Keeping the Covenant

 Genesis 9:18-17, Psalm 25:1-10

 Every time we see a rainbow, we need to remember it as a sign of God’s covenant to never flood the earth again. Later in Genesis 17, God will make a covenant with Abraham promising him he would be the ancestor of a multitude of nations.

A covenant is a promise, something on which we can depend. In Psalm 25 David lifts up his soul to the Lord putting his trust in God. He asks to not be put to shame in his trust for protection and not to let his enemies triumph over him. He asks that those who wait on God will not be put to shame but only those who are wantonly treacherous.

In contrast to these evil folks, David seeks to learn God’s ways and what godly paths he is to take. He asks to be led in God’s truth realizing that the Lord is the God of his salvation. The patience of him awaiting deliverance is shown as he says – for you I wait all day long.

He reminds the Lord of God’s mercy and steadfast love that have been since the days of Noah and Abraham. He has faith in the forgiveness of his sins as he asks God not to remember his youthful sins and transgressions. He asks instead to be remembered according to the steadfast continual love promised in God’s covenant with Israel.

This passage ends with David declaring again the goodness of the Lord and how upright God is teaching sinners the way and leading the humble in what is right and teaching them God’s way. He claims again that the ways or paths of the Lord are steadfast love and then adds faithfulness. God being faithful here to God’s covenant but only to those who keep faith in God’s covenant and keep God’s decrees – God’s laws.

When we see a rainbow, let us think beyond the covenant to Noah and Abraham and the covenant of keeping the law. This old covenant was replaced by the new covenant of love made by the work of Christ as he died to save us from our sins – to keep us from having to do the almost impossible of keeping all the law’s decrees. We can now wait in God’s steadfast love and be assured of God’s faithfulness – that God who kept covenants in the past will keep this new covenant of love for all who seek God. Amen

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