Psalm 89, the first four verses
of this psalm, you remember, the covenant is rejoiced in,
God's covenant that he established in the heavens, rejoiced in as
a sure and gracious covenant, established by God and also revealed
by God in his word. It's a covenant of mercy that
God makes with his chosen people. You see that in verses one through
four. The next 10 verses are reasons why God is to be reverenced
and praised including that great covenant that he made with his
people. His gracious covenant, his incomparable
power, his praise, his strength and authority, and his righteousness.
And then in the next four verses after that, verses 15 through
18, the psalmist sets forth how blessed are God's people to have
this great God as their God. A God who is to be had in reverence
and who is a gracious covenant God. And now in verses 19 through
37, we'll see, I pray by God's grace, that this glorious covenant
of God's sure and everlasting grace is in the hands of a capable
champion. Help is laid on the mighty. That's what we'll talk about
tonight. Help laid on the mighty. Let me say a few words first
about covenants in general. In the Old Testament, the word
for covenant, and I'm not pronouncing these exactly right. We don't
pronounce a lot of the Old Testament. We call him David, King David. His name was David. So it doesn't
matter. But this word I believe is something
like Berith or Berith, which means like a contractor agreement
that two parties enter into. And this word sort of emphasizes
the fact that there are terms attached to a covenant, which
make it null and void if those terms are not met. There are
conditions set forth. The Lord said, this do and live. There are conditions and then
there's a benefit that results in the fulfillment of those conditions.
Under the old covenant of works, those terms were perfect obedience
to the law of God on the part of man. And then, of course,
the benefit promised if those terms were met was God's blessing.
I'll bless you. I'll give you life. I'll go with
you. I'll favor you. I'll be your
God. Of course, when God speaks in
our chapter here in Psalm 89 of a covenant of grace established
by himself in the heavens and made with his chosen, he's speaking
of the new covenant. Not the Old Testament, not the
Old Covenant of works. He's speaking of the New Covenant,
but the same word for covenant is used because it's in the Hebrew
language. It's in the language of the people,
and that's the word for covenant. So that covenant was used, but
then the Lord revealed some very clear things about that New Covenant
as opposed to the Old, even in the Old Testament. In the New
Testament, the word for covenant is testament. The New Testament
is the New Covenant. Or in the Greek, it's diatheke,
I think, diatheke. And this primarily referred to
what we call a will, our last will in Testament. But that's
the word for covenant in the New Testament. It's the final
disposition of one's earthly goods, in man's case, to whomever
they choose. Whoever they choose, you can
will your earthly possessions to anybody. And this is instructive. Both of these terms are instructive.
These words, the Hebrew and the Greek, because God's covenant
with his people. In this, in this New Testament
word, we consider God's covenant as the bestowment of what he
wishes to bestow upon whom he wishes to bestow it. And with
regard to this word, diatheke, It was only in effect after the
death of the testator. A will doesn't go into effect
until somebody dies, the one who wrote the will. And we know
this about God's covenant. Whether you use the Hebrew word
or the Greek, when considering God's eternal covenant of grace
with his elect, we can only benefit from that covenant if the Lord
Jesus Christ dies. If we're going to receive what
God desires for us to receive, which again is every blessing
that he can give, all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus, if we're going to receive that, the Lord Jesus
Christ must die in our place as our representative, as our
substitute, as our sin offering, as our redeemer. And so that
word, testament, is instructive, isn't it? It's to the chosen
as we saw in our text, the first verses one through four. I've
made a covenant with my chosen and also the death, the death
of the testator. And so this is what our next
passage in Psalm 89 is about because of the holy nature of
God, because of our sinful nature, God cannot bestow his blessings
upon us. under the terms of any covenant
that requires us to perform, that requires us to pay, that
requires us to measure up or to fulfill what God requires.
