Jeremiah’s Faith Crisis

God had commissioned the Prophet Jeremiah to save King David’s throne by transplanting it from the land of Israel and reestablishing it in Ireland. Jeremiah had a passion to understand David. To prepare to fulfill his God-given commission, logically this prophet would want to learn all he could about David’s history and what he taught and believed.

Jeremiah intensively studied David’s psalms, and it changed his life. It added richness and depth to his relationship with God. It made him far more effective in fulfilling God’s Work.

The evidence is that, in upholding and striving to follow David’s example, Jeremiah composed his own psalms. He wrote in the spirit of David as a means of becoming more of a man after God’s heart.

The Worldwide Church of God under Herbert W. Armstrong taught for years that Jeremiah wrote Psalms 89 and 119. The more I study these psalms, the more convinced I am that that is correct.

Clearly the author of Psalm 89 learned from and emulated psalms David had written. The author of Psalm 119 patterned it after Psalm 19, authored by David. If Jeremiah wrote these chapters, then the connection of his thinking to building David’s throne has more clarity.

These psalms are written in masterful poetry. Jeremiah’s skill as a poet (perhaps with the help of his scribe Baruch) is evident in his poetic book of Lamentations.

Psalm 89 surely discusses one of Jeremiah’s worst faith crises. But it also reviews the wonderful rewards that God gives if we learn total, implicit trust in God. It is not enough to trust God up to 95 percent; we need to build 100 percent trust in God’s Word and what He says! That is what this psalm teaches us.

Singing About the Covenant

Psalm 89’s header reads: “Maschil of Ethan the Ezrahite.” This is not crediting an author with the lyrics of this psalm. Ethan the Ezrahite was Judah’s grandson through Zarah (1 Chronicles 2:4, 6 and 1 Kings 4:31 list him and his brothers; the latter calls him “the Ezrahite,” or Zarahite). The content of this psalm shows that a grandson of Judah could not have written it. It mentions David by name four times, and addresses God’s covenant with David appearing to be in jeopardy. So this couldn’t have been composed at the time of David himself, let alone centuries earlier when this “Ethan” lived. The reference to Ethan’s “Maschil” is likely a melody, form or genre created by one of these Jewish forefathers.

Psalm 89 begins: “I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens” (verses 1-2). Great men of God are always passionate about declaring God. We can do the same as we support God’s Work today. (The last half of verse 1 uses a phrase nearly identical to one Jeremiah used in Psalm 119:90.)

Psalm 89:3-4 quote God directly: “I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations. Selah.” Selah is a word used throughout the Psalms that essentially means “stop and think.” Jeremiah is emphasizing the substance of God’s eternal covenant with David, which is recorded in 2 Samuel 7:12-16.

This is the central theme of Psalm 89: God’s covenant with David. It is about that throne. Jeremiah was fixed on that subject.

When God says “for ever” and “to all generations” in Psalm 89:4, He is speaking not primarily about the physical seed, or the descendants of David on Earth—but about David’s spiritual descendants. Those whom God calls before the Second Coming of Christ are part of a building program that will go on forever! We are on the ground floor of a building project without end.

God keeps His promises! He certainly has been building up this throne in our lifetimes, during these last two eras of His true Church. (These eras are described in my book The True History of God’s True Church. All of our literature is free.) Herbert W. Armstrong restored all things (Matthew 17:10-11) and laid the foundation for our understanding of this truth. And this last era is especially unique because God has given us David’s throne—the throne of God! (This is fully explained in my book The New Throne of David.) God has fulfilled that promise and is building up that throne within the Philadelphia Church of God (pcg) today.

The message from God in these psalms is especially for the pcg. God’s people must build up His throne! God has given us that tremendous responsibility. He is educating us so we know how to build it up. We have specific duties Mr. Armstrong did not have. God is concerned about how we execute this royal duty. He is focusing us on the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, who will rule from this very throne!

Genesis 49:10 prophesies of the scepter (David’s throne in a civil government) and the lawgiver (an office teaching God’s law in His true Church) being combined in the pcg. You cannot combine these responsibilities and build up the throne of David without putting in some work! We must have a level of understanding to be able to tie these two entities together. Now everything is ruled by the royal law of God until Shiloh comes. That law rules the very throne of David!

