Saturday, February 17, 2018

Ps 74 20 Have regard for your covenant,
because haunts of violence fill the dark places of the land.
21 Do not let the oppressed retreat in disgrace;
may the poor and needy praise your name.
22 Rise up, O God, and defend your cause;
remember how fools mock you all day long.
23 Do not ignore the clamor of your adversaries,
the uproar of your enemies, which rises continually."
The Psalmist uses covenant language in appealing to God for all his needs. When God created Adam and Eve ,He established a creation covenant that gave man authority over the earth. This covenant was more than a works covenant. It was a covenant of blessing. The purpose of God in creating the garden was not to give Adam a test. If there was a test there would be opposition. Having an impersonal opposition in the serpent is not really a test of works. Man was already compliant and obedient. When we are given something there is no requirement in obtaining or using the gift.
The relationship that man had with God in the garden was more than a test to comply with the law of creation. It was acting as God co-regents over the creation. The principles of government are no different than Gods activity of creating mankind and giving him the ruler-ship. The ten commandments are simply Gods original requirements under the compulsion of the blessing in receiving the gift. Gods intention was to establish a nation through which the blessing and enjoyment would spread across the earth.
Through progressive revelation God established Davids kingdom in fulfilling the promise of the creation covenant. When Adam sinned God had to exercise His authority over the earth by cursing man and the ground. If God would have judged the creation short of death then man would have thrown the whole earth into chaos. God was not pragmatic. A covenant of works is pragmatic. In order for man to meet the requirements of works there would need to be a sliding scale. But God ended the opposition by reestablishing His creation covenant in the pronouncement of death to corruption. When He called Abram , He established His creation covenant by the promise of blessing and cursing. This application of the creation law was worked out until it was established in the Davidic pronouncements of the blessing and cursing. So we see here this language used as the cry to God to reestablish Israel as a nation.

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