That's why God, that's why Paul in Hebrews talks about if God
had not found any fault with the old, he wouldn't have made
the new. But there's a problem with the old. You can't meet
the terms of it. You can't obey God. You can't
please God. You can't, you can't establish
a righteousness before God of yourself. Hence our next verse
in the context of considering this covenant, verse 19. Then
thou spakest in vision to the Holy one and said, I have laid
help upon one that is mighty. I have exalted one chosen out
of the people. Now this Holy one here, God spoke
in vision to his Holy One. Who is that? Well, it sounds
like Christ, doesn't it? Well, in a way it is, but he's
referring here likely to Nathan the prophet, who is typical of
Christ. Because look, turn to Luke one,
I want you to see this. Luke chapter one, verse 67. Luke 1 67 and his father Zacharias
was filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied saying Blessed
be the Lord God of Israel for he has visited and redeemed his
people and hath raised up and horn of salvation for us in the
house of his servant David as he spake by the mouth of his
holy prophets God referred to them as his holy Prophets in
our text it says the Holy One which have been since the world
began That we should be saved from our enemies. He spoke he
spoke to his prophet and what did he tell him? We're gonna
be saved his people are gonna be saved He's gonna raise up
a horn of salvation one who has power to save you remember that
word horn means power to perform verse 72 the mercy promise to
our fathers and to remember his holy name What are we talking
about in all of Psalm 89? Covenant. His holy covenant.
Holy covenant. So he spoke to his holy prophet
and revealed to him concerning his holy covenant in which his
people are going to be saved. All right, that's what we're
talking about. God speaking to his holy prophet was how David
and the people knew of this great covenant. That's how it was revealed
to them. And this is what God said to
his holy one, his holy prophet, so that all of his people would
understand. I have laid help upon one that is mighty in the
matter of this covenant. Laying help means that the responsibility
of helping the burden of a good outcome is laid on the shoulders
of somebody here. And what God is saying here is
that there will be a good outcome in this day. It will be success. This covenant will be successful.
The terms will be met and the blessings will be bestowed because
the one that I have chosen to ensure that the terms of this
covenant are met is mighty. He's capable. Do you believe
that? This is faith now. That's what
faith is. Daniel, is your God able to deliver
you? Do you remember Daniel's answer
to that? Daniel said he already has, O king, he's already done
it. He sent his messenger and the lion's mouths were shut.
Why, do you remember? Because innocency was found in
me. God sent his messenger and shut
the lion. He saved me because he saw me
to be innocent before him. Alright, that's what we're talking
about now. This is a picture of the fact that I have God's
blessing protection favor of life Because God sent his messenger
the messenger of the everlasting covenant He's called the angel
or messenger of the covenant and because of what he did as
that angel I'm found innocent before God And therefore I'm
blessed of God This blood is the new covenant The new covenant. This cup is
the new covenant in my blood. That blood is why I'm found innocent
before God. And therefore, I benefit from
this covenant. God laid help upon the mighty
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, the messenger of the covenant.
And he alone is capable of getting the job done. He had to lay,
he laid help upon the only one he could. And there be a good
outcome for all. He did all that was necessary
to secure for you and I, all of his people, all of the blessings
of God's covenant of grace. Do you see why we emphasize who
he is? Help is laid upon one that is
mighty, one that can accomplish it, one that can call, that can
assure a good outcome in this thing. The old covenant, not
a good outcome. This one will not be like that. We are saved because of who it
is that God trusted to secure our salvation. You see that?
That is paramount. And that's faith. Faith is in
Him. Not in a system. Not in a creed. Faith is believing
that Christ is the one to get it done. And that He did it. That His blood is sufficient
to redeem. That His righteousness is sufficient
in which a sinner With His righteousness imputed to me, I can stand before
God, holy and without blame, before Him in love. We're saved
because of a who. Is your Savior mighty? Is He
able? This is what's pictured in Matthew
9, 28. You remember that when the Lord was coming to that house,
these two blind men came to Him, and Jesus said to them, Believe
ye that I'm able to do this. And they just simply said, Yea,
Lord. Yea. We believe you can do it. That's
faith now. That's faith. Do you believe
that Jesus Christ can do the impossible? Do you believe that
what no mere mortal, what no sinner can do, what the law could
not do and that it was weak because of me. It couldn't get the job
done because of me. God sent his son and he did it. He pleased God in all things
and in every way and satisfied the justice of God with his precious
blood for my sins. Can he get the job done? Is he
a savior or just an example? Did he redeem or did he just
do all that he could and then left it up to the sinner? Isaiah
63, who is this that cometh from Edom with dyed garments from
Basra? That is glorious, this that is glorious in his apparel,
traveling in the greatness of his strength. Who is this? Here's
the answer. I that speak in righteousness,
mighty to save. God laid help upon the mighty
one who was able to save us, able to meet the terms of that
old covenant. But the new covenant is, it's
not on us anymore. It's on him. And he's mighty. He's mighty, he's capable. And
look at the last part of the verse. Then thou spakest in vision of
the unholy one, and since I have laid help upon one that is mighty,
I have exalted one chosen out of the people. We know what this
refers to. The Lord Jesus Christ must be
one of us. He must be chosen of God. But
he must be one of the people. We know that he must be God. He must be God. Only God can
satisfy God. But how could he be God and one
of us? That's the great mystery of godliness. God was manifest
in the flesh. 1 Timothy 3, 16. Man sinned, and so man must atone. That's why it behooved him to
be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a faithful and
merciful high priest, and things pertaining to God. Man sinned
and man must atone for sin, but no sinner can atone for sin.
