Praising God for his Faithfulness 3

For many people, their praise towards God matches their mood. When things are going well, they are happy and feel that God must be blessing them, if indeed they stop to think about him at all. But when life gets difficult, they are more than just naturally upset—they are convinced God must not be as faithful as they thought. Or perhaps they automatically begin to think that God must be punishing them for some reason. This kind of thinking is not Biblical. If a Christian thinks this way, they become what I call a “yo-yo” Christian. Just like a Yo-yo goes up and down constantly, their spiritual life does the same. When they’re up, they are vibrant and on fire for God. When they’re down, they are not just unhappy, they are spiritually cynical and bitter. It is natural to be upset in bad times, but our sorrow should never shake our ability to praise God. Whether we are happy or sad, we should be always able to praise God for his constant faithfulness.

is a celebration of God’s eternal faithfulness. It was written by an obscure musician hired by David. His name was Ethan the Ezrahite. Ethan wrote to celebrate God’s faithfulness to David at a time when it did not seem like God was being very faithful. This is our third sermon investigating this beautiful Psalm. In order to understand the third part, let us review the first two sections.

I. God is Faithful in his Character—Praise Him

What makes God’s faithfulness so great? It is because of the Greatness of our Faithful God. If a powerful world leader made you a promise, and you knew that they would certainly stick by their promise, then that would be incredible, right? If you have a dog, you know that they are always loyal too. But the faithfulness of the world leader is amazing, and the faithfulness of the dog is not, because of how great or little they are.

How do we see God’s greatness? In heaven the angels stand in awe of him . They have existed from the dawn of time, and have superhuman strength, wisdom, and intelligence. Yet they are in such awe of God’s surpassing majesty that the cry “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord” never ceases day or night. On earth he rules the raging sea . From north to south, from east to west, all the earth shouts his faithfulness and power. Even the Devil is no match for the overwhelming majesty of almighty God. When humans are exalted to great power and majesty, they often become corrupt. But not God. He rules in perfect righteousness and justice . Yet this righteousness does not have to be a threat to unworthy sinners like us, for he freely offers us the chance to become his people though his free gift of salvation. When we become God’s People we share in God’s righteousness, glory, grace, and strength. This is why Ethan writes

Psalm 89:1–2 ESV

I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever; in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.”

II. God is Faithful to his Covenant—Trust Him

Because God is so great, even the smallest promise would be amazing. But God’s promises are tremendously great. He delights in making eternal Covenants with people. A Covenant is a legally binding agreement sealed by a sacred vow. God makes these covenants with individuals, or with Israel, but they have a way of spilling over to impact the entire world. His Covenant with David is the one that this psalm focuses on . God chose David and made him mighty because he is the kind of God who chooses the weak . God protected David in all the many dangers he faced, because God delights in giving his people the victory. God promised David’s Son such an exalted status, that only Jesus can fill it . God gave him absolute authority over land and sea. He became his Father, which means he inherits God’s stuff - everything; and means that he will chasten him but not abandon him . God promised that David’s Son would be the highest possible authority, the firstborn of the kings of the earth. Most of all, this Covenant was forever. There was no possibility that God would ever change his mind .

III. God is Faithful even in Chastening—Wait for Him

God is always faithful. But any Christian who has walked with God for a while can tell you that there are many times when it does not seem like God is faithful. This is because God’s purposes are really long-term. He can see the end of all things, but we are limited in time; we cannot see the end of the story. So it is that God’s timing is often way longer than we think it should be. God has guaranteed the Christian’s ultimate victory in Christ, but the details of the course of our lives are not so clear. God did not promise skies always blue, life without trials. But he has promised strength for today. You might think that having direct prophecy would help you trust more, but this is not the case. God had given specific direct prophecy about the line of David, but this is what made it even more confusing. But it is when we cannot see God’s faithfulness that we most need to trust him. Ethan tells us three kinds of difficulties where we need to continue to trust God for his faithfulness.

