God's Covenants in the Old Testament

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1. Our study group has no clue about how the meaning of COVENANT differs in the Book of Psalms from the Prophetic Books...if anyone can clearly explain the difference in meaning between the two we would very much appreciate a clear understanding.

This is an interesting question! let's take a closer look.

There is a thesis to the Old Testament: God is at work, reconciling creation to himself. His covenants are part of this reconciliation process. God is working to effect reconciliation between himself and his renegade creation (Rom. 8:21; Col. 1:20). Thus, we refer to biblical history as "salvation history." It is history with the purpose of revealing God to man (see attachment). Since the Old Testament narrative is structured around God's strategy in human history, it is a type of progressive revelation as each theme and covenant builds on the other: the Abrahamic to the Mosaic to Davidic to Psalmic covenants. As human history progresses, so does the history and content of the covenants progress and change.

Abrahamic covenant was focused on this world and the Nationhood of Israel and as God's purpose progresses toward the salvation of his people, the message of the covenant moves towards the eternal kingdom in the Davidic covenant. We see in Psalms, the covenant is a kind of unification of all the events into a theme of the unique relationship of God with his people and a focus on the messianic the messianic reign of the Davidic King . We see that "sin" or "disobedience" results in serious consequences, but does not deter God from keeping his promises made in the covenants with his people.

BACKGROUND

Before we look at the specific covenants, let's look at some background material. In understanding the covenants, it is important to understand that the Old Testament is not mythology. To understand the covenants in the salvation history of the Old Testament (see attachment), we need to consider to uniqueness of the Bible. In fact, the truth of the Bible rests in human history. YHWH is the God of history. History is one of his key chosen media to reveal himself to humanity. We read frequent expressions throughout the Old Testament, such as, "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob", "I raised you up on eagles' wings and delivered you from the hand of Pharaoh". The most crucial way God sought to separate himself from the false religions of the ancient world is through predictive prophecy and covenants made with his people, through his messages spoken through the prophets-concrete evidence of sovereignty over history (Is. 41:21-23; 42:8,9; 44:6-8).

Old Testament history is prophetic history. The content is driven by a central theme. By this, theologians mean that God impacts human history, and do so with a strategic purpose in mind. There is a message throughout the Bible: God is working to effect reconciliation between himself and his renegade creation (Rom. 8:21; Col. 1:20).

Thus, we refer to biblical history as "salvation history." It is history with the purpose of revealing God to man (see ...