So he can't be of the seed of Adam. My puny life, all of our lives
together can't atone for sin if we all die for our sin. We
must die forever because we can't pay for a single sin. That's
why hell is eternal. Our Savior, the one upon whom
help is laid, must be God, because only God can satisfy God. But he must be man, because man
is the one who must make amends to God. Hebrews 2.17, wherefore,
in all things, it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren,
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation, for the sins of the people. If
he's not man, he can't make reconciliation for man. But if he's not God,
he can't do it. And so that great mystery is
also a great gospel. God came and was born in a manger. And when he was, the angel said,
under you is born this day in the city of David, the Savior. Verse 20, I found David my servant
with my holy oil have I anointed him. Now you know that David
is used talking about Christ in the Old Testament often. It's
talking about David's son. David was such a tight picture
of our Lord Jesus Christ. David's being chosen and anointed
by God as king is a picture of God, the father's anointing of
his son. The word Messiah means anointed
one. That's who he is, the one that
God anointed. That is, he chose him from among
the people. He anointed him, that's what
he did to David. By that anointing, he chose him. When nobody else
thought that David was even a candidate, God said, that's my king right
there. Anointed, chosen. That's the Lord Jesus Christ,
anointed as Savior, as Messiah. In the New Testament, the word
Christ means anointed. Anointed, chosen, sent by God
to accomplish this work of salvation. And speaking of the work of redemption
that he accomplished, our Lord is referred to in this way in
Acts 4, 27. Listen to this. For of a truth
against thy holy child, Jesus, whom thou hast anointed. Both
Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of
Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand
and thy counsel determined before it be done. And we know what
that was. God's hand and counsel determined before that his son
should suffer and die at Calvary for the sins of his people. And
in that context, he's called the one that you anointed. You
chose him to accomplish that. Remember, they talked about the
death that he should accomplish. He's anointed to do that. The next several verses, and
we can't go verse by verse because this is quite a passage here
tonight, but the next several verses up to verse 24 speak of
how that the power and success of God himself was with him.
He's not just a man. He's the God man. And God, his
father, he said, I don't say anything that the father didn't
tell me to say the works that I do. They're his works. They're
my father's work. God's power and God's approval, the success of God himself, the
Father, shall be with this anointed one. That's what it says. And
then in verse 24, now this is key, that my faithfulness and
my mercy shall be with him. And in my name shall his horn,
his power, his authority be exalted. And it was, wasn't it? They said
when he opened his mouth, they said nobody ever spoke like this.
His authority was exalted. They were forced to put above
his cross. This is my king. This is God's king. His horn,
his power. His power to save was displayed.
And everything that he did, everything that he spoke. And then, of course,
at the cross. Most gloriously. But the word
faithfulness is translated elsewhere in the Old Testament as truth.
Faithfulness means veracity or truth. And so what he said is
my truth and my mercy are with him, my chosen one, my anointed
one, my Messiah, my Christ. Isn't that what John said of
our Savior? Remember that in John 1 17? The law was given
by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. The disciples went around Preaching
that this Jesus This Jesus of that this carpenter Is the one
They identified a person and said he is God's Messiah. I found him. He's God's Christ
He's the anointed one. He's the one that God sent to
save us And that's what this is talking about here grace and
truth came by Jesus Christ I hate to skip any of these verses because
they're all I'll leave you to study some of these on further
on your own, but because of time, but just a few more things. Verse
26. He shall cry unto me. Thou art
my father. Father, father, thou art my father,
my God, the rock of my salvation. This one upon whom our help,
our help. We're the ones that needed help.
