Study

a Bible passage

Click a verse to see commentary

Select a resource above

89. Psalm 89

¹ I will sing of the LORD’s great love forever;
   with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known
   through all generations.
² I will declare that your love stands firm forever,
   that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself.
³ You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
   I have sworn to David my servant,
⁴ ‘I will establish your line forever
   and make your throne firm through all generations.’” The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here and at the end of verses 37, 45 and 48.

    ⁵ The heavens praise your wonders, LORD,
   your faithfulness too, in the assembly of the holy ones.
⁶ For who in the skies above can compare with the LORD?
   Who is like the LORD among the heavenly beings?
⁷ In the council of the holy ones God is greatly feared;
   he is more awesome than all who surround him.
⁸ Who is like you, LORD God Almighty?
   You, LORD, are mighty, and your faithfulness surrounds you.

    ⁹ You rule over the surging sea;
   when its waves mount up, you still them.
¹⁰ You crushed Rahab like one of the slain;
   with your strong arm you scattered your enemies.
¹¹ The heavens are yours, and yours also the earth;
   you founded the world and all that is in it.
¹² You created the north and the south;
   Tabor and Hermon sing for joy at your name.
¹³ Your arm is endowed with power;
   your hand is strong, your right hand exalted.

    ¹⁴ Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;
   love and faithfulness go before you.
¹⁵ Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you,
   who walk in the light of your presence, LORD.
¹⁶ They rejoice in your name all day long;
   they celebrate your righteousness.
¹⁷ For you are their glory and strength,
   and by your favor you exalt our horn. Horn here symbolizes strong one.
¹⁸ Indeed, our shield Or sovereign belongs to the LORD,
   our king to the Holy One of Israel.

    ¹⁹ Once you spoke in a vision,
   to your faithful people you said:
“I have bestowed strength on a warrior;
   I have raised up a young man from among the people.
²⁰ I have found David my servant;
   with my sacred oil I have anointed him.
²¹ My hand will sustain him;
   surely my arm will strengthen him.
²² The enemy will not get the better of him;
   the wicked will not oppress him.
²³ I will crush his foes before him
   and strike down his adversaries.
²⁴ My faithful love will be with him,
   and through my name his horn Horn here symbolizes strength. will be exalted.
²⁵ I will set his hand over the sea,
   his right hand over the rivers.
²⁶ He will call out to me, ‘You are my Father,
   my God, the Rock my Savior.’
²⁷ And I will appoint him to be my firstborn,
   the most exalted of the kings of the earth.
²⁸ I will maintain my love to him forever,
   and my covenant with him will never fail.
²⁹ I will establish his line forever,
   his throne as long as the heavens endure.

    ³⁰ “If his sons forsake my law
   and do not follow my statutes,
³¹ if they violate my decrees
   and fail to keep my commands,
³² I will punish their sin with the rod,
   their iniquity with flogging;
³³ but I will not take my love from him,
   nor will I ever betray my faithfulness.
³⁴ I will not violate my covenant
   or alter what my lips have uttered.
³⁵ Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness—
   and I will not lie to David—
³⁶ that his line will continue forever
   and his throne endure before me like the sun;
³⁷ it will be established forever like the moon,
   the faithful witness in the sky.”

    ³⁸ But you have rejected, you have spurned,
   you have been very angry with your anointed one.
³⁹ You have renounced the covenant with your servant
   and have defiled his crown in the dust.
⁴⁰ You have broken through all his walls
   and reduced his strongholds to ruins.
⁴¹ All who pass by have plundered him;
   he has become the scorn of his neighbors.
⁴² You have exalted the right hand of his foes;
   you have made all his enemies rejoice.
⁴³ Indeed, you have turned back the edge of his sword
   and have not supported him in battle.
⁴⁴ You have put an end to his splendor
   and cast his throne to the ground.
⁴⁵ You have cut short the days of his youth;
   you have covered him with a mantle of shame.

    ⁴⁶ How long, LORD? Will you hide yourself forever?
   How long will your wrath burn like fire?
⁴⁷ Remember how fleeting is my life.
   For what futility you have created all humanity!
⁴⁸ Who can live and not see death,
   or who can escape the power of the grave?
⁴⁹ Lord, where is your former great love,
   which in your faithfulness you swore to David?
⁵⁰ Remember, Lord, how your servant has Or your servants have been mocked,
   how I bear in my heart the taunts of all the nations,
⁵¹ the taunts with which your enemies, LORD, have mocked,
   with which they have mocked every step of your anointed one.

⁵² Praise be to the LORD forever! Amen and Amen.

3 I have made a covenant with my chosen. ⁵²⁴⁵²⁴ “The word אמרתי, ‘I have said,’ is used, in the Book of Psalms, to express two things; either a fixed purpose, or a settled opinion of the person speaking. The Psalmist, therefore, delivers the whole of this second verse in his own person, and introduces not God speaking till the next verse.” — Horsley The more effectually to confirm himself and all the godly in the faith of the Divine promise, he introduces God himself as speaking and sanctioning, by his authority, what had been said in the preceding verse. As faith ought to depend on the Divine promise, this manner of speaking, by which God is represented as coming forward and alluring us to himself by his own voice, is more forcible than if the prophet himself had simply stated the fact. And when God in this way anticipates us, we cannot be charged with rashness in coming familiarly to him; even as, on the contrary, without His word we have no ground to presume that he will be gracious to us, or to hope, at the mere suggestion of our own fancy, for what he has not promised. Moreover, the truth of the promise is rendered still more irrefragable, when God declares that he had made a covenant with his servant David, ratified by his own solemn oath. It having been customary in ancient times to engrave leagues and covenants on tables of brass, a metaphor is here used borrowed from this practice. God applies to David two titles of distinction, calling him both his chosen and his servant. Those who would refer the former appellation to Abraham do not sufficiently attend to the style of the Book of Psalms, in which it is quite common for one thing to be repeated twice. David is called the chosen of God, because God of his own good pleasure, and from no other cause, preferred him not only to the posterity of Saul, and many distinguished personages, but even to his own brethren. If, therefore, the cause or origin of this covenant is sought for, we must necessarily fall back upon the Divine election.

The name of servant, which follows immediately after, is not to be understood as implying that David by his services merited any thing at the hand of God. He is called God’s servant in respect of the royal dignity, into which he had not rashly thrust himself, having been invested with the government by God, and having undertaken it in obedience to his lawful call. When, however, we consider what the covenant summarily contains, we conclude that the prophet has not improperly applied it to his own use, and to the use of the whole people; for God did not enter into it with David individually, but had an eye to the whole body of the Church, which would exist from age to age. The sentence, I will establish thy throne for ever, is partly to be understood of Solomon, and the rest of David’s successors; but the prophet well knew that perpetuity or everlasting duration, in the strict and proper sense, could be verified only in Christ. In ordaining one man to be king, God assuredly did not have a respect to one house alone, while he forgot and neglected the people with whom he had before made his covenant in the person of Abraham; but he conferred the sovereign power upon David and his children, that they might rule for the common good of all the rest, until the throne might be truly established by the advent of Christ.