7. King David: an illustration of Christ Jesus Psalm 89:35-45

Text: “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, la`-ma sa-bach`-than-ni? That is to say, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”

Matthew 27:46.

“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for OUR transgressions He was bruised for OUR iniquities: the chastisement of OUR peace was upon Him (for our sins); and with His stripes we are healed (from sin).”

Isaiah 53:3-5.

Good morning, Christ-focused Christian!  When you and I study God’s Word as written in our KJV Bibles, God the Spirit, Who has quickened us and granted us Spiritual life in Christ, always prompts us to try to see Jesus in every page of our Bibles, Old Testament and New.

“And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the Lord: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.” (Jeremiah 29:13-14)

Typology: “A Type is a shadow cast on the pages of Old Testament history by a truth whose full embodiment or antitype is found in the New Testament revelation” (Baker’s Dictionary of Theology.) “The legitimacy of recognizing typology in Biblical exegesis is established by the New Testament itself.” (Dictionary of Theological Terms, by the late Alan Cairns)

For example: Jonah was three days in the belly of the great fish this is a TYPE of the Lord Jesus Christ lying for three days in the tomb. Jonah was brought up onto dry land by the great fish; Christ Jesus was brought up in resurrection power from death and the burial tomb on the third day following His Crucifixion.  “Up from the grave, He arose!” Hallelujah!

Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s advice to his Bible students: “I counsel you to employ spiritualizing within certain limits and boundaries…An allowable thing carried to excess is a vice, even as fire is a good servant in the grate, but a bad minister when raging in a burning house” (Lectures to My Students, ‘On Spiritualizing’)

When we regenerate, Bible-believing Christians, focus on ‘seeing Christ Jesus’ in Old Testament Scriptures, we look to see Him in the various legitimate Types we can validate by the authority of clear New Testament Scriptures. Scripture is our only real authority for teaching Christ, and Him Crucified for the sins of His elect people, the ‘many’ mentioned.

“He, Christ Jesus, shall see of the travail of His soul (the Cross), and shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall My (God the Father) righteous servant (God the Son) justify MANY (not all!); for He shall bear their iniquities…He was numbered with the transgressors (on the Cross); and He bare the sin of MANY, and made intercession for the transgressors (the elect of the Father, you and, praise God, me!).” (Isaiah 53:11-12) (John 6:37)

Had Christ Jesus bore the sins of ALL, as some Arminian believers teach, then ALL would be gloriously saved, none would be lost for whom Christ Jesus suffered and died. Christ made a full Atonement for the sins and souls of ‘His people’ alone. All others must suffer for their own sins in a place called Hell. Fact. The doctrine of ‘Universalism’: which teaches that no soul shall be lost for Eternity in Hell/Lake of Fire, is open heresy! Avoid it!

“I have made a Covenant with My chosen, I have sworn unto David My servant…Once I have sworn by My Holiness that I will not lie unto David (‘David is here seen by us as a Type of the Lord Jesus Christ Who would come in the incarnation, hundreds of years later.) His seed (you and I, Christian!) 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.” (Psalm 89:1;35-37)

Verse 36. “His seed shall endure forever. David’s line in the Person of Jesus is an endless one, and the race of Jesus, as represented in successive generations of believers, shows no sign of failure. No power, human or Satanic, can break the Christian succession; as saints die, others shall rise up to fill their places, so that till the last day, the day of doom, Jesus shall have a seed to serve Him.” (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 374)

Verse 40; 41 & 42. “…Broken down all His hedges…all that pass by THE WAY spoil Him…He is a reproach to his neighbours…Thou hast made all His enemies to rejoice. Can you and I Bible-believing Christians not clearly ‘see in type’, the altogether lovely, pure, Holy, and undefiled Jesus Christ, hung here on a Cross covered in OUR vile catalogue of sins, bearing our Father’s Holy and just punishment for us; and crying out in agony: “Eli, Eli, la`-ma sa-bach`-than-ni? That is to say, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”

A Rhetorical Question: This question from the Lord Jesus as He hung covered in our vile sins, and dying for our sins on that cruel Cross, is of course, a Divinely uttered rhetorical question, a question posed not because the One asking did not know the answer, for He is, was, and always shall be God of very God. No.  It was posed in order to make ALL mankind aware of WHY our absolutely Holy Lord God Almighty was turning His Holy face away from His only begotten Eternal Son, Jesus Christ.  It was to reveal to ALL mankind the fact that Christ was suffering and dying on that Cross to bear away the deepest and dirtiest of the sins of His elect people. Praise His Holy Name!  Hallelujah!  What a Saviour!