A. Look on God beyond your Troubles

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This is the first clue we get that not everything is well with God’s promises to David. We find out that it seems like God has done exactly what the first part of the Psalm tells us he would never do. That he has already praised God for his faithfulness even in such circumstances tells us that he has not given up on God. But neither does he live in a dream-world that cannot be affected by life’s troubles. So even though this last part of the Psalm is very dark, I do not think he wants us to leave depressed. Instead, he wants us to understand just how dark things are, so that we can still trust God for his faithfulness even when the unimaginable happens.

God had promised that he would chasten David’s sons if they disobeyed. But it is one thing to know this intellectually, and it is another to actually live it. They were surprised and dismayed by the cost and fierceness of God’s anger . When God was angry with another anointed leader of Israel, Moses was denied entrance into the promised land

Deuteronomy 3:26 ESV

But the Lord was angry with me because of you and would not listen to me. And the Lord said to me, ‘Enough from you; do not speak to me of this matter again.

When God cast off and rejected his temple during the exile, it was completely destroyed

Lamentations 2:7 ESV

The Lord has scorned his altar, disowned his sanctuary; he has delivered into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they raised a clamor in the house of the Lord as on the day of festival.

When God rejected Saul, he removed him from being King of Israel

1 Samuel 16:1 ESV

The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.”

God’s anger had wider effects than just the King. It impacted the whole nation. When the enemy broke down walls and damaged fortifications, it was God who made it happen (v. 40). When the nation lost so much prestige that outsiders began raiding and stealing from people, it was God who allowed it to happen (v.41). When Israel lost battles and the enemy won, it was God who strengthened their foes and made them lose. (v. 42-43) When the monarchy lost prestige, it was God who cast his throne to the ground. (v.44) When the King was shamed and prematurely aged, it was God who shortened his days and dishonored him. (v.45)

But when in Israel’s history could this have happened? If we understand the historical context, it will help us understand Ethan’s experience, which will both help us feel his pain and help us see how he could still trust God anyway.

The first things that comes to the mind of many students of Scripture is the captivity of Jehoiachin in 597 BC. He was just 18 when he became king and reigned for only three months, which fits with his “days being cut short” ()

2 Kings 24:8 ESV

Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.

2 kgs

Nebuchadnezzar besieged the city, took the King captive along with the best of Israel

2 Kings 24:10–12 ESV

At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up to Jerusalem, and the city was besieged. And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to the city while his servants were besieging it, and Jehoiachin the king of Judah gave himself up to the king of Babylon, himself and his mother and his servants and his officials and his palace officials. The king of Babylon took him prisoner in the eighth year of his reign

Plus the treasures of the King’s house and the Temple and the best citizens of Judah.

2 Kings 24:13–16 ESV

and carried off all the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold in the temple of the Lord, which Solomon king of Israel had made, as the Lord had foretold. He carried away all Jerusalem and all the officials and all the mighty men of valor, 10,000 captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths. None remained, except the poorest people of the land. And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon. The king’s mother, the king’s wives, his officials, and the chief men of the land he took into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. And the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon all the men of valor, 7,000, and the craftsmen and the metal workers, 1,000, all of them strong and fit for war.

2 kgs 24:13-

This fits with the plundering by foreigners, the breaking down of walls, the exaltation of Israel’s enemies, losing the battle, and the loss of the prestige of the monarchy. I have no doubt that this psalm was a huge encouragement for those who lived through this time. Imagine what it would have been like to live through this. God’s anointed king was defeated, and the nation was ruined. People would have been asking, “Can I still trust God?” Why would he let this happened when he promised an eternal Covenant to David’s Sons? This psalm would have let them give a voice to their distress, but still remind them that God has not changed. He is still the same faithful God anyway.

But when we read this psalm, we have the advantage of hindsight. We know what happened to Israel. The exile made every other judgment of God seem so little by comparison, that everything that came before seemed ok. But if you had lived before that, you would have had a different perspective. If you lived through the worst problem the nation of Israel had faced up to that point, you would have been thinking the same thing - “Can I still trust God?” “How can God still be faithful when all of this has happened.” Furthermore, there are hints that Ethan is not talking about the total captivity. First of all, there is no mention of a captivity. Walls are broken, strongholds ruined, the king is rejected. But no captivity. Second, the word for walls (v. 40) is not the regular word for a city wall. It is a fairly rare word, but when it does occur it usually means something like “fence, hedge, or sheepfold.” And the word for ruin in that same verse does not need to mean total annihilation

Proverbs 10:15 ESV

A rich man’s wealth is his strong city; the poverty of the poor is their ruin.