Again, Psalm 89:4 says, “Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations.” God not only says forever, He says, This throne will be built up to all generations—from the time of David right on up to the Second Coming.

You see this promise reiterated throughout this psalm: “With whom my hand shall be established: mine arm also shall strengthen him” (verse 21). “My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven” (verses 28-29). “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah” (verses 34-37). God said His promise to David regarding that throne is as enduring as the sun and the moon. Do we believe that 100 percent? Would we stake our lives on it? Stop and think about that!

The sun and moon give light, and so does this godly promise! The world lies in darkness; it doesn’t see this light. Nevertheless, the truth about this throne is real; it is a bright lamp God gives His Church! God’s people must shine that light to the world. Also, sadly, during this era of God’s Church, 95 percent of God’s people have grown lukewarm and turned away from God—and we must also shine this light to them. Their failure shows how difficult this job is.

Jeremiah did this job, but before God sent him to Ireland to teach the whole nation, he had important things to learn. God does sometimes teach painful lessons before exalting that person.

Notice: Verse 37 ends with “Selah.” It is as if God is saying, Jeremiah, you better stop and think. You’d better get this. But Jeremiah didn’t stop and meditate as he should.

God expects a lot from His people. He certainly required a lot from Jeremiah. This prophet was persecuted, thrust into a dungeon neck-deep in refuse, and left for dead. Surely his nerves were stretched to the breaking point!

About two thirds of the way through Psalm 89, you find one of the strangest and, in a way, most disappointing turns of any psalm. Scholars are confused and deceived about what it means.

A Dramatic Turn

Note this dramatic change in Jeremiah’s words. After those many powerful statements about God’s promise to David, this follows: “But thou hast cast off and abhorred, thou hast been wroth with thine anointed” (Psalm 89:38). Jeremiah is addressing God and accusing Him of reneging on His promise to King David, God’s anointed.

What happened? Clearly, Jeremiah thought something terrible had happened, and he couldn’t understand it.

As Jeremiah 39 records, while Jeremiah was trapped in prison, the Babylonians invaded Jerusalem and broke through the city wall. Babylonian officials entered in and set up camp. King Zedekiah and some of his officials cravenly fled the city. The Babylonians pursued and captured them. They transported Zedekiah and some others straight to Nebuchadnezzar some distance north. There, Zedekiah was forced to witness his sons being killed. Then his eyes were put out, and he was bound in chains and carted off to Babylon (verses 1-7).

God had promised David a perpetual throne, yet suddenly it seemed that the Babylonians had destroyed that royal line. All physical evidence suggested that God had, in fact, broken His unbreakable covenant!

When Jeremiah learned of what had happened, it truly rattled him! He believed God’s promise to David; he absolutely believed it had to be one of those sons that would sit on that throne. He suffered deep spiritual and emotional trauma, and became possibly more discouraged than at any other time in his life. It was one of his greatest crises. He feared God had broken His promise, and that sent him into a deep depression.

Trusting God is what it takes to build up David’s throne. At this time, Jeremiah did not have total trust in God’s promise to David! He did not totally trust God!

God saw a flaw in Jeremiah that needed to be corrected so He could use him to save David’s throne. And at this moment, under those sore trials, that flaw was exposed.

God is saying to Jeremiah and to all of us who have God’s throne in this Church now, You must totally trust me—or you cannot fulfill this commission!

God’s people today will commit Jeremiah’s sin if we don’t fully trust God! We have a commission unparalleled in all of God’s Church eras. When we finish this commission, we will be rewarded magnificently. But we must learn the lesson Jeremiah learned or be severely punished by God.

We are to “live … by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). It sounds easy, but it is tough to actually do—not 99 percent, but 100 percent! This is what God expects from people who are working with David’s throne!

You know that Jeremiah had faith—but at this point, he did not totally trust God. He had to grow to the point where he absolutely knew God would fulfill His word, regardless of appearances to the contrary.

