Systematic Theology – Covenant

Covenant Faithfulness

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Lesson: 04-22

Genre: Speech

Track: 4 of 22

Dictation Name: 04 Covenant Faithfulness

Location/Venue:

Year:

In this second session our subject will be Covenant Faithfulness. Covenant Faithfulness and our scripture is Psalm 138. Covenant Faithfulness, Psalm 138.

“I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee.

2 I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

3 In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.

4 All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O Lord, when they hear the words of thy mouth.

5 Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord: for great is the glory of the Lord.

6 Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.

7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.

8 The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.”

The subtitle to this psalm reads ‘David praises God for the truthfulness of His word’. It might be more accurate to say David praiseth God for the truth of His covenant word. There is a very prevalent myth that the Old Testament deals with civil and social matters whereas the New Testament deals more with the personal, the individual soul. This is nonsense. The whole of scripture is one word. One word declaring the claims of our God upon the totality of our lives, personal and social, political and educational, vocational, all things are under Him. The Lord called forth the church to be His new Israel and He singled out twelve disciples to take the place of the twelve patriarchs of Israel. He established a covenant in His blood with this new Israel and He sent them out to bring the nations of the world under his dominion. The Old Testament as fully as the New deals also with the soul of man. Not only the psalms but the books of the law and of the prophets speak to the heart of man, the bible is one unified word. Psalm 138 is thanksgiving, David’s thanksgiving for covenant grace and mercy. All expressions of personal faith in the Bible are covenantal expressions. Man rejoicing before the Lord that He in His grace and mercy has entered into covenant with us. And so David says:

“I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee.”

Before the powers of the world, before all the false religions of the world, before every human being I will witness to the power and the grace of the sovereign God. David witnesses to God, acknowledges His faithfulness and David in his psalm expresses his joy. He knows God’s faithfulness.

Even to the lowliest God is so mindful of all things that we can say the Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. What a magnificent sentence and there is no believer that cannot say that. God who dresses the flowers of the field and watches over the birds of the heaven, not a sparrow falls apart from Him will perfect, will bring to maturity in terms of His purpose everything that concerns us. Moreover David rejoices also in the fact that all the kings of the earth will be brought into the covenant and will praise the Lord. Isaiah 19:18, looking down the ages at the world of the ungodly, the Egypt, we would say today the Soviet Union qualifies as an Egypt and the United States, for right now in San Francisco the gays are going into the public schools to talk about lesbianism and homosexuality and leading the children in acting out gay roles but no one dare go in there and say anything about Jesus Christ. This too is like Egypt of old but yet Isaiah 19:18 says:

“In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to theLord of hosts; one shall be called, The city of destruction.”

They will call upon His name and swear by the name of the Lord God of Hosts for He shall prevail. All the kings of the earth will be brought into the covenant. They shall praise Thee oh Lord when they hear the words of Thy mouth. Yea they shall sing in the ways of the Lord for great is the glory of the Lord. In Psalm 102:22 the Psalmist looks ahead to the time when the people are gathered together and the kingdoms to serve the Lord. The people here being the goim, the ungodly nations of the world. They shall be gathered together in the kingdoms to serve the Lord.

We are also told in the psalms as in Zechariah 9:10:

“And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.”

This is a magnificent psalm but the key verse, the key verse is the second verse which has the most audacious, the most astounding statement in the whole bible, there is not another statement like it.

“I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth…”

Well the Bible often says that, but then:

“: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.”

Nobody but one inspired by God would dare make such a statement. What does it mean? Why the Bible tells us that there is nothing greater than the name of God. The name stands for God and Himself, God who is so great that He cannot even be named. Moses at the burning bush deeply distressed because age after age had passed and the children of Israel had bee in captivity and God says I am the Lord thy God and he said Lord, what is your name, I don’t understand you, define yourself. Give me a definition of yourself, we’ve been waiting a long time, what’s happened. Explain yourself God and He said I am that I Am. I am He who is, in other words, I cannot be defined, there is no definition that can define me because definitions are like a fence and can you put a fence around God and say here God ends? No. I am that I Am or as it also can be translated ‘I Am He Who Is’. The one who cannot be defined, the one who defines all things and makes all things, by Him all things were made and without Him was anything made that was made. But, I am also the God who reveals Himself so that you can know me, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Revelation.

