Daily Reading, Biblical Theology, and Spirit-Given Exhortation

January 29. I read Psalm 29,59,89,149.^[1] The apostle Paul quotes from Psalm 89 in his preaching of the Gospel. God’s covenant with David is actually a covenant with David’s Seed “according to the flesh” (Romans 1:3; 9:5). When we follow the apostles (who were uniquely inspired by the Holy Spirit) in “trying to persuade…concerning Jesus, from both the Law of Moses and from the Prophets” (Acts 28:23) we are walking a well-trod and ancient path. When we do this with fellow believers, we gift them with a whole Bible. Not just the four Gospels or the New Testament, but a whole Christian Bible. I rejoiced early yesterday morning to hear a fellow Bible teacher in this little town tell me the biblical maturity he’d seen in students who were beginning to grasp a whole-Bible Christian theology. Praise the Lord, and may the next generation of the Church know, preach, and obey the whole Book far more than us!

The covenants are the theological, God-ordained “glue” that holds the Old and New Testament together as the testimony of Jesus Christ. “All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, Who is Himself the focus of divine revelation” (Baptist Faith & Message 2000, I).

“I have found David My servant;
With My holy oil I have anointed him

With Whom My hand will be established;
My arm also will strengthen him.

The enemy will not deceive him,
Nor the son of wickedness afflict him.

But I shall crush his adversaries before him,
And strike those who hate him.

My faithfulness and My lovingkindness will be with him,
And in My name his horn will be exalted.

I shall also set his hand on the sea
And his right hand on the rivers.

He will cry to Me, ‘You are my Father,
My God, and the rock of my salvation.’

I also shall make him My firstborn,
The highest of the kings of the earth.

My lovingkindness I will keep for him forever,
And My covenant shall be confirmed to him.

So I will establish his descendants [lit., “Seed”] forever
And his throne as the days of heaven” (Psalm 89:20-29).

Paul quotes this passage in his “word of exhortation” to the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch.[2]

“Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen: The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He led them out from it. For a period of about forty years He put up with them in the wilderness. When He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He distributed their land as an inheritance - all of which took about four hundred and fifty years. After these things He gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. After He had removed him, He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all My will.’ From the descendants of this man, according to promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus…brethren, sons of Abraham’s family, and those among you who fear God, to us the message of this salvation has been sent. For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him. And though they found no ground for putting Him to death, they asked Pilate that He be executed. When they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb. But God raised Him from the dead; and for many days He appeared to those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, the very ones who are now His witnesses to the people. And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers, that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus…David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay; but He Whom God raised did not undergo decay. Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you” (Acts 13:16-38).

Sunrise almost 3 weeks ago. The mountain (Cookes Peak) goes from shadow
to detailed definition in the full daylight (especially just before sunset). This is how
progressive revelation functions from the Old to New Testament.

God “found” David, and through the ever-living and ever-reigning Seed of David “forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.” Repent and believe in this Davidic King unto forgiveness and blissful eternal life before His Father.

---

[1] I try to read the Psalms daily in an x, x+30 pattern. Psalm 119 should have been in today’s line-up, but I save it for the 31^st of the month and read it alone.

[2] Notice that this “exhortation” is not what we would call “practical” these days. It is pure biblical/covenantal theology. “Exhortation” is a work of the Holy Spirit, and it leads to the “increase” of the church (Acts 9:31). It causes joy (Acts 15:31). Remember Romans 15:4,5. This is the reason God gave the New Testament Church the gift of the Old Testament. This should be the substance of the Spirit-given prophecy in the Church (1 Corinthians 14:3).

Thankfulness and Praise in Hebrews 1:8

“But of the Son He says, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,

And the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom…’” (Hebrews 1:8).

I am thankful that the One Who came to us was God Himself.

The phrase “But of the Son” borrows the verb “he says” (λεγει, lit., “He is saying”) from 1:7 (it’s provided in our English translations).

Who is the “He” speaking? You have to go back to verse 1. It’s “God.” He is speaking (presently) concerning His Son. When God addresses His Son in 1:8, what does He call Him?

