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2018 Annual Moore College Lectures
James Hely Hutchinson
‘What's new about the new covenant?’ is a familiar question to theological students, and it is on the agenda of the Moore College Lectures of 2018. But we will be asking this question in relation to the book of Psalms. This might seem strange and difficult to justify even at the level of method: how can one look to adjudicate, from a single book of the Old Testament, on a major and long-standing debate that concerns the new covenant and involves the whole of Scripture? Add to that the fact that I will be building on the seemingly shaky foundation of a recent consensus in the area of Psalms scholarship (relating to psalter shape), and you will recognise that I will have more than a little explaining to do in the first lecture!
I will (DV) be aiming to persuade you that, as psalter readers, we find that close to the heart of the agenda of this book is the question of how covenants relate. In particular, the question of the permanence of the Davidic covenant in the face of the exile is explored: Psalm 89 plays a pivotal role in the unfolding of the psalter with its anguished calling into question of the Lord’s covenant faithfulness. In line, then, with one of the psalter’s own concerns, our particular task will be to explore how the Davidic and new covenants fit together (although this will require us to interact with the biblical covenants more generally).
As we approach this question, we will have in mind five or six points of view that have currency in contemporary evangelicalism. We will begin by setting out these models and conclude by commenting on how they match up against our findings from the psalter. A significant consideration that a comparison of these approaches raises is the question of how the new-covenant believer relates to the Mosaic law, and so we will devote some time to this.
Do please pray that our time together would be worthwhile and that the material would contribute to lending greater precision and accuracy to our grasp of God’s breath-taking salvation plan (cf. Luke 24:32), ability to handle Scripture aright (cf. 2 Tim 2:15) and worship of the Master (cf. Luke 1:68‐75; Rev 1:5b-6).