Verse 44. “Thou (God the Father) hast made His (God the Son) glory to cease.” The Lord Jesus could have called down legions of mighty angels to maintain His glory, but He had come to do His Father’s will, and it was His Father’s will that He present Himself as a living Sacrifice for the sins of ‘His people’ - Divinely chosen people, who would be granted God’s gift of faith to believe (trust) in this Sacrifice for our sins; repent of our sins, and follow Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus had no sin of His own, He came to suffer and pay the full penalty for our sins. God’s Holy justice was satisfied by Christ’s Sacrifice, and we are saved.

Verse 45. “The days of His youth hast Thou shortened: Thou has covered Him with shame.” At the age of approximately 33 and 6 months, the Lord Jesus went to the Cross to suffer and die, ‘covered in our shame’.  What a clear TYPE, what an open illustration of what Christ has done for sinners such as we!  God’s Covenant with us was Eternally secured by Christ's Holy Sacrifice on the Cross. Now, this is good news for the saved.

Thought: Christ-focused Christians will find our Lord on every Bible page.  Glory!

6. Chastisement for Covenant-breakers! Psalm 89:30-34

Text: “If His children forsake My law, and walk not in My judgements; if they break My statutes, and keep not My Commandments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, My lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer My faithfulness to fail. My Covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips.”

Psalm 89:30-34.

Good morning, Covenant-breaking Christian!  Do you find yourself on the end of the chastening rod of the Almighty and Holy Lord God this morning?  Do the pangs of guilt, and shame, and loss of closeness to the Living Lord God find you grieving within for committed sin, or indulging in some besetting sin that you wrestle with constantly?  Are you fully aware of the grief you have caused the indwelling Lord God, that Spirit of absolute Holiness, Who is even now putting distance between your precious, born-again, soul and Himself – for He cannot, will not, happily abide in the same vessel with unconfessed sin!  Fact.

“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” (Psalm 66:18)

“Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. AND GRIEVE NOT THE HOLY SPIRIT of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4:29-32)

God only chastises His own Blood-bought children. When teaching in Bible Classes, I have often used this following illustration reference the chastisement of the Lord: Inner-city children set up a makeshift wicket, produce a cricket-bat, and a cricket-ball, and proceed to have a game of cricket in a quiet street in any given residential area.  It is not too long before we hear a crash, as one of the children connect properly with the bat and ball, and the hard cricket-ball crashes through a nearby house window. What happens next?

Yes, parents look out of their windows, immediately realise what has happened; ascertain whether or not THEIR child is involved in the action, and go out into the street to bring THEIR child into their own home – putting distance between the offending ‘cricket-match’ which has produced a broken pane of glass, and THEIR child.

After discovering exactly which child broke the neighbour’s window – ALL the group are then strictly admonished for being so foolish as to set up and play a cricket-match in the confines of a residential street. But each father/mother is then responsible for chastening THEIR OWN child, or making payment for their own child’s irresponsibility in the matter of paying for the broken window. 

No father/mother is responsible for the chastisement of another family’s child!

This practice mirrors the practice of God our Heavenly Father. The Lord God only chastens His own Blood-bought children. The Devil has no desire to chasten his children for any misdemeanour, in fact, it is usually that Evil One who has encouraged his children to sin in the first place! (John 8:44)

“For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as sons; for what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not?  But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits , and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness.” (Hebrews 12:6-10)

Verse 30. “If His children forsake My law. How astonished many would be if they knew what the real case was of those perhaps whom they admire, and think highly advanced and exalted in the Divine life, if they were to know the falls, the wretched falls, falls in heart, in word, and in practice; if they were to know the deep distress that the children of God, who are far advanced as they suppose in the Divine life, are continually suffering from the effect of such transgression! (Capel Molyneux,1855)

Show me the Christian that never sins – and I will show you, the altogether lovely Christ alone! (1 John 1:8;10) We break God’s Covenant with us when we sin. Beware.

