July 24

But I will not withdraw My loving devotion from him, nor ever betray My faithfulness. I will not violate My covenant or alter the utterance of My lips. — Ps 89:33-34 BSB

We live in a constantly changing world. Everything around us is stamped with impermanence, death, and decay. And as for ourselves, we know how frail, weak, and changeable we are. So, when we look at life through the eyes of reason and sense, all we can see is uncertainty and change. These experiences—what we feel in ourselves and what we see in the world around us—often challenge our faith and hope. We tend to measure God by ourselves and judge our standing before him based on the shifting thoughts and emotions in our minds.

But when we look through the fog and confusion of life by faith, we see God’s unchanging purposes, as manifested in an everlasting covenant, “ordered in all things and sure.” When we also receive some personal assurance of our interest in this covenant, our faith and hope are no longer resting on our ever-changing feelings, but on the word and promise of a God who cannot lie. This is how David was comforted on his deathbed, when the chill of death was upon him (2 Samuel 23:5). David found comfort in the “everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure,” which was established before the world was formed, before sin entered, and before we were born. In this covenant, a Savior was provided, a Redeemer was set up, and the redeemed were chosen and given to him.

How could any changing events in time, or any mutable circumstances in ourselves or others, ever alter or thwart what was fixed by God’s eternal decree? Nothing can overturn or cancel God’s purposes.