“O God.”

“God,” when addressing His Son, calls Him, “O God.”

Does this mean there are two gods? No.

“Hear, O Israel, The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!” (Deuteronomy 6:4). The rest of the O.T. underlines this truth again and again (it’s the major theme of Isaiah). The Son affirmed this confession while on earth (Mark 12:29). The apostle Paul does, as well (1 Corinthians 8:4-6; 1 Timothy 2:5).

There is one God, but the Father is God and names the Son to be God. The Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Father – why would the Father be presently speaking of the Son otherwise? They are two Persons, but are one God.

Hebrews 1:8 is an amazing verse. I rejoice that the basis for this proclamation isn’t something new or innovative. The Father’s quoting Psalm 45:6, inspired by the Holy Spirit, to speak of the Son. It’s thoroughly Trinitarian, and it’s built from Old Testament Scripture. God is unchanging and remains as He has always been. This is, in part, what it means that the Old Testament is about Jesus (Luke 24:25-27,44-49; John 5:39). This is Paul’s understanding of the whole Bible when he says reading the O.T. without Christ is being veiled; that veil is only removed in Christ (2 Corinthians 3:14-16).

The whole Book’s about the Son Who is eternally God.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God…no one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God Who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him” (John 1:1,2,18).

This eternal God the Son has taken His eternal throne, fulfilling the Davidic covenant. Psalm 45 echoes the truth of Psalm 2 (I’m indebted to O. Palmer Robertson’s book).

From the eternal throne of God the Son comes that for which every human longs: justice and righteousness. We seek it in our own confused wisdom and reasoning, for we attempt to achieve it without its only rational Source – God. But when we make any attempts toward righteousness through legislation and judiciary, we are only echoing (in a poor way) the Law of God (Romans 2:14-16). We cannot totally suppress it, though all humans apart from Christ are actively and continually attempting to do so (Romans 1:18). The harder we try, the more the inconsistencies will tear our little play-group into meaningless chaos.

From His throne, however, the scepter rules with nothing but perfect righteousness. There are no errors in judgment. Its determinations are those of absolute holiness. And they are in utter accord with the revealed righteousness of God in the Bible. The Father has given all judgment to His Son (John 5:22-30).[1]

The Son does nothing wrong, and so the Book which about Him bears this stamp of perfection, as well.

Praise Him, for the Father is declaring Him to be God, anointed Him to be King, and all the divine Son-King does is right.

Big Hatchet Mountain fading with the light.

---

[1] These statements where the Son judges just as the Father judges take us into the next step of Trinitarian theology: perichoresis (interpenetration, or, more poetically, the mingling dance of the divine Being). The Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son. The Father is fully God (not a third) and the Son is fully God (not a third), yet they are distinct Persons. Both Persons are 100% God, but eternally retain individual Personhood in their co-possession of the divine Being. That’s right. Just as you were thinking you had a grasp of the Trinity, we turned it up a little. Mystery remains mystery.

Thankfulness and Praise from Hebrews 1:5

“For to which of the angels did He ever say,

‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You’?

And again,

‘I will be a Father to Him
And He shall be a Son to Me’?” (Hebrews 1:5).

I am thankful that the Son is not only greater than the angels, but He is “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come” (Ephesians 1:21).

Today’s verse in Hebrews draws upon the Davidic covenant and the Christ as complete fulfillment.

The first quote is from Psalm 2.

“I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord:
He said to Me, ‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance,
And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron,
You shall shatter them like earthenware’” (Psalm 2:7-9).

