Psalm 89

1 I will sing of thy mercies, O Lord, for ever: I will declare thy truth with my mouth to all generations.

2 For thou hast said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: thy truth shall be established in the heavens.

3 I made a covenant with my chosen ones, I sware unto David my servant.

4 I will establish thy seed for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations. Pause.

5 The heavens shall declare thy wonders, O Lord; and thy truth in the assembly of the saints.

6 For who in the heavens shall be compared to the Lord? and who shall be likened to the Lord among the sons of God?

7 God is glorified in the council of the saints; great and terrible toward all that are round about him.

8 O Lord God of hosts, who is like to thee? thou art mighty, O Lord, and thy truth is round about thee.

9 Thou rulest the power of the sea; and thou calmest the tumult of its waves.

10 Thou has brought down the proud as one that is slain; and with the arm of thy power thou has scattered thine enemies.

11 The heavens are thine, and the earth is thine: thou hast founded the world, and the fullness of it.

12 Thou hast created the north and the west: Thabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name.

13 Thine is the mighty arm: let thy hand be strengthened, let thy right hand be exalted.

14 Justice and judgment are the establishment of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.

15 Blessed is the people that knows the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance.

16 And in thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.

17 For thou art the boast of their strength; and in thy good pleasure shall our horn be exalted,

18 for our help is of the Lord; and of the Holy One of Israel, our king.

19 Then thou spokest in vision to thy children, and saidst, I have laid help on a mighty one; I have exalted one chosen out of my people.

20 I have found David my servant; I have anointed him by my holy mercy.

21 For my hand shall support him; and mine arm shall strengthen him.

22 The enemy shall have no advantage against him; and the son of transgression shall not hurt him again.

23 And I will hew down his foes before him, and put to flight those that hate him.

24 But my truth and my mercy shall be with him; and in my name shall his horn be exalted.

25 And I will set his hand in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers.

26 He shall call upon me, saying, Thou art my Father, my God, and the helper of my salvation.

27 And I will make him my first-born, higher than the kings of the earth.

28 I will keep my mercy for him for ever, and my covenant shall be firm with him.

29 And I will establish his seed for ever and ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.

30 If his children should forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments;

31 if they should profane my ordinances, and not keep my commandments;

32 I will visit their transgressions with a rod, and their sins with scourges.

33 But my mercy I will not utterly remove from him, nor wrong my truth.

34 Neither will I by any means profane my covenant; and I will not make void the things that proceed out of my lips.

35 Once have I sworn by my holiness, that I will not lie to David.

36 His see shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me;

37 and as the moon that is established for ever, and as the faithful witness in heaven. Pause.

38 But thou hast cast off and set at nought, thou has rejected thine anointed.

39 Thou hast overthrown the covenant of thy servant; thou has profaned his sanctuary, casting it to the ground.

40 Thou hast broken down all his hedges; thou hast made his strong holds a terror.

41 All that go by the way have spoiled him: he is become a reproach to his neighbours.

42 Thou hast exalted the right hand of his enemies; thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice.

43 Thou hast turned back the help of his sword, and hast not helped him in the battle.

44 Thou hast deprived him of glory: thou hast broken down his throne to the ground.

45 Thou hast shortened the days of his throne: thou hast poured shame upon him. Pause.

46 How long, O Lord, wilt thou turn away, for ever? shall thine anger flame out as fire?

47 Remember what my being is: for hast thou created all the sons of men in vain?

48 What man is there who shall live, and not see death? shall any one deliver his soul from the hand of Hades? Pause.

49 Where are thine ancient mercies, O Lord, which thou swarest to David in thy truth?

50 Remember, O Lord, the reproach of thy servants, which I have borne in my bosom, even the reproach of many nations;

51 wherewith thine enemies have reviled, O Lord: wherewith they have reviled the recompense of thine anointed.

52 Blessed be the Lord for ever. So be it, so be it.

Psalm 89 Meaning and Commentary

Maschil of Ethan the Ezrahite. Who this Ethan was is not certain. Kimchi takes him to be the same with Ethan the wise man, a grandson of Judah, 1 Kings 4:31. But seeing he lived some hundreds of years before the times of David, it is not likely that he should be the writer of this psalm; for David is made mention of in it, which could not be, unless it can be thought to be by a spirit of prophecy; which indeed is the opinion of Doctor Lightfoot {k}, who takes this Ethan to be the penman of this psalm; and who "from the promise, Genesis 15:1 sings joyfully the deliverance (of Israel); that the raging of the Red sea should be ruled, Psalm 89:9, and Rahab, or Egypt, should be broken in pieces, Psalm 89:10, and that the people should hear the joyful sound of the law, Psalm 89:15, and as for the name of David in it, this, he says, might be done prophetically; as Samuel is thought to be named by Moses, Psalm 99:6, which psalm is held to be made by him; or else might be put into it, in later times, by some divine penman, endued with the same gift of prophecy, who might improve the ground work of this psalm laid by Ethan, and set it to an higher key; namely, that whereas he treated only of bodily deliverance from Egypt, it is wound up so high as to reach the spiritual delivery by Christ; and therefore David is often named, from whence he should come."

There was another Ethan, a singer, in David's time; and it is more probable that he is the person, who might live to the times of Rehoboam, and see the decline of David's family, and the revolt of the ten tribes from it; or perhaps it was one of this name who lived in the times of the Babylonish captivity, and saw the low estate that David's family were come into; to which agrees the latter part of this psalm; and, in order to comfort the people of God, he wrote this psalm, showing that the covenant and promises of God, made with David, nevertheless stood firm, and would be accomplished: the title of the Septuagint version calls him Etham the Israelite; and the Arabic version Nathan the Israelite: the Targum makes him to be Abraham, paraphrasing it "a good understanding, which was said by the hand of Abraham, that came from the east."

But whoever was the penman of this psalm, it is "maschil," an instructive psalm, a psalm causing to understand; it treats concerning the covenant of grace, and the promises of it; and concerning the mercy and faithfulness of God, in making and keeping the same; and concerning the Messiah and his seed, his church and people; and the stability and duration of all these: many passages in it are applied to the Messiah by Jewish writers, ancient and modern; and Psalm 89:20 is manifestly referred to in Acts 13:22.