“I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.” ~ Exodus 6:7
God heard the cries of their oppression.
God noticed.
God acted.
He always does.
Partnership. Promise. Commitment. Guarantee. Covenant.
God initiated a chosen covenant relationship with his people — a commitment that is more magnificent than human minds can fathom with life and death implications.
Adam and Eve brought death upon themselves and all their children by disobeying God when tempted and deceived.
Chosen. Holy. Sanctified. Upright. Blameless. What you are in Christ.
God’s chosen are pulled out and separate from the rest, from those who willfully disobey him.
But you lay hold of, engage in, and embrace a chosen covenant relationship with God from the heart.
Singing Psalm 105, you recognize a chosen covenant relationship with God
Singing Psalm 105 you recognize that there is a chosen covenant relationship with God.
How blessed you are to be a part of a chosen covenant relationship with three persons in one God:
God, the Father, who established a chosen covenant relationship with a people before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him through his Son, making a way to reverse the curse of death for sin, who is one with you as he is with God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit
God, the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ who offered himself as the perfect blood sacrifice on the cross to secure this chosen covenant relationship by taking away the sin that separates his people from their God, who is always interceding for you as he makes his home with you
God, the Holy Spirit, who works to apply this salvation to his people as a guarantee of this chosen covenant relationship, who intercedes, leads, counsels, and comforts each one moment-by-moment as he lives with you and in you
In every promise believed, every command obeyed, every warning heeded, every reward expected you are responding to a chosen covenant relationship initiated by the triune God. You worship and adore all three persons as your Creator and Redeemer.
All who pay no attention to God’s promises, warnings, or rewards will live to regret it. The Lord God makes distinctions between those who trust him and those who don’t.
If when Israel went to Egypt, they thought they were settling in for good, they would have settled for worshiping idols and never would have made it to the promised land.
He used his strength to care deeply for his weak, oppressed, fearful, yet selfish, stiff-necked, complaining people. He went before them in the pillar of cloud by day and in the pillar of fire by night to lead them.
You can breathe deeply and easily even in the face of great danger and suffering because you trust him who cares for you in a chosen covenant relationship with him. God helps you remember and even to forget for your good as with Joseph: “God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father’s house.” No matter what you have done or how far away you have run from him, he is safe to turn to.
You can run to him as your all in all, and when you do, you can expect to be received with open arms of love that you could only dream existed, love that surpasses knowledge. Except with him it is no dream. It is real.
He still uses his power to care deeply for his weak, oppressed, fearful, yet selfish, stiff-necked, complaining people. He will go before you and be with you wherever you go to lead you in the way that you should go — the best way possible.
Think of how Jesus felt when all his friends abandoned him in his time of need. He willingly went through that because he has loved you from before the foundation of the world. Think of how God, the Father, felt watching his only son suffer and die on the cross and not intervene because of his love for you. Think of how God, the Spirit, felt who attended him during his temptation in the wilderness but did not help him at the cross because of his love for you.
“For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” ~ Romans 5:10
Nothing and no one can break the chosen covenant relationship that he has with you.
Singing Psalm 105, you get the sense that when the Lord has you in a place that seems pleasant and comfortable, you settle there physically but resist settling yourself there heart and soul. You watch and wait expectantly looking for the promised inheritance God has for you in a chosen covenant relationship to live with him forever without the hindrance of sin.
Jesus is the firstborn of the new creation through death. You rest and work in light of following him through death into the new creation.
“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” ~ Colossians 3:23
“And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” ~ Hebrews 9:27-28
God gave Moses miraculous signs when he doubted, reluctant to obey God. He sets you at ease supernaturally when you hesitate to trust him. He instituted work for you to do six days each week as you recognize his chosen covenant relationship with you. He has freed you from oppressive work, enslaving work. It is a joy to serve him.
“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” ~ Philippians 1:6
Like Moses did by faith, “you endure as seeing him who is invisible.“ Your treasure and your heart are not set on earthly things but on things above.
[Moses] “considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.“ ~ Hebrews 11:26
He gives you faith to see repetitive tasks that used to seem mundane as opportunities to seek him and give thanks to him when you recognize your chosen covenant relationship with God in these things he has given you to do.
The health he gives and the medical advances and interventions he provides as means of grace allow you to do the good things he has prepared in advance for you to do until he calls you to your everlasting home with him as part of your chosen covenant relationship with God.
You recognize that the food, the clothes, the work, the relationships he gives you are gifts. You don’t live to eat. You don’t live to shop. You don’t live to work. You don’t live for anyone else. Not anymore. You live for him now in a chosen covenant relationship.
“As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’” ~ 1 Peter 1:14-16
“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever will draw near to God must believe that he exists, and that he rewards those who seek him.“ ~ Hebrews 11:6
Singing Psalm 105, you celebrate a chosen covenant relationship with God
The sheer number of rescues alone leading up to and following God partnering with you is cause enough to celebrate your chosen covenant relationship with him. It’s impossible to count the times God rescues you.
As God made or confirmed a chosen covenant relationship with Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Israel), Joseph, Moses, David, pointing ultimately to the Lord Jesus, he introduced, planned, and secured your everlasting chosen covenant relationship with him.
Suffering precedes rescue and redemption.
“And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.“ ~ 1 Peter 5:10
God sees his people through each step of the dance of life, each moment, from start to finish and into eternity in a chosen covenant relationship with him.