Paul uses Psalm 2:7 as an explanatory text for Christ’s resurrection (Acts 13:33). From Christ’s resurrection to His enthronement at God’s right hand should be seen as one great movement – from the lowest state (in the place of the dead) to the highest state (“…at the right hand of the Majesty on high,” Hebrews 1:3). The sonship described in Psalm 2:7 is not biological reproduction. Read the Psalm. As often happens in the Bible, ideas are often explained by parallel passages which function as apposition. In this case, 2:6 explains what this sonship reference is; the LORD proclaims, “as for Me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain.” The begotting of 2:7 is enthronement language.[1] The eternal Son, through the work He accomplished in His life and atoning death, is anointed (“Christ” in verb form) as absolute King. Remember the creation of humanity in God’s “image” and “likeness,” and that this imaging and likening was dominion (Genesis 1:26). This image was tainted on the day humanity rebelled against God (we wanted to reign independent and autonomously instead of reflecting His sovereignty). The eternal divine Son, Who came and lived as the second Adam, was faithful in obedience to the Father. So He reigns as the absolute, perfect “image” and “likeness” of the Father, ruling over all.

The second quote in Hebrews 1:5 comes from 2 Samuel 7:14//1 Chronicles 17:13. The relationship between “the LORD and…His Anointed” (Psalm 2:2) is revealed to be that between a Father and Son. This is not just about governance, but eternal relationship. The Father and Son shared a love from all eternity past (John 17:24). The Father and Son shared a glory from all eternity past (John 17:5). This love and glory is now displayed in the Kingdom rule of the Son for the eternal glory of the Father.

Praise Him, for the eternal Son, because of what He accomplished in life and death as one of us, is now revealed to be God’s King of kings and Lord of lords for the subjecting of the nations (Psalm 2:8,9; Revelation 2:26,27; 12:5) and eternal glory of the Father.

The desert rat on his throne, content to let the King of kings reign over all.

---

[1] The same understand is revealed in Psalm 89:27, where “I shall make Him My firstborn” is explained by the line, “the highest of the kings of the earth.”

The King, His Kingdom, and His Power

On the Lord’s Day nine days from now I’m speaking on the Davidic covenant from Romans 1:3, so I’ve been thinking about the importance of David in the Gospel. From the first chapter of the New Testament (Matthew 1:1) to the last (Revelation 22:16), God’s promise to David and its fulfillment in Christ is a massively important theme for the Book.

When we think about the Davidic covenant, I’ve usually limited my thinking to the King Himself.[1] Especially during this time of year, the Advent season, we read the promise of Gabriel, messenger of God, to Mary: “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end” (Luke 1:30-33).

Who was the king under the old covenant, and Who is the King under the new covenant?

David → Jesus Christ

Yesterday, meditating on the Davidic covenant, I began to think about the further implications beyond the King Himself.

Where was David’s throne under the old covenant, and where is the new David’s throne under the new covenant?

Enthroned in earthly Jerusalem → Enthroned in heavenly Jerusalem

While David reigned on his throne in the earthly Jerusalem under the old covenant (1 Kings 11:36; 1 Chronicles 23:25; 2 Chronicles 6:6; Jeremiah 3:17), the King of kings reigns on His throne in the heavenly Jerusalem (Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 3:12; 21-22).

What was David’s kingdom under the old covenant, and where is the new David’s kingdom under the new covenant?

Reigning over Israel & Judah → Reigning over heaven and earth

During the regency of David and his son Solomon the boundaries of the kingdom expanded to the range promised to Abraham (Genesis 15:18; 1 Kings 4:21). But this was the old covenant. As Christ is infinitely greater than David, and the heavenly Jerusalemite throne is infinitely greater than the earthly Jerusalemite throne, so, too, is the new covenant kingdom exponentially greater than the old covenant kingdom.

The new covenant kingdom is not limited to a single nation, a single people-group, or a single piece of real estate. The new covenant kingdom is “in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). Why? Because that’s where the citizens of the kingdom are. They are from out of “every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9) on earth. They are counted in heaven.