Verse 32. “Then will I visit their transgressions with the rod. Praise God for His rod of correction of us, ‘His people’!  The Lord God in His lovingkindness to us, His children, will not permit us to stray too far into what John Bunyan called, a ‘bypath meadow’ of transgression and sin. (Read Pilgrim’s Progress).  God’s rod of chastisement is applied to His born again children, to keep us from backsliding into a quagmire of sin and woe. Hallelujah!

“…Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4) The rod of chastisement, the staff of God’s ever-given strength and grace.  What a Shepherd we have in Christ Jesus!

Verse 33. “Nevertheless, My lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him. This is part of God’s Divine Covenant with us, ‘His people’, with those of us whom our Father elected to give to Christ Jesus in Eternity – before the foundation of the world.  God is a Sovereign God, and is, has been, and shall always be, in full and total control of all He has Created.

“All that the Father giveth Me (Christ Jesus), shall come unto Me; and him/her that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from Heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.” (John 6:37-38)

Verse 33. “…Nor suffer My faithfulness to fail. Man’s faith may fail him sometimes, but God’s faithfulness never fails him: God will not suffer His faithfulness to fail. God’s operations may have an aspect that way; the Devil’s temptations and our unbelieving hearts may not only make us think so, but persuade us it is so.  Whereas, it cannot be so, for the Lord will not suffer it, He will not make a lie in His truth or faithfulness; so, the Hebrew is: He is a God that cannot lie, He is Truth, speaks truth, and not one of His promises can or shall fail; which may afford strong consolation unto all that are under any promise of God.” (William Greenhill, 1591-1677)

Thought: Verse 34. “My Covenant will I not break. It is His own Covenant. He devised it, drew up the draft of it, and voluntarily entered into it; He therefore thinks much of it.  It is not a man’s covenant, but the Lord claims it as His own. It is an evil thing among men for one to be a ‘covenant-breaker’, and such an opprobrious epithet shall never be applicable to the Most High.” (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 374) So be it, dear Lord. Amen.

5. Christ Jesus: the Holy One of the Covenant Psalm 89:19-29

Text: “Then Thou spakest in vision to Thy Holy One, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people. I have found David My servant; with My holy oil have I anointed him: with whom My hand shall be established: mine arm also shall strengthen him.”

Psalm 89:19-21.

Good morning, Bible-studying Christian!  When the Lord God of the Everlasting Covenant called you and I with His effectual call to Salvation in Christ Jesus – we immediately followed after Him, as did the disciples of Jesus in an earlier period of history.

“From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And He saith unto them, Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets, and followed Him.” (Matthew 4:17-20)

You and I were, in some manner, brought under the sound/sight of God’s Word – contained in the 66 Canonical Books of our King James Bible – and by reading, or hearing God’s Word preached – we received God’s gift of faith; faith to believe and receive Jesus Christ as our own and personal Saviour and Lord. (Romans 10:13)

“So then faith cometh by hearing (reading), and hearing by the Word of God.”    (Romans 10:17)

“But as many as received Him (into their company), to them gave He power (faith) to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name: which were born, not of blood (family), nor of the will of man (human decisions), but of God.”  (John 1:12-13)

Having personally experienced the Divine power and transforming wonder of the written Word of God, you and I quickly became lovers of God’s Word; hungry students of our Bibles; we developed a deep Spiritual hunger for knowledge of God through His Word and, in obedience to Him, we study it constantly in fellowship with the Christ of our Covenant.

“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)

“As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the Living God: when shall I come and appear before God?” (Psalm 42:1-2)

From our increased Bible knowledge, we have come to understand that the Lord often speaks to us, ‘His people’, in visionary language; in Old Testament types; in words that can be figurative, symbolic, or just plain ordinary speech.

In Psalm 89, therefore, we find the Lord God speaking to us, using King David as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ Who would come to us hundreds of years later in human form.

