Psalms 89:8

I have made a covenant with My chosen, I have sworn unto David My servant.

The covenant of redemption

The psalmist is anticipating the time when the families of mankind should be raised from a condition of spiritual ruin, when the covenant should be given back to them, whereby they should be brought back to a state of reconciliation and friendship with God. This rising fabric which the psalmist here contemplated, therefore, instead of being an edifice of temporal prosperity, appears before us as a great spiritual temple, of which the plan is laid in the eternal ages, and of which the building up and the completion is to be effected by the eternal Son of God.

I. The origin of the covenant of grace. It was devised and set on foot by God Himself. It was not to propitiate the Father that Christ came into the world. It was that God so loved the world that He sent His Son into the world. Here, therefore, is our security. It is the Judge Himself signing the prisoner’s release. It is the infinite Creditor Himself forgiving us all our debt. It is the King whose laws we had broken, against whose throne we had conspired, and whose sceptre we had cast aside; He it is who out of love and mercy to us, and in the councils of infinite wisdom, originated that convenant whereby we may be restored to His friendship and reconciliation.

II. With whom this covenant was made. “My chosen,”--the eternal Son of God. Both actively and passively Christ manages the whole business of our salvation. It is therefore--

1. Everlasting.

2. Perfect.

3. Sure.

III. For whose benefit this covenant was intended, (1 Timothy 2:4; John 3:16; 1 John 2:2.) (D. Moore, M.A.)