How can God’s promises possibly be true? Maybe you’re wondering about that this Christmas season. Maybe you’re struggling with grief or regret. Maybe you’re wrestling with addiction or bad habits. Maybe your relationships are all messed up. You hear the Christmas story, but somehow it doesn’t seem to make much difference to you.

That was the situation for Ethan, the man who wrote this Psalm. In today’s passage, he was remembering the promises that God had made to the House of David: “I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness.” Even if David’s descendants were to “forsake my law,” God promised, “I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips.”

But at the time Ethan wrote these words, many of David’s descendants had in fact broken God’s law. And as a result, God had given His people over into the hands of the Babylonians, who had destroyed David’s royal city and torn down God’s Temple. Truly, God had punished David’s descendants “with the rod and their iniquity with stripes.” But, as Ethan looked on the ruins of Jerusalem, he had to wonder: how could God possibly keep His promises to David, promises of an everlasting throne (v. 36)?

That’s why the Christmas story is such good news. For Jesus was in fact the Son of David, the One Who fulfilled all these promises. For as verses 24 and 25 say, the Father has given the Son all authority, not just between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates, but over all the world. It is Jesus’ throne that has been established “as the days of the heavens” (v. 29).

And that’s the good news for us today. No matter how desperate things may seem to us, God is still faithful. No matter how out of control our lives may appear, Christ is still King. So, just as Ethan did, we must cling to His promises and trust in His plans. For if God kept His promise to David by sending Jesus to us, we can be certain that Christ will keep His promise to come again, revealing to everyone the power and authority that He already possesses. Come, Lord Jesus!

Psalm 89:19-37 (ESV)

19 Of old you spoke in a vision to your godly one, and said: “I have granted help to one who is mighty; I have exalted one chosen from the people.
20 I have found David, my servant; with my holy oil I have anointed him,
21 so that my hand shall be established with him; my arm also shall strengthen him.
22 The enemy shall not outwit him; the wicked shall not humble him.
23 I will crush his foes before him and strike down those who hate him.
24 My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him, and in my name shall his horn be exalted.
25 I will set his hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers.
26 He shall cry to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation.’
27 And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.
28 My steadfast love I will keep for him forever, and my covenant will stand firm for him.
29 I will establish his offspring forever and his throne as the days of the heavens.
30 If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules,
31 if they 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 remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness.
34 I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips.
35 Once for all I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David.
36 His offspring shall endure forever, his throne as long as the sun before me.
37 Like the moon it shall be established forever, a faithful witness in the skies.” Selah