The triune God takes hold of you, and you lay hold of him. He initiates with you. You rest in him.
There remains a Sabbath rest through which you do all your work. You work through that rest at the beginning of each week. You celebrate the chosen, covenant relationship you have with the Lord Jesus who rose from the dead on the first day of the week.
“All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” ~ Matthew 11:27-30
“Jesus! I am resting, restingIn the joy of what Thou art;I am find out the greatness Of Thy loving heart.
“Simply trusting Thee, Lord Jesus,I behold Thee as Thou art,And Thy love, so pure, so changeless, Satisfies my heart,Satisfies its deepest longings,Meets, supplies its every need,Compasseth me round with blessings, Thine is love indeed.”
“You are sanctified [made holy] by remembering and believing afresh that you are justified by what Jesus did on the cross for you.” ~ David Powlison
“Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” ~ Hebrews 12:14
Singing Psalm 105 takes you ahead to Jesus who rescues you into a chosen covenant relationship with the triune God. Because of all he did for you, your outlook is altered forever. You no longer want to live for yourself but for him. When by habit you fall into living for yourself, it is displeasing to you. You come to him for help so that you might live for him.
When others hurt you, you no longer want to hurt them back. And if you do, it is displeasing to you and you run to Jesus for help to be kind to those who have hurt you.
In a sense, when you remember the chosen covenant relationship between you and the triune God, no one can really hurt you. If they try, the Lord will give you redemptive words to say and protect your heart.
Singing Psalm 105, you think of the 11th son of Jacob, Joseph, a type of Christ. It wouldn’t surprise you if he had been trained by the pre-incarnate Jesus, himself. He persevered with wisdom and love that could only come from God’s preserving presence.
You ask the Lord to help your adversaries to know a chosen covenant relationship with the triune God as you do. You don’t recognize your own heart anymore. You are presently loving your enemies and reframing your thoughts of past adversaries.
Because of your chosen covenant relationship with the Lord, he even helps you to wait patiently at the traffic light. No longer annoyed that it is not your turn to go, you ask the Lord to bless those whose turn it is to go, that they would go well, and that the Lord would meet with them, call them to himself, and if already called, draw nearer to them.
“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” ~ John 15:16
You celebrate the difference it makes to be in a chosen covenant relationship with God.
Singing Psalm 105, you cherish a chosen covenant relationship with God
Your chosen covenant relationship with God is a precious dance that he leads from start to finish, although the finishing lasts forever. It doesn’t end once the earthly dance is complete. When Jesus said, “It is finished,” a new beginning was marked for a chosen covenant relationship that would never end.
Whoever else is on the dance floor, whatever dance they are doing to whatever music, however they are dancing, you are too enamored with the Lord to compare or compete.
You are sealed in a chosen covenant relationship and can rest in it, because it is not of yourself, but of the triune God, who intervenes and initiates, who restores and redeems, who is love itself – a heart of commitment that cannot fail.
Your chosen covenant relationship with God is before you whether you are wandering, or settled, whether you currently perceive his protection or his testing.
God himself makes and preserves a chosen covenant relationship with each one of his people. While Abraham slept, the fire of God passed between the pieces of dead animals, signifying that if God did not keep his covenant relationship with Abraham, let him be like one of the dead animals. It was not God and Abraham, walking between the pieces of dead animals. It was God alone.
Thus, he kept both his portion and Abraham’s portion of the covenant. And since it was God that kept it, there is no possibility for the covenant relationship to be severed. It will not fail. Throughout every generation until the Lord Jesus returns to take his people home, his chosen covenant relationship with each one is preserved.
You cherish God’s chosen covenant relationship with you precisely because he both initiated and fulfilled it when you could do neither. He requires nothing from you to enter into this chosen covenant relationship with him. Once you are in it, he enables you to cherish working for him to carry yourself with kindness and care toward others, to have a loving and forgiving heart, and to walk closely with your God in dependence, undeterred by circumstances.
When God speaks of covenant, it is to someone. A contract does not require a relationship. A covenant does. God chooses a covenant relationship with each one of his people. He institutes the chosen covenant relationship of marriage as a human pointer to the intimacy you are to have with him. This is a chosen covenant relationship until death.
You become one with your maker who is your husband. You are married to the triune God — Jesus, the bridegroom, the church, his bride, his body. This is the “more than you could ask for or imagine” marriage that lasts through death and for all eternity!
For this, you adore him — all of who he is to you and all of what he does for you. You cherish that you aren’t stuck with choices you might dream up but that he chooses perfectly for you. You cherish your chosen covenant relationship with him. You cherish, love, and live for him because he first loved you. You seek him adoringly and continually. You sing his praises forever and ever.
“O thank the LORD, call on his name; His deeds declare to all.O sing to Him, sing praise to Him; His wondrous works recall.
“Let hearts that seek the LORD rejoice, His holy name adore.O seek LORD, and seek his strength; His face seek evermore.
“Remember all His wondrous deeds,The works that He has done,The righteous judgments of His mouth,His miracles each one —
“O you, the seed of Abraham, God’s servant –- you, his sons And all who sons of Jacob are, His own, His chosen ones.
“He surely is the LORD our God, His judgments fill the land;He keeps in mind His covenant, That it may always stand.”~ Psalm 105:1-8
Reference: The Christ of the Covenants by O. Palmer Robertson, 1980, P&R
January 28 – February 3, 2023
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