This is my help that's laid on him. The responsibility for helping
me is laid on him. We're the ones that needed it,
not him. But the one upon whom our help is laid is none other
than God's only begotten, well-beloved, precious son. He's the son of
God. This Jesus of Nazareth is the
Son of God, the Holy One of Israel. Hebrews 1, 5, For unto which
of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day
have I begotten thee. And again, I will be to him a
father, and he shall be to me a son. You see what the psalmist
here is prophesying? He's identifying the one Who
is going to make sure that all of the blessings of this covenant
that spoken of from the very first of this song to the very
last of it? Are going to be secure for me. They're certain they're
sure it's established in the heavens. He said it cannot fail
because of the one who is trusted to accomplish it. He's God's
son. He's the anointed one of God.
He's mighty mighty to save verse 27. Also, I will make him my
firstborn. My firstborn higher than the
kings of the earth. Higher. You remember from our
studies before that the firstborn had to do with what? Preeminence.
Preeminence. That's why I said higher. My
firstborn higher than the kings of the earth. The firstborn has
to do with preeminence, special blessing and birthright from
the father. But it also implies This verse
here, our blessing in Him. Firstborn implies that there
will be more that are born. There can't be a first if it's
the only, if there aren't anybody else. Listen to this, Romans
8, 29. For whom He did foreknow. Turn over there with me, because
I'm gonna be brief tonight. I want you to see this. Romans 8, 29. Because we read this, this is
a very, very, wouldn't you say, familiar passage? But I bet you
hadn't seen this in it, and I hadn't either. Romans 8, 29. At least maybe not considered
just this isolated. In the context of our psalm,
look at this particular thing that he says here. Romans 8,
29, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of his son. Now that's us. He loved
us from eternity. He said his affection upon us
from eternity and having loved us and being all powerful being
God Wouldn't you predestinate things to make sure your children
would be successful if you could well he can and he did He predestinated
everything That that he that the son that Christ the image
of his son, capital S, that he, the son, Christ, might be the
firstborn among many brethren. God predestinated each one of
us, everything that will happen to us and where we're going to
end up so that Christ will be the firstborn. But all of us
are going to be in the family too. He's going to have a lot
of brethren that get in on this with him. And look, moreover,
whom he did predestinate them, he also called What does this
mean for us, that he's the firstborn and we're his brethren? That
means that we're his. Well, what does that mean? Well,
everybody that he predestinated for that reason, that he might
be the firstborn, that he might have the preeminence, but all
of us blessed in him, many brethren, predestinated, called, justified,
glorified. That means everything in this
golden chain of salvation shall come to pass. He predestinated
it. He covenanted it with his son and his Holy Spirit before
the foundation of the world. And he laid the responsibility
of it upon his son. And because he laid it on him,
it's all going to happen. It's all going to be fulfilled. And we will receive the blessing
of the covenant. What are we going to say to these
things? If God has been for us and done all this for us, if
help is laid on his son, if he's the firstborn among us, then who can be against us? How
can we fall? How can we fail? Verse 28, my mercy will I keep
for him forevermore and my covenant shall stand fast with him. Because Christ, the anointed
son of God, is the one upon whose shoulders the burden of this
covenant is laid, that covenant will stand fast. It's sure, it can never be broken,
never be forfeited, never fail. Not one who has an interest in
that covenant will fail to receive every blessing of it. And every blessing, that's a
lot of blessing. That's every good thing God can
do to you and for you. He does it in Christ. Blessed,
we'll spend our lifetimes trying to figure this out because it's
worth figuring out, but we'll never get to the bottom of it.
Blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Not one good thing denies us. And it's sure it'll stand fast
because it's on Him. I wish we could just let that sink in. You now, you're going to sin.
You're going to transgress. You're going to fail. without a doubt. And God's going
to chastise you for it. You'll suffer for it. I will
too. Look at verse 29. Just like any good father would
do, he's going to chastise us. Look at verse 29. His seed also
will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of
heaven. Now if his children forsake my law and walk not in my judgment,
That word, if doesn't mean there's any doubt as to whether it's
going to happen or not, does it? You remember, I believe it
was John that said, if we see him, we have an advocate with
the father. And that's not, that doesn't
mean there's any doubt as to whether we're going to sin or
not. What he's saying is when it happens, we have an advocate. We have an advocate with the
father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. When we sin, our advocate is
the one who doesn't sin, who never sin. All right, but if
we sin, and we will, his children forsake my law and walk not in
my judgments, if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments,
then will I visit their transgressions with the rod and their iniquity
with stripes, not fire, the rod. Nevertheless, we're gonna fall,
we're gonna fail, we're gonna sin, aren't we? And God's gonna
chastise us just like any good father would do. My loving kindness will I not
utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. Theirs will, but mine won't. Isn't that glorious? You talk
about glorious. You're gonna fail, but he won't.