The “gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, Who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh” (Romans 1:1-3), is the same Gospel which is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (1:16). “The Jew…and also…the Greek” is a Pauline concept which means “all people groups.” The King is Jesus Christ, Seed of David. His throne is in heaven. His kingdom is over all of heaven and all of earth, and His loyal subjects are found scattered in every corner of the earth and enthroned in heaven. In the first chapter of Romans, the apostle Paul reminds us that the Gospel of the Son of David, the King, is the Gospel that is God’s very power. The power of His reign is the proclamation of His Gospel, not the strategies and means of worldly power. It is about the Gospel of Jesus Christ being proclaimed by His Church everywhere. And until we re-learn this lesson, Church, we will continue to see our power and influence get smaller and smaller.

Your efforts to rebuild the kingdoms of David, Solomon, and Constantine will fail, because each of these would be a pitiful, small, Gospel-denying step backwards.

It’s about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Imagine if our efforts, financial support, energy, and speech were thrown behind this evangelistic global mission as much as it is behind the little political games and conspiracies of the world system!

The Gospel, and nothing else, because it’s the means of the power of the King of kings throughout His all-encompassing Kingdom. Return to your Bibles, Church! Read the whole Book, Church! And repent. It's all bigger than you think it is, and the power is simpler (and mightier) than you think it is.

---

[1] The Davidic covenant is described in 2 Samuel 7:8-16; 1 Chronicles 17:1-14; Psalm 89:26-36; Acts 2:30. There are many, many other passages I could cite, as well, but these are the foundational ones.

Tell of the Servant-King

“I have made a covenant with My chosen;

I have sworn to David My servant,

I will establish your seed forever

And build up your throne to all generations” (Psalm 89:3,4).

David the servant-king is promised that one of his descendants (“seed” is singular) will reign forever. That Seed is Christ.

He is Servant:

• “...the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:10-12).
• “...the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28//Mark 10:45).
• “Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them.” (Luke 12:36,37).

He is the absolute forever-King:

• “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth...’” (Matthew 28:18).
• “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end” (Luke 1:31-33).
• “...Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth...these will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful...He has a name written, ‘King of kings, and Lord of lords’” (Revelation 1:5; 17:14; 19:16).

The right response to the revelation of the Son of David, Who is God’s only Servant-King? “I will sing of the lovingkindness of the LORD forever; to all generations I will make known Your faithfulness with my mouth” (Psalm 89:1).

Tell of Jesus from the Scriptures. Hear the Scriptures tell of Jesus. Rejoice in Him alone.

The Bible's Definition of "Firstborn"

Psalm 89 is in today’s Psalm readings (29,59,89,149). I feel compelled to point something out every time we come to this Psalm, since the idea of “firstborn” is perverted by those who deny Christ is the eternal Son of God.

“I have said, ‘Lovingkindness will be built up forever; in the heavens You will establish Your faithfulness. I have made a covenant with My chosen; I have sworn to David My servant, I will establish your seed forever and build up your throne to all generations’...He will cry to Me, 'You are my Father, My God, and the rock of my salvation.’ I also shall make him My firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. My lovingkindness I will keep for him forever, and My covenant shall be confirmed to him. So I will establish his descendants [“seed,” singular as in vs. 4] forever and his throne as the days of heaven” (Psalm 89:2-4,26-29).

Jesus Christ, “seed of David according to the flesh” (Romans 1:3), Who has “the throne of His father David...and [Whose] kingdom will have no end” (Luke 1:32,33), is the eternal Son of God. He is the “firstborn” (Romans 8:29; Colossians 1:15,18; Hebrews 1:6; Revelation 1:5). What does this mean for the eternal Son of God? Learn from Psalm 89:27 that the Bible’s definition of “firstborn” does not mean “created” or “did not exist before being begotten.” It is the language of enthronement: in the Father’s covenant with His Son, to be declared “firstborn” is to be proclaimed “highest of the kings of the earth.” Do not be led astray by those who rely on their own understanding to lower Christ by their own definition of “firstborn.”

The eternal Son of God, the Person of the Son in the Godhead Who has "neither beginning of days nor end of life" (Hebrews 7:3), is also the King of kings and Lord of lords according to the unchanging and unalterable promise of His Father. He rules and reigns, so obey and teach others to obey this timeless Sovereign!

“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age’” (Matthew 28:18-20).