The God Who Is Faithful

All nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres. (Babcock, “This Is My Father’s World”)

Scripture often personifies creation as delighting in the Creator. The trees of the field clap their hands (Isa 55:12), and here Mount Hermon and Mount Tabor shout for joy at God’s name (Ps 89:12).

The theme of joy continues in verses 15-16, but it’s not just mountains shouting for joy; it’s people. What a song to sing in the midst of hardship and questions! To remember that heavenly hosts revere him, the raging sea obeys him, earthly powers tremble, creation shouts his praise—and to think: this God is for us!

This God Is for Us (89:17-18)

Verses 17-18 answer the question of why God’s people are joyful in verses 15-16. I heard a well-known author and biblical scholar relate a personal story of how he was driving his son to his first semester of college, and his son was clearly stressed and anxious. No encouragement was sticking. The father decided to pull over, and he told his son he loved him and was proud of him, no matter what happened this semester. And that somehow broke through the flood of anxious thoughts in his son’s heart.

I remember hearing a pastor describe a moment in his ministry in which he was wrestling with deep discouragement. Tragedies and difficult decisions all seemed to be converging in the same moment. He went to bed one night so heavy of soul and feeling “done.” He woke up eighteen hours later. All the same realities were facing him. In desperate prayer he said he sensed the Lord telling him, “If you preach weak sermons, I love you. If this church tanks, I love you.” And the fog began to lift.

Story after story unpacks this glorious truth: perfect love drives out fear (1 John 4:18). He is “for us.” And his “for us-ness” produces a kind of strength, an ability to persevere.

Faithful to Save

Psalm 89:19-37

All those promises concerning David’s kingship were seen in the Old Testament as the inheritance of people as well. Consider God’s great promises to King David in verses 21-24. Israel didn’t hear that and say, “Man, wouldn’t it be awesome to be in David’s family?” They heard it and said, “He’s our king. Those promises fall to us!” The same thing is true about the “in Christ” language of the New Testament. United to him by faith, we are coheirs with him. We see in these verses the nature of God’s promises to save.

It’s a Promise of Total Salvation

God’s promises of rescue in Psalm 89 include constant presence (v. 21), defeating enemies (vv. 22-23), faithful love (v. 23), extended borders (v. 25), chasing them when they stray (vv. 30-35), and everlasting dominion (vv. 29,36-37). These promises to David, and ultimately to Jesus Christ, were promises that rest not only on the king but on the people of the kingdom.

God’s promises to us in Christ are comprehensive. It’s a life-abundantly promise (John 10:10). A sin-will-not-rule-over-you promise (Rom 6:14). An I-will-give-you-a-new-heart promise (Ezek 36:26). A there-is-therefore-now-no-condemnation promise (Rom 8:1). A pleasures-evermore (Ps 16:11), rest-for-the-weary-and-heavy-laden (Matt 11:28), grace-the-hour-you-first-believed and grace-that-leads-you-home promise.

It’s a Promise Pointing to the Messiah

I will extend his power to the sea

and his right hand to the rivers.

He will call to me, “You are my Father,

my God, the rock of my salvation.”

I will also make him my firstborn,

greatest of the kings of the earth. (vv. 25-27)

It turns out there are two ways God’s promise to David could have been fulfilled. The psalmist only seems to anticipate one—namely, David’s house will sit on the throne forever. That is, one son will rule then die, then another will rule then die, on and on, for all generations. That’s certainly one way of looking at it. Or maybe God was intending to raise up a Son from David’s line and put him on the throne forever, world without end. That’s what ended up happening.

When Jesus rose again from the dead, God gave him the name above every name. Jesus ascended on high and was crowned King over all the kings and Lord over all the lords. And Jesus Christ is the ruling, reigning, and coming King who will bring righteousness, peace, and joy in fullness forever, to be enjoyed by all who have trusted in him.

This leads us to one more reason to worship God while we wait for all of his promises to be fulfilled. We worship because he is faithful in love, faithful in power, faithful to save, and faithful when we are faithless.

Faithful When We’re Faithless

Psalm 89:38-52

I read psalms like this, and in one way I so wish I could travel back there. We see things the psalmist couldn’t see. Ethan the Ezrahite hasn’t read the New Testament. Given where we live in history, when we hear him asking questions that imply God has abandoned his promise, we wish we could travel back and say, “Wait, there’s more! Listen, in about five hundred years, the skies above Bethlehem are going to light up. Angels will announce that the wait is over and a King has been born. He will rule the raging sea. He says, ‘Peace be still,’ and the waves obey him! He will take our sin on himself (just as Isaiah predicted!). He’ll rise again from the dead. And God will put Jesus Christ, the Son of David, on an eternal throne.” We could tell him that in our time we are seeing the kingdom and rule of Jesus expanding through the church of Jesus Christ. Nations are being drawn to him right now. We could say that because we see things the psalmist couldn’t see.

But at the same time, we wait with the psalmist for what we still don’t see. Just as we could go back and tell Ethan, “Hang on, there’s more,” Hebrews 12 tells us a great cloud of witnesses have gone before us, and if we could hear them, they would be saying to us, “Hang on. There’s more.” The problem is that waiting isn’t always easy.

I don’t know if they still have this, but in some places when you waited in line, you pulled a ticket number. So for example, you might walk inside and pull the number 43, and then you hear someone yell out, “Serving number five,” and you want to give up and leave. But what happens when you pull number 43, and you immediately hear them call, “Number forty-two”? Feels different, right?

The Bible has four tickets to pull. Ticket 1 was called in Genesis 1 (creation). Ticket 2 was called in Genesis 3 (fall). Ticket 3 was called in Matthew 1 when Jesus came to be our Redeemer (redemption). Believer in Christ, in your hand right now is ticket 4. The next thing on the calendar of redemption is pleasures evermore (glory).

The reason the ancient believers called this truth the “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13) is because if we knew this and lived life in light of eternity, though it wouldn’t give us heaven on earth, it would give us something we desperately need: hope. Hope in the knowledge and certainty that Jesus is ruling, Jesus is reigning, and Jesus is coming.

While we wait for the fulfilment of the promise, what do we do? We sing of the Lord’s faithful love. We call to mind his promises of salvation. We proclaim his glory to the nations.

A hymn was composed in the middle of the Civil War. Like Psalm 89, it brings together the themes of God’s sovereignty, our trials, and his promises.

My life goes on in endless song, above earth’s lamentations.

I hear the real, though far-off hymn, that hails a new creation.

Above the tumult and the strife, I hear its music ringing.

It sounds an echo in my soul. How can I keep from singing?

What though my joys and comforts die, the Lord my Savior liveth.

And though the darkness round me close, songs in the night he giveth.

No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that Rock I’m clinging.

Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing?

(Lowry, “How Can I Keep from Singing?”)

What does faith sound like when we’re still waiting for God’s promises to land in our experience? It sounds like a life bookended by worship, where we open our eyes on the day of our conversion with, “I will sing about the Lord’s faithful love forever” (v. 1). And by God’s grace we close our eyes at the end of this life saying, “Blessed be the Lord forever” (v. 52).

Reflect and Discuss