A poor man can suffer irreparable damage from his poverty, but that does not mean he dies.

Finally and most compelling, Ethan probably did not live to see the exile. We know very little about him, but it seems like he was appointed as a musician by King David himself (). If he had been a young man toward the end of David’s life, he could have lived through the reigns of David and Solomon, and been an old man when Rehoboam took the throne. But he could not have lived much longer than that. So is there an event that took place during that time that fits this? Yes there is.

Within a few short years after Rehoboam became king, the nation of Israel suffered one enormous setback after another. In , the northern tribes asked Rehoboam to lower the huge taxes his father Solomon had levied to pay for his many building projects.

But rather than listen to them and heal the conflict, he acted like a spoiled brat and threatened them with worse treatment. In response, the ten northern tribes revolted and created their own nation, the northern kingdom of Israel. They appointed Jereboam as their king instead of the Rehoboam, the grandson of David. And it could not have been more clear that God was behind this. The prophet Ahijah promised Jereboam by the Word of the Lord that he would be king of the ten northern tribes (1 kings 11:29-39). And when Judea tried to go to war to force the reunification of the nation, God told them through the prophet Shemaiah

1 Kings 12:24 ESV

‘Thus says the Lord, You shall not go up or fight against your relatives the people of Israel. Every man return to his home, for this thing is from me.’ ” So they listened to the word of the Lord and went home again, according to the word of the Lord.

1 Kings 12:16–17 ESV

And when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, “What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, David.” So Israel went to their tents. But Rehoboam reigned over the people of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah.

1 kings 12:

And if that was not bad enough, the monarchy lost so much prestige that Pharaoh king of Egypt came up and defeated Rehoboam and invaded Jerusalem. He took the treasure of the King’s House and the Temple, including the gold shields Solomon had made for his palace complex (1 kings 14:25-28).

1 kgs 12:16-

But rather than listen to them and heal the conflict, he acted like a spoiled brat and threatened them with worse treatment. In response, the ten northern tribes revolted and created their own nation, the northern kingdom of Israel. They appointed Jereboam as their king instead of the Rehoboam, the grandson of David. That breach was never healed. And if that was not bad enough, the monarchy lost so much prestige that Pharaoh king of Egypt came up and defeated Rehoboam and invaded Jerusalem. He took the treasure of the King’s House and the Temple, including the gold shields Solomon had made for his palace complex.

1 kgs 14:25-

1 Kings 14:25–26 ESV

1 Kings 14:25–28 ESV

In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem. He took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house. He took away everything. He also took away all the shields of gold that Solomon had made, and King Rehoboam made in their place shields of bronze, and committed them to the hands of the officers of the guard, who kept the door of the king’s house. And as often as the king went into the house of the Lord, the guard carried them and brought them back to the guardroom.

the 1 kings 14:25-28

Imagine what this would have felt like. The Son of David was no longer king of all Israel, but only king of a small part of what God had promised him. He had been defeated and Jerusalem invaded. All the wealth Solomon had built up was gone. People would have been afraid that if this trend continued, there would be no Israel left for the Son of David to rule over, or there simply would not be a son of David anymore. Today when bad things happen people start worrying and imagining the worst case scenario. When they do they make things much worse then they are. Human nature has not changed, so that is what people would have been doing back then too. Because they would imagine the worst, they would begin to doubt God’s faithfulness. They would begin to imagine that God had broken his promise. This is what Ethan is struggling with.

