalm, which
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will end in deep lament, begins
in triumphant praise. Look at first one.
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I will sing of the steadfast love
of the Lord forever. With my
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mouth I will make known your faithfulness
to all generations. This is a psalm
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that begins with eternal praise. I
will sing forever, says the PSALMIST.
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And why are these praises eternal,
as verse two sets is, for I
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said, steadfast love will be built
up forever in the heavens. You Will
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Establish Your faithfulness. The eternal phrases
of the psalmist are in response to the
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Lord's Eternal Love and faithfulness. It's
because God's love is forever in the heavens,
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which means it cannot be attacked,
torn down, removed. It's fixed,
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it's certain. And how does the
Psalmist know of the Lord's steadfast love?
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How does he know of this eternal
faithfulness? How would anyone of us
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know if God himself didn't reveal it
to us? Is What he says in
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verses three and four. You have
said, you have said, I made
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a covenant with my Chosen One.
I have sworn to David, my servant,
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I will establish your offspring forever and
build your throne for all generations.
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And these opening verses then introduce us
to the theme the first half of this
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song, the theme of God's Steadfast
Love God's faithfulness, which is expressed in
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his covenant with David. These two
things characterize the joy found in this opening
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half of the Psalm. First,
for shown that God's steadfast love and faithfulness
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is itself caused for praise. These
opening praises begin by delighting in the Lord,
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who is himself the ruler of all
things. He is the one who
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creates, he's the one who delivers. He is both mighty because he is
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mighty to save. Verse Thirteen says
you have a mighty arm, strong as
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your hand, hi, your right
hand. Righteousness and justice are the foundation
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of your throne. Steadfast love and
faithfulness go before you. God's kingdom is
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characterized by his own steadfast, Certain
Love, his certain faithfulness. But the
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way he rules his kingdom is through
steadfast love and righteousness. Verse One told
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us the Psalmist desire to sing of
the love and faithfulness of the Lord.
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And now don't you hear how he's
doing that very thing he desires to do
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for our shield, verse eighteen.
For our shield belongs to the Lord,
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our King, to the holy one
of Israel. As our shield, he
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is our resting place. As our
shield, he is our defender, he
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is our protection, because our security
is not found in what we can do
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for ourselves, but in his securing
us. And then in verse nineteen,
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as the Psalm begins to describe God's
Covenantal promise to David. There's no division
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taking place here at Verse Nineteen,
as he now describes the promises God gave
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to David. He's not contrasting these
things with the Lord's power and majesty over
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all creation. He's uniting these ideas. The same steadfast love and faithfulness established
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in the heavens is now being established
in David, and that's not a contradiction.
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They're one in the same sous of
God is ruling over here and now
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saying okay, David, you get
this half over there. Don't you see?
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The way in which God will rule
over the heavens and the earth with
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his steadfast love and faithfulness will be
through David, through his anointed. His
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first nineteen says of old. You
spoken a vision to your godly one and
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said, I have granted help to
one who is mighty. I Have Exalted
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One chosen from the People. I
have found David my servant. With my
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holy oil. I have anointed him
so that my hand shall be established with
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him. My arm also shall strengthen
him. The enemy shall not out with
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him, the wicked shall not humble
him, just as the Lord Establishes Justice
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in the heavens, the Lord will
also establish justice on the earth, and
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he will do so through his servant, through David. Here we're drawn all
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the way back to the imagery of
Psalm. To David is the Lord's anointed,
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he's the Lord's Messiah. This Messiah
will be the ruler over the nation's
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back in Psalm too, ver seven, I will tell the decree. The
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Lord said to me, you are
my son. Today I've begotten you.
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Ask of me and I will make
the nation's your heritage, the ends of
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the Earth your possession. WHO's how
similar this is to verses twenty six to
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twenty eight of Psalm Eighty nine.
He shall cry to me, you are
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my father, my God and the
rock of my salvation, and I will
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make him the firstborn, the highest
of the Kings of the earth. My
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steadfast love I will keep for him
forever and my covenant will stand firm for
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him. The title given to David
Here's not only Messiah or anointed. He's
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also given the title son of God. He's given the title firstborn. How
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is it the David could ever be
considered firstborn? If you recall, David
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wasn't even the firstborn of his own
house. He was the youngest of the
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sons of Jesse. Now God declaring
him firstborn doesn't refer to the timing of
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his birth, refers to his position. To See, it's the firstborn son
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who receives the father's inheritance, it's
the firstborn who is in that primary position,
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and the crown of the king goes
to the first born. The psalmost
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is recalling odd's covenant. So promises
to David for God's promise to David and
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second and second Samuel seven is quoted
almost exactly here in this palm. For
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in Second Samuel Seven, what did
God promise concerning David's offspring? So we
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find here in Verse Twenty Nine.
