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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.

19. Then thou spakest in vision to thy meek ones. The Psalmist now declares at greater length why he said that the king, set over the chosen people for the preservation of the public good, was given them from heaven; namely, because he was not chosen by the suffrages of men, nor usurped at his own hand the supreme power, nor insinuated himself into it by corrupt arts, but was elected by God to be the instrument of maintaining the public good, and performed the duties of his office under the auspices and conduct of God. The design of the prophet, as we shall shortly see more clearly, is to distinguish this Divinely-appointed king from all other kings. Although what Paul teaches in Romans 13:1, is true, “There is no power but of God;” yet there was a great difference between David and all earthly kings who have acquired sovereign power by worldly means. God had delivered the scepter to his servant David immediately with his own hand, so to speak, and had seated him on the royal throne by his own authority. The particle אז, az, which properly signifies then, is taken also for long since, or in old time. The meaning, therefore, is, that whereas some are born kings, succeeding their fathers by right of inheritance, and some are elevated to the royal dignity by election, while others acquire it for themselves by violence and force of arms, God was the founder of this kingdom, having chosen David to the throne by his own voice. Farther, although he revealed his purpose to Samuel, yet as the plural number is here used, implying, that the same oracle had been delivered to others, we may certainly conclude that it had been communicated to other prophets that they might be able, with one consent, to bear testimony that David was created king by the Divine appointment. And, indeed, as other distinguished and celebrated prophets lived at that time, it is not very probable that a matter of so great importance was concealed from them. But Samuel alone is named in this business, because he was the publisher of the Divine oracle and the minister of the royal anointing. As God in those days spake to his prophets either by dreams or by visions, this last mode of revelation is here mentioned.

There next follows the substance or amount of the Divine oracle, That God had furnished with help the strong or mighty one whom he had chosen to be the supreme head and governor of the kingdom. David is called strong, not because naturally and in himself he excelled in strength, (for, as is well known, he was of small stature, and despised among his brethren, so that even Samuel passed him over with neglects) but because God, after having chosen him, endued him with new strength, and other distinguished qualities suitable for a king; even as in a parallel case, when Christ chose his apostles, he not only honored them with the title, but at the same time bestowed the gifts which were necessary for executing their office. And at the present day he imparts to his ministers the same grace of his Spirit. The strength of David, then, of which mention is here made, was the effect of his election; for God, in creating him king, furnished him at the same time with strength adequate for the preservation of the people. This appears still more distinctly from the second clause, where this invincible strength is traced to its source: I have exalted one chosen from among the people. All the words are emphatic. When God declares that he exalted him, it is to intimate the low and mean condition in which David lived, unknown and obscure, before God stretched out his hand to him. To the same effect is the expression which follows, from among the people. The meaning is, that he was at that time unnoted, and belonged to the lowest class of the people, and gave no indications of superior excellence, being the least esteemed of his father’s children, in whose country cottage he held the humble office of a herdsman. ⁵³⁹⁵³⁹ “L’ennemi n’aura puissance sur luy.” — Fr. “The enemy shall not have power over him.” By the word chosen, God calls us back to the consideration of his own free will, as if he forbade us to seek for any other cause of David’s exaltation than his own good pleasure.