The name of God so great that in Old Testament times and to this day no orthodox Jew pronounces it. Instead they simply say Adoni, Lord, never Jehovah or Yahweh. But what does God here say through the lips of His servant, David? For thou hast magnified Thy word above all Thy name, this is David’s joy. You cannot put anything about the name of God, above the person of God, but God Himself speaking through him says my covenant word, that is what the word is always, God’s covenant word, His promise to man, His covenant with man. God says through David I have placed my promises to you above my very person. Now if I promise you something, being a human being, and in a case when it would perhaps wipe me out financially or cost me my life I would think twice about keeping my word to you, I’m afraid, and you would the same with me. We would not put our word above ourselves. We might like to think we would but we are sinners and though saved by grace we are still sinners. But God says my word, my covenant word that I have made a high a place as it is possible to speak of doing so, above my very person. Does it explain John 3:16?

“For God so loved the world…”

The world that fell, the world into which he entered into covenant before the fall and again after the fall, calling out men unto Himself.

“that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Placed His covenant word above His name, above His being, above His person, so that He gave His only begotten son to die for us.

The covenant is a binding contract, it binds both parties to live and to die In faithfulness to that word and only God puts that word above His very person, above His name, His being. There is no sentence like this in all the Bible.

“: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.”

God says He places His covenant word and His promise unto us above His name, all His promises therefore unto us are yea and amen, so be it, thus sayeth the Lord. A tremendous word, the covenant word. But this accentuates the fearfulness of our unfaithfulness to Him and of all sin. That when God places so great a stress on His promise to us we not only do not give Him our lives without qualification, oh we say we are the Lords but the living room is yours Lord but don’t walk into our closets and our bedrooms, we want to keep a lot of our lives to ourselves. And we’ll give you five or ten dollars for the offering plate but don’t get stinky about the tithe or expect much more from us. What God does with His promise to us makes it all the more frightening, but our faithfulness to Him and our word to Him is placed so far beneath our person and we keep it so poorly. When God places His word above His name and is faithful unto death we must be faithful unto life. Covenant faithfulness.

The covenant faithfulness of God, this is the great message of this psalm. Are there any questions now about this Psalm? Yes?

[Question] You made a comment earlier but I don’t know if I caught it quite right, you said that all the kings of the earth will be under the covenant, is that what I heard right?

[Rushdoony] That’s what the Psalmist said, all the kings of the earth shall praise Thee oh Lord, when they hear the words of Thy mouth. What God is saying that in due time every people, tribe, tongue and nation, out of them a great multitude will serve Him and all of them are going to be commanded in due time by those who are the Lord’s men.

[Question] The implication then is that they will follow the Covenant, not that they…

[Rushdoony] They are converted, yes, and follow the covenant, that’s the plain meaning of it, there is no way, there are so many passages like that in the scripture. Nations shall not make war anymore against nation; they shall beat their swords into share plows, their spears into pruning hooks. God says He’s going to triumph; the Lord Jesus Christ is going to be the king. Any other questions or comments?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes, yes and no. In other words everything comes in God’s time, but you see the mystery of predestination is not that God does everything and we do nothing. It’s that God does everything and He is the source of all determination and yet it’s our faithfulness and it’s our works of obedience and it’s our turning our hearts to the Lord, it isn’t one or the other it’s both. Now that’s a mystery to us that the Bible says the Lord predestines all things and the Bible says also to us thou art the man. That we are responsible, that if we do certain things certain blessings follow. It doesn’t ask us to explain why both are true, it asks us to believe both are true so we have to believe both because the bible teaches both.

[Question Unintelligible, everyone talking at once]

[Rushdoony] Any other questions or comments?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Again you’d have to say yes and no. In terms of the sovereign decree of God no, in terms of the immediate present, when we sin, when we do not fulfill the word of God we’re thwarting His purposes and yet in the ultimate sense no man can. You see the bible is emphatic, what we do is important even though what god had done determines all things, we cannot say it’s man’s will or God’s will exclusively, it’s both although God’s will is the final and determining factor. Now again all we can is it’s a mystery but both are clearly taught and we dare not detract the one from the other. Well if there are no further questions lets bow our heads in prayer or did someone have another question? Alright let’s bow our heads in prayer.

Our Lord and our God it has been good for us to be here, Thy word is truth, and Thy word is peace and strength, grace, mercy and righteous judgment. Give us grace to walk humbly before Thee all the days of our lives. Make us every mindful of how Thou hast exalted Thy covenant word above Thy very name, that we too might be in all our being mindful of Thy covenant word, obedient thereto and every joyful in Thy grace. Bless us now on our homeward way, give us a blessed night’s rest and joy in our service of Thee day by day. In Jesus’ name, Amen.