Verse 19. “I have exalted one chosen out of the people. David was God’s elect, elect out of the people as one of themselves, and elect to the highest position in the state.  In his extraction, election, and exaltation, he was an eminent type of the Lord Jesus, Who is the Man of the people, the chosen of God, and the King of His church. Whom God exalts, let us exalt.  Woe unto those who despise Him; they are guilty of contempt of court before the Lord of Hosts, as well as of rejecting the Son of God.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, page 373)

Verse 21. “With Whom My hand shall be established. I love the lyrics of the old hymn, ‘The church’s one foundation’, written in 1866 by Samuel John Stone: “The church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord; she is His new creation, by water and the Word.’ from heav'n he came and sought her to be his holy bride; with his own blood he bought her, and for her life he died.”  (Samuel John Stone, 1866)

“According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon.  For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”             (1 Corinthians 3:10-11)

Verse 22. “The enemy (Satan) shall not exact upon Him; nor the son of wickedness afflict Him.”  Who does not in all this see a type of the Lord Jesus, Who, though He was once seized for our debts and also evil entreated by the ungodly, is now so exalted that He can never be exacted upon anymore, neither can the fiercest of His enemies vex Him again. No Judas can now betray Him to death; no Pilate can deliver Him to be crucified.  Satan cannot tempt Him, and our sins cannot burden Him.” (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 373)

Verse 25. “I will set His hand also in the sea, and His right hand in the rivers. A certain artist was in the habit of saying that he should represent Alexander in such a manner, that in one hand he should hold a city and from the other pour a river. Christ is represented here as of immense stature, higher than all mountains, with one hand holding the earth, and the other the sea, while from Eastern sea to Western, He extends His arms.” (Thomas Le Blanc -1869)

Verse 26. “He shall cry unto Me, Thou art My Father. When did David call God his Father? It is striking that we do not find anywhere in the Old Testament that the patriarchs or prophets called God their Father.  You do not find them addressing Him as Father: they did not know Him as such…It was after Christ said, “I ascend unto My Father, and your Father.”, that believers were enabled to look up to God and to say, “Abba, Father.”  Here you see distinctly that this applies to Christ. He was the first to say this: David did not say it.  If there were no other proof in the whole Psalm, that one clause would be a demonstration to me that no other man than the Lord Jesus Christ can be here spoken of.” (Capel Molyneux, 1855)

Verse 27. “Also, I will make Him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can be called, and in fact is, King of all kings, and Lord of all lords. Hallelujah! Give God the glory! The Lord Jesus Christ is the guarantor of God’s Covenant!

“And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in Blood: and His Name is called The Word of God…And He hath on his vesture and on His thigh a Name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” (Revelation 19:13;16) Jesus Christ: the Word made flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.  (John 1:1-14) The Holy One of the Covenant.

Thought: Verse 29. “His seed (You and me, Christian) also will I make to endure forever.” He/she that believeth on the Father and the Son – hath everlasting life. Glory.

4.Triune God: The Glory of the Covenant! Psalm 89:17-18

Text: “Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the Heaven and in the earth is Thine; Thine is the Kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted as Head above all.”                                                                                 1 Chronicles 29:11.

          “And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil: For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”

Matthew 6:13.

Good morning, glory-giving Christian!  One thing that sets you out among many other professing Christians, is the fact that both you and the author have been taught, Spiritually, to at all times give the Lord God ALL the glory and all the praise for any small service we have been empowered by Him to achieve in our individual ministries for Christ.

I remember well shaking hands with congregations all over the great state of Texas and Alabama while undertaking Church speaking-engagements out there – American Christians really show guest Pastors and speakers a whole-hearted appreciation for services given; and God’s Word forthrightly spoken in plain-speaking forthrightness, is highly prized.

Many would have hugged the life out me at the doors, and enthused on how blessed they had been by my ministry to them, as the menfolk shook my hand until it nearly dropped off after the engagement was over!  Bless their hearts, I really enjoyed serving Christ in that great land, and harbour many extremely fond memories of my Missions over there; and my sweet fellowship with such wonderful and genuine Christ-loving Christians.

