A New Covenant (4)

Pray Psalm 122.1-4.
I was glad when they said to me,
“Let us go into the house of the LORD.”
Our feet have been standing
Within your gates, O Jerusalem!
Jerusalem is built
As a city that is compact together,
Where the tribes go up,
The tribes of the LORD,
To the Testimony of Israel,
To give thanks to the name of the LORD.

Sing Psalm 122.1-4.
(Nettleton: Come Thou Fount)
I was glad when they  said to me, “To the Lord’s house let us go!”
Holy City, let our feet be firmly planted in your soil.
Jesus builds His Church forever, where His people sing His praise!
As Your Word decrees forever, we will thank You all our days.

Read and meditate on Jeremiah 31.1-6.

Prepare.
1. Why did God promise to renew His people?

2. How would the people react when He did?

Meditate.
We can’t help but feel momentum building in this section for some new work of God on behalf of His people. In chapter 29, God promised His people a future and a hope, and told them He had plans for them to realize this. In chapter 30 God declared that He would bring His people back from captivity to serve Him once again, that they would give Him abundant praise and thanks, and that He would glorify them. Then He restated the motto which is closely associated with His covenant: “You shall be My people, and I will be your God” (30.22).

The same ideas recur in our passage for today. God promised to be “God of all the families of Israel,” and assured them that “they shall be My people” (v. 1). He reaffirmed His eternal love for His people (v. 3), and He promised that the nation would once again be rebuilt (v. 4). Then there would be dancing and celebrating, and planting and harvesting aplenty (vv. 4, 5). And then the watchmen would call the people to assemble to their God, to worship Him on Mt. Zion (v. 6).

Sounds like old times. But not quite. Not old times, but better times, as we shall see. As the captives began to settle into their “new normal” in Babylon, God reminded them of His old and unchanging promises, and of the covenant by which He had bound Himself to them. He did this so that they would not forget, and to encourage them to long for a day of renewal in Him. He will continue to nurture this sense of anticipation on the part of His people as chapter 31 proceeds, until at the end, He surprises them with the promise, not of covenant renewal, but of a new covenant altogether.

And the key to it all is verse 2: “The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness – Israel, when I went to give him rest”, says the Lord. They who had disobeyed, rebelled, and abandoned God found grace nonetheless. And so it is with us. All our wellbeing, hope, and abounding joy are the result of God’s grace. That was so in the Old Testament, and it is so in the New Testament. God’s covenant and all the blessings that come to us through that covenant are by His grace, manifested especially in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Reflect.
1. What did God mean by saying that He loves His people with an “everlasting love”?

2. Why must our relationship with God depend entirely on His grace? What is our duty in the face of that grace?

3. Worship is central to our renewed relationship with God (v. 6). Why is that?

Yea, he says, I have loved thee with perpetual love. God then here shews, that the redemption, by which he had exhibited a remarkable proof of his mercy, was founded on the gratuitous adoption which was not for one year, but perpetual in its duration. We thus see that he reproves the detestable blasphemy of the people, and intimates that adoption was the cause of their redemption. John Calvin (1509-1564), Commentary on Jeremiah 31.3

Thank You for Your everlasting love, O Lord; help me to show my love for You today as I…

Pray Psalm 122.5-9.
Thank the Lord for His peace, His promises, and His Presence as you go forth to serve Him today.

Sing Psalm 122.5-9.
Psalm 122.5-9 (Nettleton: Come Thou Fount)
On the throne of David, Jesus sits to judge the nations all.
As our holy peace increases, we are safe who on You call.
Grant us peace, Lord, by Your favor, for Your people’s sake we pray.
For the Church’s sake, O Savior, we will seek Your good today.

T. M. Moore

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All quotations from Church Fathers from Ancient Christian Commentary Series, General Editor Thomas C. Oden (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006). All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (available by clicking here).