Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.
Nevertheless I will remember my covenant. The promise here bursts forth unexpectedly, like the sun from the dark clouds. With all her forgetfulness of God, God still "remembers" her; showing that her redemption is altogether of grace. Contrast "I will remember" with "thou hast not remembered" (Ezekiel 16:22; Ezekiel 16:43); also "my covenant" with "thy covenant" (Ezekiel 16:61; Psalms 106:45); then the effect produced on her is (Ezekiel 16:63), "that thou mayest remember," God's promise was one of promise and of grace. The law, in its letter, was Israel's ("thy") covenant (Ezekiel 16:61, "thy covenant"), and in this restricted view was long subsequent (Galatians 3:17). Israel interpreted it as a covenant of works, which she, while boasting of, failed to fulfil, and so fell under its condemnation (2 Corinthians 3:3; 2 Corinthians 3:6). The law, in its spirit, contains the germ of the Gospel; the New Testament is the full development of the Old, the husk of the outer form being laid aside when the inner spirit was fulfilled in Messiah. God's covenant with Israel in the person of Abraham was the reason why, notwithstanding all her guilt, mercy was and is in store for her. Therefore the pagan or Gentile nations must come to her for blessings, not she to them.
I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant - (Ezekiel 37:26; 2 Samuel 23:5; Isaiah 55:3). The temporary forms of the law were to be laid aside, that in its permanent and "everlasting" spirit it might be established (Jeremiah 31:31-37; Jeremiah 32:40, "I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good;" so also they on their part enter into an everlasting covenant with Him; Jeremiah 50:4-5; Hebrews 8:8-13).