However, one thing those beloved believers will remember about my times of service over there, is how I IMMEDIATELY gave the Lord God all the glory, for any profitable word I was able to preach or teach at any given venue. I would immediately respond with, “Yes, isn’t the Lord God good?” Or “Yes, praise God for His enablement!” All glory belongs unto the Living Lord God, Jehovah – Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.  Praise be to His Name!

Woe unto me, if I covet, or seek to receive, the glory that belongs at all times to the Lord God Himself. Without Him, I could do NOTHING. Without Him we are NOTHING!  Glory, glory, glory to the Triune Lord God – Father, Son and Holy Ghost!

“Abide in Me (Christ Jesus), and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me.  I am the Vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth (abides, and continues to abide) in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do NOTHING.”  (John 15:4-5)

Verse 17. “For Thou art the glory of their strength. Ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ – if true to the full inspiration and belief of God’s Word – know the truth of this verse very well.  How often we Pastors, Bible Teachers, Sunday-School Teachers; and witnessing servants of Christ have FELT as though we had no whit of strength left to serve the Lord in our duties for any particular day.  Then, God’s Word comes drifting into our tired, or deflated minds, and we are at once renewed in spirit and ready to go forth to do Spiritual Battle for the souls of our hearers. The promises of God strengthen ‘His people’ and bring fresh glory to His Name.

“Fear thou not; for I AM with thee: be not dismayed; for I AM thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness.  Behold (look, and fully understand), all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as a nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish.”                  (Isaiah 41:10-11)

The Triune Lord (Three distinct Divine Persons in the Godhead, yet only ONE God) – Father, Son, and Holy Ghost – the Lord God of this great Covenant Psalm, has committed His promises contained in the sixty-six Canonical Books of our King James Version Bible, to us, ‘His people’. 

In obedience and faith as believing Christians, we can call upon the Lord God of the Covenant to strengthen us, as He has promised in His Word to do so, yet, at all times according to His Divine timing and perfectly Sovereign will.  Fact.  Glory to the Lord.

Here is just one Bible event in which all Three Persons of the Trinity, the unified Lord God, are mentioned: and this by the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself:

“When they (the disciples/eye-witness apostles) therefore were come together, they asked of Him (Christ Jesus), saying, Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And He said unto them, ‘It is not for you to know the times and the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”           (Acts 1:6-8)

Anyone, even those that are professing to be Christians, that come to you trying to teach you that there is no Trinity in the Divine Godhead – have no fellowship with them!  They are deceivers and teachers of ‘another Gospel’, and are not even to be bidden ‘God speed’. BE warned! Here is what the true apostle John had to say about them: “Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.  If any come unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him/her not into your house, neither bid him/her God speed: for him/her that biddeth him/her God speed is a partaker of his/her evil deeds.” (2 John 9-11)

The Lord God of the Covenant between Almighty God and fallen mankind is a Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Let us seek at all times to give this Lord God all the glory, praise, thanksgiving and service we possibly can, continually.  Hallelujah!  Glory…

Verse 17. “In Thy favour our horn shall be exalted.” "Thou art the glory of their strength," that is, "thou art their strength, and it is their glory that thou art so, and what they glory in." Thanks be to God who always causes us to triumph. "In thy favour, which through Christ we hope for, our horn shall be exalted." The horn denotes beauty, plenty, and power; these those have, who are made accepted in the beloved. What greater preferment are men capable of in this world than to be God's favourites?”  (Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Psalms, 1662-1714)

Verse 17. “For Thou art the glory of their strength. In other words, any Spiritual strength you and I, as born-again Christians possess, is given to us by the Living Lord God.  Therefore, the God of the Covenant, Great Jehovah Lord God, must receive all the glory and praise for any small service we Christians are enabled of Him to perform.  Glory to the Lord! The Lord God IS the glory of His Covenant with us, ‘His people’. 

Thought: Verse 18. “For the Lord is our defence and the Holy One of Israel is our King.” With God as our defence, let us go forth, boldly, and proclaim His glory.  Our primary allegiance is not to puny man, but to the Almighty Lord God.