Christ won't. That's why we are saved. That's
my hope. It's a sure one because of him.
My covenant will I not break. He set his face like a flint,
didn't he? To go to Jerusalem and ultimately to the cross.
Why? Because of that covenant. It's
a covenant of love. and mercy and grace. He said,
I'm not going to break it. We forsook him and fled in the
very moment that he was fulfilling it. And we always will. But not him, nor alter the thing
that is gone out of my lips, once I have sworn by my holiness
that I will not lie unto David. If it were not so, I would have
told you." He said, I'm going to do it. He said, I'm going
to go do it. I'm going to go get it done. I'm going to go
make sure that that place is made for you with my father. His seed shall endure forever
in his throne as the son before me. As Christ is fulfilling the
terms of the covenant for us, And this is accomplished all
by Him, only by Him, only. Help is laid on how many? One, that is mighty. We know
who He is, by His grace we know who He is. God is our Father. While Christ is fulfilling the
terms of the covenant for us, salvation is in those two words,
for us now. But God's not just gonna leave
us to sin as before. You're not going to do that.
He's our Father. He loves us too much not to chastise us.
Hebrews 12, 7, If you endure chastening, God dealeth with
you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father
chasteneth not? You tell me that. He has ordained us unto good
works, Ephesians 2, 10. He worketh in us always both
to will and to do of his good pleasure, Philippians 2, 13.
But the covenant standeth sure Because the surety of it is Christ
and not me and not you The new covenant Is in his blood That's
what he said He said take it and drink it. Are you in on it?
So is the covenant of grace let's let's consider this in closing Is the covenant of grace is it
a legal agreement between two parties in which the one party
must pay up In order to receive the benefit from the other. That's
the Old Testament word. Or is it a will? In which a father
bestows all that he has. Upon a son. It's both. It's both. We simply must remember that
when considering it as a legal agreement. It's Christ that paid. and us that benefit. He receives
the benefit for us. And when considering it as a
will, remember two things. We're included because God chose
from the foundation of the world to give us everything he has. And you know, he didn't have
to give us a lot of things to give us everything he has. He just
gave us his son. That's everything. And remember
this, in order for us to inherit, Christ must need to have suffered
and died in our place. That's why when we pray, as our
brother did a moment ago, we say thank you for that precious
blood. Hebrews 9, 16, I think we got
time to just read that tonight. I was going to give you that
to read on your own. Let's look at Hebrews 9. And just close with this passage
of scripture. Verse 16. For where a testament
is, where a covenant is, where a will is, there must also of
necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is
of force after men are dead. Otherwise it is of no strength
at all while the testator liveth. Whereupon neither the First Testament
was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every
precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood
of calves and of goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and
sprinkled both the book and all the people saying, this is the
blood of the covenant which God hath enjoined unto you. Even
under the old covenant, God was showing them the new covenant
and how sinners are truly saved. how they truly can receive the
blessing of God in that covenant by the precious blood of the
Son of God. Moreover, verse 21, he sprinkled
with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry,
and almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and
without the shedding of blood is no remission. You remember
one of the terms of the new covenant is your sins and your iniquities
will I remember no more. That's not gonna happen without
blood. Not without blood. It was therefore necessary that
the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with
these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices
than these, the blood of animals ain't gonna get it in reality.
That's fine for the picture. For Christ has not entered into
the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the
true, but into heaven itself now, to appear in the presence
of God for us. Remember I said in those words,
salvation for us, for us. He lived for us, he died for
us, he came for us. If God be for us, who's going
to be against us? Nor yet that he should offer
himself often as the high priest entered into the holy place every
year with the blood of others for them he must he often have
suffered since the foundation of the world but now once In
the end of the world, after he appeared to put away sin, and
what are we talking about? How did he start this all out?
Where there's a covenant, where there's a testament, where there's
a will, somebody got to die. For the benefit that is intended
to be bestowed to be in effect. Christ has suffered now once. the end of the world, hath he
appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men
once to die, but after this the judgment. So Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him
shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Let's pray together.