Asaph’s Pleading Ground

The Lord has given His promise that He will not forget His inheritance. “For the needy shall not always be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever” (Psalm 9:18). However, it seems that the Lord had forgotten His people. In this psalm we read of a complaint about the devastation wrought by the enemy. It speaks about the future destruction of the temple and the desolation of Jerusalem. It seemed that the Lord had cast them off. The prophecy had ceased to give them guidance during a time when it was greatly needed.

The psalmist describes this situation, but in verses 12 through 17 he also speaks about God’s mighty deeds. He was saying, “Thou, Lord, hast done mighty deeds,” and therefore he said, “This mighty God is still able to give deliverance.” The poet pleads upon it. “Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O Lord, and that the foolish people have blasphemed Thy Name” (Psalm 74:18). God’s Name was dishonored. In verse 19 the question is then asked: Would God then surrender His people like a gentle and harmless dove unto the multitude of the wicked?

These are the Lord’s afflicted ones who have suffered for His Name’s sake. Could the Lord forget them and still be true to His Name? It is His congregation which He has purchased (verse 2), which He has redeemed, where He has dwelt.

The Lord has made a covenant with them. Could the nation be dealt with as if such a covenant did not exist? Therefore he pleads, “Have respect unto the covenant.” May this also be our prayer at the beginning of a new year. When we look around us in the world, then we see that the enemy has reproached God’s Name. When we also consider the condition of the church, then there are many reasons for this petition: “Have respect unto the covenant”; that is, consider, regard, look to the covenant.

This covenant is not of works, but it is the covenant of grace, because grace is the condition of it. Sometimes it is called the covenant of mercy, because only therein will mercy and truth meet each other; or the covenant of peace, for here true peace will be given. This is an eternal covenant, an unbreakable covenant. In spite of all his own unworthiness and the power of the enemies, this is the petitioner’s only hope; for God regards His covenant, that is, He remembers it. “Then will I remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land” (Leviticus 26:42). He takes this to heart, He considers it. “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips” (Psalm 89:34). He confirms this covenant also in the life of all true believers, fulfilling the covenant promises of it, as we read in Micah 7:20, “Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham.”

This covenant was also David’s only hope, though his house was not so with God, yet He had made with him an everlasting covenant. When the poet asked, “Have respect unto the covenant,” it means, “Lord, look to it, not to me, not to my prayers or tears, not to the frame of my heart.” No, there is nothing to plead upon in any creature. We all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Also at the beginning of this year there cannot be any hope from our side, but may the Lord look upon His own covenant; that is, look to the Surety, to the Mediator of it, which is Christ, for the fulfillment of the conditions in it. May He look to the promises of the covenant, that they may be made good. May He look to the blessings of the covenant, that they may be bestowed upon the persons for whom they are provided. May He look to the blood of the covenant as a seal of both the covenant and of full satisfaction, for the deliverance of the church and the salvation from wrath to come. Oh Lord, look to the oath of this covenant, for Thou hast sworn and will not repent. Lord, look to the qualifications of this covenant, for this covenant is all sufficient. It is sovereign. It is firm. It is also ordered in all things.

The church pleads this covenant of God and His promises that He will send forth His light and truth and cover the earth with the knowledge of Himself, where there is now darkness and the power of sin. They ask God to consider His great Name revealed in this covenant. “What wilt Thou do unto Thy great Name?” (Joshua 7:9).

In this covenant there is provision for every need. Do you have a defiled soul? Here is pure water. “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you” (Ezekiel 36:25). Do you still have a stony heart? He can give a heart of flesh. Are you still carnal? He can give His Spirit. Are you burdened under guilt? He is the Redeemer. Is there darkness and blindness? Here is instruction. Is there barrenness and deadness? Here is the One who gives true light. Are you wounded and grieved? Here is the Sun of Righteousness, who will arise with healing in His wings. Do you feel yourself a slave of sin? Here is the Deliverer who opens the prison house and gives full freedom. Are you rebellious and stubborn? He makes a willing people in the day of His power. Are you concerned about your children? In this covenant there is a word for them in the promise, “I will be your God and the God of your seed.” Are you concerned about the church of God? He will be a wall of fire around it; He has said, “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). Are you concerned about your eternal spiritual enemies? He promises deliverance: “The day of vengeance is in Mine heart, and the year of My Redeemed is come” (Isaiah 63:4). Are you concerned about death? Here is the promise that He will go with you also through the Jordan, as the greater ark of the covenant. Are you concerned about the ministry of the gospel in the church? Here is the promise: “Lo, I am with you alway.” In this covenant is everything that a poor, unworthy sinner stands in need of.

This is the only pleading ground, and it is a rich pleading ground, as we have heard. When the circumstances are hard and difficult, as in this psalm, when there is no worthiness in ourselves, then here is the master key, as one of our forefathers said. Heaven’s gates must open to this, for God is not a man that He should lie. His covenant will He not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of His lips. The Lord has promised to bless the seed of Abraham and make them a blessing.

“Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again” (John 10:17).

This covenant is sure, because it derives its certainty and fullness from: 1) the truthfulness of God, for He cannot lie; 2) His Jealousy for His honor; 3) the venerable character of this covenant, for it is a holy and unbreakable covenant; 4) its solemn endorsement in God’s Name, for the Lord has recorded this covenant in His testimony; 5) its seal, which is the blood of Christ; and 6) the almighty power of the covenant God, for nothing of His Word has ever failed, as you can see in the testimony of God’s dying people. Jacob did not wait in vain when he said, “I have waited for Thy salvation.”

This covenant is sure in the Maker and Supervisor of it, that is, God the Father. “I have made a covenant with My chosen” (Psalm 89:3). It is sure in Christ, who is the center of it. “Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again” (John 10:17). It is sure by the Spirit as the great Applier and Executor of it. It is sure because the covenant people are the children of promise, and even if they are under a sense of sin and unworthiness, utterly unworthy, under strong temptations or in great distress, He will do it. Rutherford said that unbelief may tear the copies of the covenant of grace given to us, but Christ keeps the original in heaven. Therefore this covenant cannot be broken.

No, the pleading which we hear in this psalm is not a presumptuous pleading. It is not a superficial boasting, as so many do who just apply the covenant promises to themselves, but it is the work of true saving faith. This is the wrestling of the congregation of God’s poor. This is the only pleading ground for those who have lost all other grounds. It is a rich pleading ground for the poor in spirit, for those who have nothing to stand upon in themselves. Oh, may the Lord teach us such pleading for this new year, for church, for society, but also for our schools and families. Oh, that the God of the covenant may look to His own covenant word in these dark and evil days. May He arise and bestow His graces upon us, our churches, schools, societies, office-bearers, and families, and confirm His promise. “His Name shall endure for ever: His Name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall call Him blessed” (Psalm 72:17). He has also said, “They shall fear Thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations” (Psalm 72:5). May that be our hope, although we are unworthy in ourselves, also as churches, that the Lord may look to His own Word, His Son, His blood, and remember us and our children.

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