I will establish his offspring forever and his
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throne as the days of the heavens. Second Samuel Warren's will happen if David's
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children disobeyed, when we find here
in verse thirty if his Children Forsake my
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law, do not walk according to
my rules, if they violate my statutes
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and do not keep my commandments,
then I will punish their transgressions with the
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Rod, their iniquity with stripes.
And Verse Thirty Three reminds us. But
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I will not remove from him my
steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness.
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I will not violate my covenant or
alter the word that went forth from
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my lips. Don't you here,
then, the unconditional character of this promise?
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God is the one making this oath, for even if David's descendants prove
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unfaithful, God will not violate his
oath. He will not lie to David.
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As verse thirty six says, his
offspring shall endure forever, his throne,
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as long as the sun before me, like the moon, it shall
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be established forever, a faithful witness
in the skies. The first half of
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this psalm has been an incredible,
joyful celebration of our God, who makes
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promises, who keeps his word.
Here God's steadfast love and his faithfulness are
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on full display. Our God is
a god of promise, who who is
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faithful to his name, who is
faithful to his word, and for the
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opening thirty seven verses of this Psalm, this fact of God keeping his steadfast
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love is marveled at. It is, it is rejoiced in, it's declared,
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it's announced, it is it is
joyfully proclaimed. The Joy and the
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majesty that is ascribed to the Lord
here, God's rule and his kingship is
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truly worthy of praise. That God
enters into a covenant with David, through
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which he will bring peace to the
nation's God's unconditional promise truly is worthy of
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praise. He keeps his word,
he does not lie, which is what
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makes the things that come next so
shocking. For thirty seven verses, God
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has been praised with very intentional language. Right Eternal, steadfast love set in
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the heavens forever? Or is his
faithfulness like the moon? It shall be
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established forever, a faithful witness in
the skies. And then verse thirty eight
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hits like a sledgehammer. But now
you have cast off and rejected. You
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are full of Wrath against your anointed. You have renounced the Covenant With Your
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Servant. You have defiled his crown
in the dust. You've reached all his
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walls. You've laid his strongholds in
ruins. All who pass plunder him.
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He has become the scorn of his
neighbors. You've exalted the right hand of
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his foes. You've made his enemies
rejoice. You've turned back the edge of
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his sword you've not made him stand
in battle. You've made his splendor to
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cease and cast his throne to the
ground. You've cut short the days of
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his youth. You've covered him with
shame. After everything we've seen in the
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first half of this psalm, could
you think of any words more unexpected than
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this? You have renounced the Covenant
With Your Servant. What is it?
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The God has just been praised for
his eternal word, his eternal steadfast love.
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This psalm so quickly turns from phrase
to lament. What did you this
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is not just a speed bump.
Is Not as a slight de too her
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he's taking he's hitting a brick wall
and a hundred miles an hour. The
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difference between the beginning and the ending
of this psalm is drastic and we shouldn't
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be so quick to sort of try
and resolve this tension. I know you're
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trying to do it right now.
I would be too. Maybe you enjoy
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a good puzzle and good mystery.
Your minds are already starting working on how
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this piece fits with that piece.
The Stop for a moment, stop trying
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to fix the tension, because you
first need to see that this tension is
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no accident. It's intentional. It's
not like our author, for God's what
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he just wrote before. The Lord
has given us this tension and wants us
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to dwell within this tension for God's
Love and his faithfulness. His promise to
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David and his esteb as as descendants, his promise to establish his throne,
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his affirmations that he will not lie, all these things make the lament here
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at the end that much more shocking, that much more eye opening, not
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just the differences that have taken place. Instead of David being the highest of
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the kings of the earth with an
enduring throne, we hear that both the
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throne and the crown are cast to
the dust. Instead of David's right hand
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ruling the seas and the rivers,
it's the right hand of his enemies who
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are being exalted. Instead of the
Horn of David being held up in victory,
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the kingdom experiences humility, defeat shame. This is what the Psalm is
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struggling with. The situation before Israel
is her own defeat at the hands of
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the Babylonians, and this is the
question that confronts all of Israel when faced
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with her own exile being removed from
the Promised Land. Aren't they left wondering
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what happened to the Kingdom? What
happens to God's throne? Nations rise and
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fall all the time in the balance
of history. Great nations even shift.
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Great nations will break and fall apart. But what is so devastating about what
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happens to Israel's not that she's just
another nation, for to know other nation
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did the Lord Promise to defend,
protect and defend her in this way?
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Upon no other nation did our Lord
place his name and his presence. Israels
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not just wrestling with the crumbling of
her nation at the hands of her enemies?
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What she's dealing with is her defeat
at the hands of the Lord himself.