Trusting God 99 percent or less is really a deadly spiritual disease! God’s people must remove this disease. God’s message is, Don’t challenge me. Don’t accuse me of losing my lovingkindness! Just know 100 percent that if I say it, it will be done!

Those who totally trust God are called “sons of Zadok” (Ezekiel 44:15; 48:11), named after the priest who remained loyal to David’s throne to the end. That means totally trusting every single word of God, including the scepter promise and the covenant with David.

Jeremiah needed this deep lesson concerning faith, as we all do. What Jeremiah learned is recorded in Psalm 89. There is a lesson for all of us in this amazing psalm. How well have you learned it? Like Jeremiah, we all fall short at times. But we must not be content with that. Also like Jeremiah, we must grow in faith. Sometimes it takes a hard trial to develop total trust in God.

When All Seems Lost

“Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant [David]: thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the ground. Thou hast broken down all his hedges; thou hast brought his strong holds to ruin. … Thou hast made his glory to cease, and cast his throne down to the ground. The days of his youth hast thou shortened: thou hast covered him with shame” (Psalm 89:39-40, 44-45). Look what you’ve done to David, Jeremiah is saying. You have made his glory to cease!

“How long, Lord? wilt thou hide thyself for ever? … Lord, where are thy former lovingkindnesses [mercies], which thou swarest unto David in thy truth?” (verses 46, 49). Jeremiah knew God had sworn that to David—yet somehow he thought He had forgotten!

These are strong words! I do believe they are Jeremiah’s. Maybe Jeremiah is one of the few who would talk to God this way because he had such a close relationship with Him. Yes, this psalm concludes, “Blessed be the Lord for evermore. Amen, and Amen” (verse 52). He tried to say the right words there, and he did. But does that mean everything was OK?

Jeremiah had been commissioned to take that throne to Ireland, yet he clearly thought God had broken His promise and had failed David. How could Jeremiah doubt God? How can you and I doubt after God makes a stupendous promise like that? But we do at times. We doubt because our faith needs to be perfected. The more it is perfected, the more God blesses and rewards us—both today and in the future. God had to teach His prophet an enormous lesson, and through Jeremiah, He is teaching all of us.

Why was Jeremiah so upset? The International Critical Commentary says this section describes the humiliation of the king in such a “graphic and realistic way that they may most naturally be referred to [as] a real historical experience; and … the only one who exactly fits the description is Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24:10-16).” This is referring to the time when Nebuchadnezzar finally destroyed Jerusalem in 585 b.c. It was a terrible time in Jerusalem. Zedekiah’s male heirs had been killed, and Jeconiah’s male heirs had been cursed to never rule over Israel (Jeremiah 22:28-30). There wasn’t a single son to sit on David’s throne.

Today people reject God’s Word because they don’t understand what happened after this. Even to this day, the Jews don’t understand what happened to David’s throne at that point! The Jews believed in God’s covenant with David, yet suddenly it looked like it had ended. Many prestigious people in this world falsely believe that God broke His promise to David. It caused them to turn away from God and from the Bible. There is something profound here they don’t understand, yet they can and should.

Jeremiah became very emotional about this disaster in Judah. He viewed these events the way most people view them to this day! They see that God made that covenant with David, but they err in thinking that Nebuchadnezzar ended it all in 585 b.c.

But it didn’t end!

God must have seen some weakness in Jeremiah and said, This has to be corrected before he can really do his job in Ireland. God had a plan. He didn’t tell Jeremiah that He was going to put a woman on that throne instead of a man. And that deliberate omission really caused Jeremiah problems for a while.

But this prophet came to learn deeply that God did not break His promise. He has never broken a promise and never will. That is one of the most tremendous lessons you could ever learn! Learn to totally trust God, even when it looks like there is no reason to. If you do, you will never ever regret it, and you will always be enormously blessed.

What a wonderful lesson Jeremiah learned. Think about how precious that is. God didn’t postpone or break His promise. He did exactly what He told Jeremiah He would do. God had to teach him to grow in faith and build an implicit trust in the living God.

