Looking toward Restoration (6)

Pray Psalm 132.13-18.
For the LORD has chosen Zion;
He has desired it for His dwelling place:
“This is My resting place forever;
Here I will dwell, for I have desired it.
I will abundantly bless her provision;
I will satisfy her poor with bread.
I will also clothe her priests with salvation,
And her saints shall shout aloud for joy.
There I will make the horn of David grow;
I will prepare a lamp for My Anointed.
His enemies I will clothe with shame,
But upon Himself His crown shall flourish.”

Sing Psalm 132.13-18.
(Finlandia: Be Still My Soul)
God dwells among us, and He will forever,
to meet our needs and clothe us with His grace.
He has to us sent Jesus Christ, our Savior,
and made us His eternal resting-place.
His foes are banished from His Presence ever,
but we shall reign with Him before His face.

Read and meditate on Jeremiah 33.19-26.

Prepare.
1. What were “these people” (v. 24) saying to prompt this reply from God?

2. To what does God point as symbolic of the reliability of His Word?

Meditate.
Verse 24 is the operative text for this passage. Some people – “these people” – were saying that God had cast off the “two families” He had chosen – Israel (the northern kingdom) and Judah (the southern kingdom). We’re not quite sure who “these people” were. Perhaps this saying arose as a taunt from among the ranks of the Babylonian armies, which were besieging the city. And maybe it was picked up by soldiers on the walls or people in the streets of Jerusalem, and used as an epithet to deplore their situation and their God. We don’t know. But people were saying it, and God stirred His prophet to silence such rubbish by declaring the Word of the Lord.

Whoever “these people” were, God determined to vindicate His Name and promises. His covenant – and here He probably had in mind the covenant in both its old and new dispensations – was as solid and unfailing as the night sky and the seasons. Those who would benefit from it would be as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sand of the seas – both metaphors used of God’s old covenant (cf. Gen. 15.5; 22.17). God’s Word had gone out from Him, and it had not yet accomplished all His purpose in sending it. But it would not fail.

Soon enough a new King, descended from David, would mount the eternal throne and usher in the new covenant; and a new Priest would minister to God, pleading His own blood for the forgiveness and salvation of God’s people (vv. 26, 22).

God’s Word is sure. He doesn’t run on our schedules, and He isn’t required to do for us whatever we want. As He pointed Jeremiah back to His Word, when the prophet had a question he could not answer, so He points us to His Word and says, in effect, “Understand! Believe! Wait! Obey!” The blessings of His eternal covenant flow to those who hear Him and trust in His Word.

Reflect.
1. Why can we believe that no Word of God will ever fail?

2. How should the reliability of God’s Word lead us to think about the Scriptures and the use we should make of them?

3. How can believers help one another to have confidence in God’s Word?

Here God opposes the constancy of his faithfulness to their perverse murmurings, of which he had complained; and he again adduces the similitude previously brought forward: "lf, then, I have not fixed my covenant, or if there is no covenant as to the day and the night, ― if there are no laws as to heaven and earth, then I shall now cast away the seed of Jacob and the seed of David: but if my constancy is ever conspicuous as to the laws of nature, how is it that ye ascribe not to me my due honor? John Calvin (1509-1564), Commentary on Jeremiah 33.25

Your Word is true and reliable, Lord, and I will count on it today as I…

Pray Psalm 132.1-12.
God has fulfilled His old covenant with the new covenant that we have in Jesus. Give thanks and praise, and renew your commitment to worship and serve the Lord according to His Word.

Sing Psalm 132.1-12.
Psalm 132.1-12 (Finlandia: Be Still My Soul)
Remember, Lord, we pray, in David’s favor,
the hardships he endured, the oath he swore,
the vow he made to Jacob’s mighty Savior:
“I shall not enter through my palace door;
I shall not sleep, nor slumber my eyes favor,
Until I make a dwelling for the Lord!”

The word throughout the chosen nation spread,
to Ephrata, and in the fields of Jaar:
“Now let us go,” the faithful people said,
and worship where our Savior’s dwellings are!
Around His footstool let our worship spread;
come, gather to Him, all from near and far!”

Arise, O Lord, come to Your resting place;
Your holy Presence meet with us in might.
Clothe us with righteousness in Jesus’ grace,
and we will shout to Your divine delight!
For David’s sake, turn not away Your face,
but look upon us in Your holy light.

Remember, Lord, the oath You swore to David;
do not turn back, do not deny Your Word:
“One of your sons, with your throne I will favor,
and He shall keep My cov’nant evermore,
and walk within My testimonies ever,
thus He shall ever rule as Israel’s Lord.”

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).