But, of course, God had not broken his promises. He was only doing what he promised - when David’s sons sinned,

Psalm 89:32 ESV

then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes,

In other words, God was chastening them as a father. The difference between chastening and punishment is the difference between a judge and a parent. A judge is trying to make sure that wrongdoers get what they deserve. A parent wants to correct the child and make them better. As father this is what God does for all his children

Proverbs 3:11–12 ESV

My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

God’s chastening can be very costly and painful for you just as it was for the Kings of Israel. But no matter how much it hurts, He still has your best interests in mind. We look beyond our troubles by submitting to his correction and repenting of our sinful actions. God will never deal with the Christian as an angry judge, but they still need to repent and change to maintain close fellowship with him as his children. Not all suffering is the result of sin, so a close walk with God will not eliminate all trouble in your life. Because a Christian is still a sinner, there will always be a need for continued repentance and change, and when we do that, we will minimize the cost of God’s chastening hand in our lives.

B. Look around beyond Personal Insults

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The tragedy of Rehoboam’s reign had not gone unnoticed by the surrounding nations. The division of the nation combined with the loss of military power made Judea the laughing stock of the middle east. This was more than just a political defeat, it was a religious one as well. The servants of the Lord are the ones that are mocked. The enemies of the anointed King of Israel are also the enemies of the Lord. In that day every nation had its gods, so when that nation was defeated, its gods were shown to be powerless. Israel’s God was Yahweh, creator of heaven and earth. So when Israel was defeated, the nations assumed it was because God was too weak to defend his people. They did not understand that God was chastening the King.

These insults affected Ethan personally - he bore them “in my heart.” Of course, he was part of the nation of Israel, and that is partly why it bothered him so much. But it was more than just patriotism and personal insult that motivated him. God had brought chastening, but the chastening had caused God’s own name to be slandered. If we are motivated by selfish protection of our own reputation, we should not expect God to hear such a prayer. But if we are bothered when God is insulted, he will hear such a prayer

Romans 15:3 ESV

For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.”

It is just this kind of reasoning that Moses used after the Golden Calf incident when he prayed to ask God not to destroy Israel for their sin. He prayed:

Exodus 32:12 ESV

Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people.

And Moses’ prayer worked. God did not destroy the nation. As for Ethan, God’s faithfulness was in fact still with the nations of Judea and Israel, something that became clear over time. So even though the division was never healed until the exile and even though Judea never again reached the power and wealth they experienced in Solomon’s day, God had not forgotten them. He continued to protect them, and when the reigning king served God he also blessed them.

God’s faithfulness to David will ultimately be fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Jeremiah and Isaiah lived centuries later then Ethan, but they still predicted.

Jeremiah 23:5 ESV

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

Isaiah 9:6–7 ESV

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Sometimes we lose respect through our own fault, but sometimes it is not. We may lose respect by association with someone else who messed up. We may lose respect because of our own faithfulness to God stops us from bending the rules to look good like everyone else. It is especially difficult when we lose respect and do not deserve it. But God is still faithful. The day is coming when everything will work out the way it is supposed to be. In the meantime, look beyond personal insults to God’s enduring faithfulness

C. Look ahead beyond your lifetime

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It is all well and good for God to keep his promises centuries later, but how does that help me now? That is the question our psalmist asks. He reminds the Lord that a future deliverance beyond his lifetime does not help him. But perhaps you think of heaven here. Won’t God make things right in the resurrection? Indeed he will. But in the Old Testament they knew much less about heaven than we do. They knew that there was life beyond the grave, but they did not know anything about it. Therefore they needed to experience justice in this lifetime to benefit from it. This explains his desperate plea for God to do something now. But today we know that God has promised his children eternal life in the Kingdom of God. It is then that life’s inequities will be solved. Only by looking ahead beyond your lifetime can you resolve the psalmist’s dilemma.

Jeremiah 23:5 ESV

Whatever difficulty you may be experiencing, you can trust in the faithfulness of God to get you through. If you are experiencing the chastening hand of God, then it is an expression of God’s love. If you or someone you know has damaged their testimony and given unbelievers reason to mock the Lord, yet God does not abandon his children. A prayer for God’s reputation will be answered, though he will do it in his time and in his way. God has promised his children eternal life, so it is certain that any trouble the Christian may experience in this life will be resolved, either in this life or in the one to come. Therefore even in suffering you can still praise God for his faithfulness. Let his faithfulness be your rock, your stable ground when all else gives way.