Now let us come to the matter of God’s making a covenant with Abraham. In saving his nephew, Lot, and refusing the offer of the King of Sodom, Abraham manifested his love, his zeal, his bravery, and his cleanness (Gen. 14:14-23). Then, after these things, God came to speak to Abraham saying, “Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward” (Gen. 15:1). This verse shows that at this time Abraham’s feeling was on one hand that of anxiety, fearing that the four kings might come again and on the other hand sorrow for Lot’s departure and for his own state of childlessness. It was at this time that God came to him to strengthen and comfort him. But from Abraham’s answer we see that this promise of God did not fully satisfy him. He asked, “What wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and he that shall be possessor of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” (v. 2). This shows that he had not yet known or seen how gracious God’s promise was. He was negative. He had his own idea and his own arrangement as well. So what did God do? God said, “This man shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and number the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be” (vv. 4-5). What was it that God spoke here to Abraham? It was a promise, not a fact. What about Abraham? Now he could believe God’s promise; therefore, God reckoned it to him as righteousness (v. 6). Because Abraham believed in God’s promise, he became the father of faith.
After Abraham believed God’s first promise, the second came: “And he said unto him, I am Jehovah that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it” (v. 7). Did Abraham believe this promise? No, because his measure was too narrow. He became doubtful and said, “O Lord Jehovah, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?” (v. 8). Because the promise was too great, Abraham could not believe it. Therefore, he asked God to give him evidence to which he could cling.
How did God deal with Abraham’s unbelief? What did He do? God made a covenant with Abraham (v. 18). Therefore, the establishment of a covenant makes up that which is lacking of a promise. A covenant is the best way to deal with unbelief. A covenant enlarges the measure of man’s faith. Abraham may not believe God’s promise, but God could not change what He had promised. Because Abraham could not believe, God made a covenant with him so that he could do nothing else but believe Him.
God told Abraham, “Take me a heifer three years old, and a she-goat three years old, and a ram three years old, and a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon. And he took him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each half over against the other: but the birds divided he not...and it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace, and a flaming torch that passed between these pieces” (vv. 9, 10, 17). What does this mean? This means that God was making a covenant with Abraham. It means that the covenant which He made was something which went through the deepest inward parts and through the blood. The bodies of the sheep and oxen were divided, the blood was shed, and God went through the halves of the oxen and the sheep. This shows that the covenant which He made will never change nor become void.
God knew that Abraham’s faith was limited. God knew that He had to enlarge the measure of his faith. Therefore He made a covenant with Abraham. God not only promised Abraham what He would do; God even made a covenant with him to show that He would do it. Thus Abraham could not but believe, for if God, after making a covenant with man, did not act according to the covenant, He would be unfaithful, unrighteous, and contrary to law. By the strengthening of such a covenant, the measure of Abraham’s faith was naturally enlarged.
Now let us see the history of the covenant which God made with David. Second Samuel 7:4-16 speaks of the same thing as Psalm 89:19-37. However, 2 Samuel 7 does not say clearly how God made a covenant with David. It is in Psalm 89 where we find that when the Lord sent the prophet Nathan to David, what he spoke to David was a covenant. Psalm 89 and 2 Samuel 7 speak of the same thing, not of two different things. In both of these passages God gave His word to David and his descendants as a pledge. He likes for man to take hold of His word and ask Him to fulfill it. He loves for man to do this. He gave a covenant to man as a pledge, hoping that man would ask Him to fulfill it.
God spoke to David in a very clear way: “If his children forsake my law, and walk not in mine ordinances; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. But my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness: I will not lie unto David: His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me” (Psa. 89:30-36). This tells how God made a covenant with David. If David’s descendants forsake God’s commandments, God will chasten them with a rod and with stripes. But God cannot forsake the covenant He made with David.
Psalm 89 was written at the time the Jews lost their country and were taken captive to Babylon. At this time it seemed that God had forgotten the covenant He had made with David. When the psalmist saw the situation, how the country was lost, he told God, “Thou hast cast off and rejected, thou hast been wroth with thine anointed. Thou hast abhorred the covenant of thy servant: thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the ground” (vv. 38-39). Here he was reminding God of the covenant He had made with His servant. Then he immediately inquired of God by holding on to the covenant: “Lord, where are thy former lovingkindnesses, which thou swarest unto David in thy faithfulness?” (v. 49). We need to pay attention to what the psalmist said here. He prayed by holding on to the covenant. The Holy Spirit especially allowed such a prayer, in which a man inquired of God, to be recorded. In this we see how God delights that man pray by holding on to the pledge which He has given man, namely, the covenant. This causes God to be glorified. God delights that man demand Him to fulfill what He has promised in the covenant.