A New Covenant (5)

Pray Psalm 27.11-14.
Teach me Your way, O LORD,
And lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies.
Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries;
For false witnesses have risen against me,
And such as breathe out violence.
I would have lost heart, unless I had believed
That I would see the goodness of the LORD
In the land of the living.
Wait on the LORD;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the LORD!

Sing Psalm 27.11-14.
(Joanna: Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise)
Lord, teach us; Lord, lead us because of our foes!
Hear, Lord, when we plead for release from their woes.
Had we not believed all Your goodness to see,
Our heart sorely grieved and in turmoil would be.

Wait, wait on the Lord; persevere in His grace.
Hold fast to His Word; seek His radiant face.
Be strong, set your heart to abide in His Word;
His grace He imparts; therefore, wait on the Lord.

Read and meditate on Jeremiah 31.7-14.

Prepare.
1. What did God promise His people in these verses?

2. What did God do to accomplish this?

Meditate.
Our text looks forward to a day of ransom and redemption (v. 11). The people of God are to be wrested from the hand of the one who was stronger than they, and returned to their land with joy and prosperity. He Who scattered them will gather them to Himself, and shepherd them by His everlasting love (v. 10), for God is their Father, and they are His people (v. 9).

The goodness of the Lord motivates this action, and it constitutes the richest blessing to which God brings His people (vv. 12, 14). God would not allow His people to languish in captivity. He would return them to their land from all the nations to which He had sent them. He will save them and gather them to His goodness (v. 7), and they shall come with rejoicing at His command.

In the short term, Jeremiah was restating the promise to those captive in Babylon, that God would return them to their land at the end of seventy years. But the ultimate redemption promised in these verses – the jewel in the crown of God’s goodness – will be for a later day. For God’s people need to be saved and ransomed, not only from all their physical maladies and constraints, but from their sins and rebelliousness. Only a work of redemption can accomplish that, and this will be for a later day, when Jesus comes to take His place on the throne of David.

Reflect.
1. How would you explain the goodness of the Lord to an unbelieving friend?

2. How do you experience the goodness of the Lord through the course of a day?

3. What does it mean to have your soul “be like a well-watered garden”?

He adds, and they shall flow together to the goodness of Jehovah, to the wheat, vine, and oil. This mode of speaking, common among the Prophets, ought to be specially noticed. They describe the kingdom of Christ in a way suitable to the comprehension of a rude people, and hence they set before them external images; for when Christ's kingdom is the subject, mention is made of gold, of silver, of every kind of wealth, and also of great splendor and of great power, for we know that what is beyond and above the world cannot be immediately comprehended by the human mind. John Calvin (1509-1564), Commentary on Jeremiah 31.12

Help me to seek Your Kingdom today, O Lord, as I…

Pray Psalm 27.1-10.
Contemplate the beauty of the Lord. Seek His face, and the glory revealed there. Call on Him to guide you in His way for this day.

Sing Psalm 27.1-10.
Psalm 27.1-10 (Joanna: Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise)
Lord, You are our Light and our Savior most dear!
You guard us with might; therefore, whom shall we fear?
Though evil surround us, our enemies fall;
No harm shall confound us when on You we call.

One thing we request but to dwell with You, Lord.
Your beauty to test and to think on Your Word.
In trouble You hide us secure in Your grace;
No foe may o’erride us: We sing of Your praise!

Hear, Lord, when we cry and be gracious, we pray!
Lord, do not deny us Your favor this day!
Our help, our salvation, though others may fall,
Preserve our good station when on You we call.

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).