A Prophecy for Today

This lesson in faith Jeremiah learned applies to us today. Psalm 89’s four uses of “Selah”—stop and think—should get us to consider all these implications. It is all about the fall of Judah, and that is a type of what is coming on America, Britain and the Jewish nation again! The modern nations of Israel are ready to crumble! We don’t realize how fast and how all-encompassing the destruction of these nations will be. Jeremiah prophesied of a time of suffering that will surpass any tribulation in human history (e.g. Jeremiah 30:4-7). Events right now are leading to the worst affliction ever on this planet. But who wants to listen to God?

People think nothing of their abominable sins. Like Jeremiah anciently, God’s people today must tell them, No, they’re not acceptable. God is going to correct you! Unimaginable punishment is coming!

Even the history of what God did with David’s throne has special meaning for us today. As I explain in The New Throne of David, God’s faithful people are stewards of this new throne. To take care of and build up David’s throne today, we too must totally trust God.

Have you proved where that throne is, and do you totally trust God on that?

In Jeremiah 1:11-12, God shows Jeremiah “a rod of an almond tree.” This points back to Numbers 16 and 17, where God demonstrated who His leader was by causing his rod to blossom. This miracle was so spectacular, even the carnal Israelites could not deny God’s presence! The principle is, compare the rods and see where God is working. Only the rod of the one God is using will miraculously bud and produce fruit. That is what God means regarding Jeremiah’s commission and the “rod of an almond tree.” Rather than a lemon tree or some other type of tree, He uses almonds, just as He used with Moses and Aaron. Jeremiah saw a bare branch, then came the new throne, and everything changed! This new throne blossoms and bears fruit. There is a miracle here you can see to understand where God’s government is. We do look at things spiritually today; this includes seeing the spiritual buds, blossoms and fruits.

In Moses’s day, God warned that those who didn’t stop murmuring and rebelling would die (Numbers 17:10). That is what God says to us spiritually. At some point you must stop the murmuring and rebelling, or you will die! That is the opposite of the total trust God is building in His people. This is about eternal life and eternal death. Amos 8:14 speaks of people who “shall fall, and never rise up again.” Fifty percent of God’s people who turn away from Him are going to die forever!

If Jeremiah can have a breakdown of his faith, so can we all. We should know better than to doubt God; but at times we falter, and God has to perfect our faith. We must repent and change so we don’t commit such sins anymore.

God teaches in the Bible the way to solve our problems. You can overcome and solve problems and be blessed mightily. God promises, I will protect you if you will totally trust me. Why do so few people believe God?

Jesus Christ said we have to live by His every word—both the Old and New Testaments (Matthew 4:4). That is total trust! That is the lesson God taught Jeremiah, and that is what every single human being who has ever lived must learn if they are to enter the Kingdom of God!

What a tremendous lesson! No matter how fierce the trial gets, just look in the Bible. See what God says. And when the temptation to question or challenge God arises, refrain! Don’t even go there! That is total trust in God.

‘I Will Never Leave You’

God says, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5). The original Greek words convey a fivefold emphasis on “never”: If you obey me and trust me, I will never, never, never, never, never forsake you. That may be the most beautiful promise in the Bible. Totally trust God, and He will never forsake you. He cannot lie (Titus 1:2). He will always fulfill His word. That is the real lesson of Psalm 89.

If you are a loving father, you will not forsake your child. Yet God and His love exceed that commitment by many miles! God is perfect! Jesus Christ is perfect! Even amid the agonies of torture and crucifixion, He totally trusted God.

Many prophecies warn that God’s Church will receive real pressure in the future. Enemies will castigate our people in unmerciful ways. That will be hard to take! We are human, and we all sin. We are not perfect like Christ and the Father. But we are striving to be like them as much as we possibly can. We are striving to totally trust our Father! If we are to do great things for God, we must believe God! If we do, then no matter the opposition and obstacles, we will do a great work for Him!

We are in the final days of human history just before the Second Coming. We need to do all we can to prepare for that marvelous future. Christ asked, “[W]hen the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). He won’t find it in very many, but He can find it in you. Today, you can build a total, implicit trust in God and His Word, just as Jeremiah did. If you believe in that throne of David and in the promise that it will flourish forever, you have the opportunity to share that throne with Christ!

Continue Reading: Chapter Three: Jeremiah’s Psalm of Repentance