Yesterday evening, my wife and I had the special privilege of leading Second Passover Seder for a couple of ladies who are beginning to understand more of God’s Word and had never celebrated any Feast of the Lord. The Haggadah that we used included parts of Psalm 89 in the latter portion of the feast, and in preparation for the evening, I reread all of the Psalm and was struck by a couple sections.
I will sing of the lovingkindness of the Lord forever;
To all generations I will make known Your faithfulness with my mouth.
2 For I have said, “Lovingkindness will be built up forever;
In the heavens You will establish Your faithfulness.”
3 “I have made a covenant with My chosen;
I have sworn to David My servant,
4 I will establish your seed forever
And build up your throne to all generations.” [d]Selah.
I cannot read this passage without remembering a chorus we would sing on the missionfields of Colombia, South America in the early 70’s:
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever, I will sing, I will sing. I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever, I will sing, yes I will sing.
With my mouth will I make known, Thy faithfulness, Thy faithfulness, with my mouth will make known Thy faithfulness to all generations!
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever, I will sing, yes I will sing!
The chorus specifically comes from Psalm 89 and a recounting of God’s covenant with David and his descendant, the Messiah, who will sit on the throne forever. Significantly, as a covenantal God, He clearly connects ‘covenant’ and ‘forever’ in this passage.
Most of Christendom would agree that Jesus, or more correctly, Yeshua will physically sit on that throne. If you are Christian in a Protestant church, I ask you to take ten quick minutes and continue reading some Scriptures about this King’s reign and what it will look like. I promise you that these Scriptures are going to challenge some of the things you have been taught in church, but please, set the doctrinal filters aside and simply ask the Spirit, through the Scriptures to speak to you. I will give you multiple witnesses from Scripture, then you, with open mind and heart, ask the Father how these verses fit into the doctrines you have been taught…
Let’s continue with a section of Psalm 89,
30 “If his sons forsake My law (Torah)
And do not walk in My judgments,
31 If they [u]violate My statutes
And do not keep My commandments,
32 Then I will punish their transgression with the rod
And their iniquity with stripes.
33 “But I will not break off My lovingkindness from him,
Nor deal falsely in My faithfulness.
34 “My covenant I will not [v]violate,
Nor will I alter [w]the utterance of My lips.
35 “[x]Once I have sworn by My holiness;
I will not lie to David.
36 “His [y]descendants shall endure forever
And his throne as the sun before Me.
37 “It shall be established forever like the moon,
And the witness in the sky is faithful.” [z]Selah.
According to this passage, David and his descendants will forever be required to walk in the Lord’s Torah, judgments, statutes and commandments, a fact reiterated in Scripture in hundreds of places. More on this in a minute.
Clearly, this ‘utterance of (His) lips’ is unalterable. Not only will the descendants last forever, but will keep Torah. Unalterable!
Does other Scripture bear this out? If so, does your doctrine account for it? Let’s see.
The Davidic Kingdom
24 “My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd; and they will walk in My ordinances and keep My statutes and observe them. 25 They will live on the land that I gave to Jacob My servant, in which your fathers lived; and they will live on it, they, and their sons and their sons’ sons, forever; and David My servant will be their prince forever. 26 I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will [a]place them and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in their midst forever. 27 My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. 28 And the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forever.”’”
Please notice, this passage from Ezekiel 37 clearly lays out the parameters for the future Davidic Kingdom.
- It is ‘forever’
- Residents will walk Torah, including the ordinances and statutes
- Residents will dwell in the land that was given to Jacob
- The Sanctuary (Temple) will be in their midst
- FOREVER. (mentioned 5 times!)
One cannot read Revelation 21 and 22 without taking this passage into account. Period! This passage is foundational and Revelation 21 and 22 only help flesh out or explain this passage, not the other way around. But for insurance, let’s consider some other passages:
Isaiah 2 The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 Now it will come about that
In the last days
The mountain of the house of the Lord
Will be established [a]as the chief of the mountains,
And will be raised above the hills;
And all the nations will stream to it.
3 And many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
That He may teach us [b]concerning His ways
And that we may walk in His paths.”
For the [c]law (TORAH) will go forth from Zion
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 And He will judge between the nations,
And will [d]render decisions for many peoples;
And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not lift up sword against nation,
And never again will they learn war.5 Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.
Folks, Torah, from the mouth of the Messiah, is central to the future Kingdom! In fact, it is central to the New Covenant! Jeremiah 31 and Hebrews 8 state,
Jeremiah 31 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. 33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law (TORAH) within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
Folks, the promise is that in the New Covenant, the Lord will write Torah on our hearts. This can be confirmed multiple places in Scripture.
Deut. 6:4 “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.
In a precursor to Ezekiel’s Dry Bones Vision and Two Sticks Prophecy, we read,
Ezekiel 36:22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. 23 I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord,” declares the Lord God, “when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight. 24 For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. 25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. 28 You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God.
Here we have seen that Moses (Deuteronomy), Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and the author of Hebrews all expect that God will change our heart and cause us, by His Spirit, to walk in His Torah (ways, laws, statutes, ordinances, judgments, etc).
There are more examples of this very point, but I will not belabor.
You may be saying, “But, but, but, Jesus…” So, what did Jesus / Yeshua, say?
Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. 18 For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not [a]the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches [b]others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever [c]keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Not only does Yeshua / Jesus say He did NOT come to abolish the Law (Torah), but every bit of it will stand until heaven and earth pass away (cf. Jeremiah 31:35-36; Deuteronomy 30:17-20)!! He further says, to annul or teach to annul is a ticket to be least in the kingdom. PLEASE!!! Ponder this deeply before teaching your children or some Sunday school class that the Law no longer applies, or has in any way been diminished!
The Messiah who said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments,” is the Son of David who will teach Torah from Zion and enforce it in the Kingdom. If He doesn’t, then He hasn’t fulfilled the yet future messianic prophesies. Evidence of Him fulfilling parts of Torah in future prophesies can be found in Ezekiel 43 and 44 as well as Zechariah 14:16-21, among others.
Make no mistake, these prophesies will be fulfilled literally.
I will not press further. I beg of you to please, please set aside church traditions of denigrating and ignoring the everlasting, unchanging Ways of the Lord. When He says Passover is forever, Sabbath is forever, the feasts are forever, etc, I am certain that He means it. The Torah is as valid today as it was 3500 years ago and will be 3500 years into the future.
I welcome serious questions and even serious challenges. Most I have already dealt with on this blog. Check the Apologetics page to begin seeing how ALL of God’s Word fits together without needing to minimize or ignore parts.
natsab 
Thanks Pete. Well written and thought out. It is all Wonderfully connected – Genesis to Revelation. Blessings.
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What a gift to have this to share with others & give them something to think about. Thie scriptures are so beautifully strung together it is like music to my ears & heart!
With a grateful heart,
Mary Ellen
🌺😊🌺
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Hi Pete, thanks for the teaching! Could you explain Jer 33:34 to me? Is this prophecy in two parts?
Shalom
Theunsie
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The SIGN of the New Covenant being fulfilled is that no man will need to teach his brother. Therefore, I am of the opinion that the New Covenant is yet future. We get a taste of it now, but it is not yet….
Is the Torah written on our hearts? No. Not yet. Not in the manner I expect it to be…
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