Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Can an ordinary individual enjoy the blessings of the New Covenant even though the majority in "the body" of the church do not?
To answer this question, the Lord has given us the psalms of David. Over and over David cries to the Lord for deliverance when he is alone in his distress. As an individual in the nation of Israel, he is highly significant because the Messiah is declared to be "the son of David"--not merely in physical descent but because Jesus is spiritually "the son of David." In other words, in His earthly life, in His incarnation, Jesus' mentor was David in his psalms. He lived in those psalms; He saw Himself in them.
We may nod our heads in agreement, but then what about those imprecatory psalms? David prayed that the Lord would punish his enemies, even destroy them; do we have a record that Jesus prayed that His Father would harass and destroy His Sanhedrin enemies who wanted to crucify Him? No; we have the record that He prayed that His Father would forgive them, "for they do not know what they do" (Luke 23:34). Are those bitter psalms not inspired, or do they not apply to "the son of David"? Should we follow David and pray down curses on those who oppose us?
One of God's most precious New Covenant promises He made to Abraham was that "I will curse him who curses you" (Gen. 12:3); David lived under that New Covenant promise. Jesus did, too. His prayer for forgiveness for those who crucified Him was specific--only so long as they "do not know what they do." Behold in the horror of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. the fulfillment of that New Covenant "curse" on those who determine to "crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame" (Heb. 6:6, KJV).
Humble, helpless soul, let the Lord defend you in your distress. Don't try to stop Him; He must fulfill His word, and it is both His "goodness and severity" (Rom. 11:22).
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 17, 2008.
Copyright © 2015 by "Dial Daily Bread."