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And so what is so devastating about
what happens to Israel is the height
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from which David's throne fell. Did
you see this tension here in this psalm?
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This is none other than the Lord's
anointed who has been driven into the
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dirt. The son of God,
Worthy of glory and power and praise,
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is now mocked in insulted. And
the question before Israel is how can that
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be? How can God's wrath turn
against his own? David, his first
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born. So we need to see
in this language of fallenness, the language
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of curse, and this language itself
draws us back to a much earlier fall
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and of far greater curse. You
see, this catastrophic fall of David's throne
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calls us back to that very first
fall into sin. This language here of
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God's son, God's first born,
this very language is what draws us back
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to the person of Adam. The
inheritance of this land reminds us of the
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Garden of Eden. There Adam was
called to rule and to reign over creation
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as a son of God, as
God's image bearer. The fall of David's
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throne, the failure and the curse
upon Israel, calls US right back to
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the fall of Adam. For is
in that first fall that the one who
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had been created perfect and righteous and
holy, with dominion over the creatures,
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would return to the dust, didn't
he? And when you see that this
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ultimate tension behind this psalm begins in
the garden, you also see that it
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begins to make sense. On its
face, it looks like a contradiction,
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doesn't it? On the one hand
God is faithful, on the other hand
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God is unfaithful. When we see
Israel pointing back to Adam and how Israel's
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failure is like Adam's failure in the
garden. Only then can we see what
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this psalm is really looking forward to, notice how this lament ends in Verse
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Forty Six. How Long, Oh
Lord, will you hide yourself forever?
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How long will your wrath burn like
fire? Remember how short my time is,
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for what vanity you've created all the
children of Man. What man can
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live and never see death? Who
can deliver his soul from the power of
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show the problem facing that children of
men, or it's as the children of
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man, which in the Hebrew would
be Adam. The problem facing the children
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of Adam is sin, that first
sin which brought God's curse upon death,
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the curse of death, that first
sin which makes us all born as sinners,
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born under sins guilt, born under
sins power. What this psalm is
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truly struggling with is the reality of
sin, the reality of death itself,
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and this is why Israel is brought
to her knees. She was called to
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be a holy nation, she was
called to dwell in the presence of a
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holy God in this Holy Land.
Yet due to her sin, due to
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her failure, she was exiled,
she was cast out. So sin and
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death are the problem. In fact, Sin and death is what seems even
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to contradict God's eternal promises to David. What does God promise to David and
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his descendants? An eternal throne,
a kingdom that lasts forever, so that
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for God to be faithful to David, for God to establish a throne and
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a kingdom that lasts forever, this
problem of death must be dealt with.
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Sin And death must be dealt with, and the solution to this tension can
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only be found when we recognize the
tension for what it is. God has
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promised his steadfast love, he has
promised his faithfulness, and yet sin and
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death remain and seem to contradict that
promise. And so amazingly, don't you
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see how this psalm resolves this tension
within the words of this Psalm itself?
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Don't you hear the Gospel itself resonating
within the difficult words of this psalm?
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Do you hear the Psalm, in
both its praise and its lament, taking
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us directly to our knees so that
we would see our need for Christ?
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God has promised to be faithful to
his anointed. And yet the Lord's anointed
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is not ultimately David, it's not
Solomon, it's not found in any the
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kings of Israel, who only brought
further sin and rebellion and notely brought the
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curse and wrath of God. The
Psalm is pointing US away from Israel's history
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of kings and drawing us to Israel's
final king, for the solution to sin
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and death itself is found in that
offspring, the one promised to David,
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the same one promised to Abraham,
the same one promised even to Adam and
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to eve, an offspring who would
right all wrongs, who would deliver from
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death. The longings of this psalm
are answered in no other way than in
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Christ himself, the true son of
David, the true second Adam. So
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here we are shown our utter need
for deliverance, delivers not only from the
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sorrows and the pains of this world, delivers not only from sin and death,
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but deliverance from the wrath and the
curse of God himself. His tension
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between God's oath of love and his
curse against sin is resolved in Christ.
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In Christ, the Lord will remain
faithful to his promise to David. For
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the one who promises an eternal throne
to David is also the one who is
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born into the Line of David,
to be born under the law. Christ
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the LAWGIVER becomes Christ the law receiver. In Christ, the Lord of the
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Covenant Becomes the Faithful Servant of that
covenant. In Christ, the true and
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eternal son of God, becomes the
son of man, in order that he
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might be called son of God,
in order that he might be declared the
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firstborn of all creation, not because
of some temporal beginning to his existence,
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but because of his office. For
Christ is the one who can came in
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fulfillment of Verse Twenty Five. There
God says, I will set his hand
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upon the sea, his right hand
upon the rivers. Christ come doing this
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very thing, ruling over the seas. He came, displaying his power,
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his authority, as he walked on
the waters and calm the storms, as
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he healed the sick and raise the
dead. Christ is the true son of
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David's, worthy of the throne.
