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How good it is to realize and believe that:
". . . . . My loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer My faithfulness to
fail. My covenant will I not break (profane), nor alter the thing that is gone out of My
lips. Once have I sworn by My holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall
endure for ever and his throne as the sun before Me. It shall be established for ever as the
moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah" (Psa. 89: 33-37).
Note carefully what is said. God will not break this covenant of grace with David or
alter it in any way. So important is this that the God of truth takes an oath on it. There
are expositors who wish to get rid of the literal Israel and apply all the promises of God to
the church in which case God would have altered what He has here stated. We have the
N.T. assurance that the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance (i.e. change of
mind on His part, Rom. 11: 29). These facts make havoc of those ideas of the
spiritualizers who often do so much damage to the interpretation of the Word of God.
The last section of the Psalm possibly refers to Jehoiachin as the king in verses 43-45.
This youth was only 18 years of age when he came to the throne (II Kings 24: 8) and he
reigned only 3 months and 10 days. The rest of his life was spent in exile in which he
was literally `clothed with dishonour' (45). The Psalm closes with a plea that the writer
soon might see the loving kindness of the Lord carried into effect, for life was so brief
(47, 48) and that God would remember the insult (reproach) of the enemies. The last
verse (52) is not part of the Psalm, but was evidently added by the editor to close the
third book of the Psalter. How good it is to realize afresh that the unchangeable God of
the O.T. (Mal. 3: 6) is the Lord Jesus of the N.T. Who is "the same yesterday and today
and for ever" (Heb. 13: 8). His eternal love never varies towards us and will be brought
to fruition when we are presented in resurrection "holy and unblameable and
unreproveable in His sight" (Col. 1: 22).