As Paul says in first or cautions one,
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Verse Fifteen, he is the image
of the invisible God, the firstborn
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of all creation. For by him
all things were created in heaven and on
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Earth, visible and an invisible,
whether thrones or dominions, or rulers or
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authorities, all things were created through
him and for him, and he is
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be for all things, and in
him all things hold together. And he
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is the head of a body,
the church. He is the beginning,
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the firstborn from the dead, that
on everything he might be pre eminent.
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In his earthly ministry, Christ's power
and authority over creation were on full display.
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And yet what culminated his ministry?
How did it end? It ended
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at the Cross, for Christ also
came not just to rule but to suffer,
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not to be served but to serve. As this psalm proclaims to us
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are desperate need for a savior,
it also tells us what that savior must
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undergo. As the Psalm laments David
being cast off, we're given a foretaste
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of Christ, who was truly cast
off. As the Psalm depicts God's wrath
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turned against Israel, we get a
picture of Christ upon whom God set the
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fullness of his wrath. It's Christ
who was scorned. He's the one who
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was mocked, as the right hand
of his enemies seemed to triumph. But
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this was not the final word for
Christ, as his empty tomb shows us,
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his suffering was sufficient, and it
shows us that he was not suffering
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for his own sin, but for
your sin and for mine, as he
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was raised on that third day.
It shows us that his suffering was enough,
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for Christ's earthly ministry did not end
in suffering, suffering and ended in
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victory through his suffering at the cross. The wrath and curse of God poured
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out on the Messiah is precisely where
God's steadfast love and faithfulness are on full
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display, and we get a glimpse
of this hope even here in psalm eighty
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nine. For this psalm does end
with lament, it ends with confusion,
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but it also ends with this,
these words in verse fifty two. Blessed
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be the Lord Forever, Amen and
Amen, so that even in the midst
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of Israel's uncertainty, even in the
midst of suffering and confusion, even here
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we are taught how to lament,
we're taught how to dwell within this tension
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of great praise and deep sorrow,
were to find great comfort in this psalm
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of praise because of the Lord's Steadfast
Love and faithfulness, and we're to find
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great comfort in this psalm of lament, for here we are shown our savior,
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who alone is mighty to save and
mighty to undergo the curse that our
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sin deserves. And here we are
instructed that, even in uncertainty, even
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in a world where God rules over
all things to day by his power and
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might, we still live in a
world of tensions, and I don't mean
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distresses or difficulties. We still live
in a world will we face this fundamental
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problem which Psalm Eighty nine highlights,
that image bearers of God return to the
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dust and to the grave. Isn't
this tension even more real for believers?
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Don't we believe that Christ has conquered
sin, that he has conquered death itself?
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When we look around, what do
we see? A world filled with
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sin, a world filled with death. When we look inside ourselves, what
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do we see? People who are
still filled with sin and who still die.
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This is the tension of psalm eighty
nine. This is the real tension
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we face in this life, and
what this psalm taches us is that lamenting
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is not a sin. Sometimes we
can get pious and think that it's questioning
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God and to ask God why,
or that asking how long is improper.
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But we see here that this is
an absolutely proper response to uncertainty. God's
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Word itself guides our response in this
very way. Rebellion is when we use
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such uncertainties to turn away from the
Lord rather than to turn to him and
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trust in him, even while struggling
with matters of God's faithfulness. Where does
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this psalmist go? Who is he
addressing? He's addressing the Lord. He's
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addressing the Lord in confusion as well
as in hope. So truly, we
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too can lament. Truly we can
mourn sin and mourn death and mourn the
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tensions that we feel and experience between
the Lord, our head, who is
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in heaven, glorious and reigning,
and the struggles and sins and death we
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face in this life. But knowing
that when we do lament, when we
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do cry out, we cry out
to the Lord, we cry out in
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hope, we can trust that God
here's even these prayers, for we are
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shown in Christ how God will restore
all things. We may not understand the
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the particulars of this life, we
can't always make sense of the uncertainties and
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the struggles, but we do see
is Christ. In Him we find one
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who has conquered sin and death,
and, as we are found in him,
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we come with the assurance that this
life is not the end and that
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he will return. So, even
in this season which celebrates the birth of
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Christ, we may still cry out, how long, O Lord, how
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long till you come back? How
long till you restore all things? For
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this is ultimately the cry of faith. This is ultimately the cry of a
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people who are confident in God to
both here that prayer and who will respond.
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Amen, let's pray.
