Psalm 89
52 verses · BSBPsalms book hub →
Speaks with:Psalms 89×72 Samuel 7×9Psalms 74×41 Samuel 16×3Psalms 80×3Psalms 72×3
Summary
Chapter summary
The Davidic covenant sung, then seemingly shipwrecked. 'I will sing of the lovingkindness of Jehovah for ever.' The oath rehearsed: 'I have made a covenant with my chosen… his seed will I establish for ever, and build up his throne to all generations'; his seed to endure as the sun and moon, the faithful witness in the sky. Then the crash: 'But thou hast cast off and rejected… thou hast profaned his crown to the ground.' 'Lord, where are thy former lovingkindnesses, which thou swarest unto David in thy faithfulness?' Book III closes on the question, and its doxology: 'Blessed be Jehovah for evermore. Amen, and Amen.'
Context
Poetry · David, Asaph, Sons of Korah, others — Psalms overview
The world behind this chapter
Psalms 89The history
The promise being quoted is the one Nathan brought David: I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn to David my servant, thy seed will I establish for ever. Two-thirds of this long psalm is spent celebrating it.
Treaties in that world came in two kinds. A vassal treaty put conditions on the servant and could be voided by his failure. A royal grant was a gift a king made to a loyal servant and his descendants, secured by the giver's own oath rather than the receiver's performance. The Davidic promise is worded like a grant, which is exactly why the psalm can hold two things together: if his children forsake my law I will visit their transgression with the rod, and yet my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.
Ethan the Ezrahite is named with Heman among the wise men Solomon surpassed, and among the singers. As with the Asaph psalms, the closing scene — a crown thrown to the ground, the strongholds ruined, the king's glory ended — fits the fall of Jerusalem four centuries later, which points to the guild carrying the founder's name. Some readers place it at an earlier defeat instead. The psalm names no invader.
Rahab and the raging sea appear again in the middle, where God rules the swelling waves and stills them. The creation victory is being used as evidence in an argument: the God who can do that can keep a promise.
What it meant to them
Israel sang three-quarters of a psalm about a promise that could not be broken, and then laid the broken thing on the floor in front of God and asked, Lord, where are thy former lovingkindnesses, which thou swarest unto David in thy truth?
That question closes the whole third section of the songbook. It is not answered there. The next psalm reaches back past the monarchy altogether to Moses.
Sources cited
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews & Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- Chuck Missler, Learn the Bible in 24 Hours
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Psalms 89. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Connections from this chapter
v. 3 · A stop on the Messiah's trail
NEW-STOP: the Davidic covenant sung then grieved (89:3, 89:27, throne cast down 89:38-45): why the prophets hope for a restored David.
2 Samuel 7:12→And when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom.
Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Appendix IX (public domain)
v. 3 · A stop on the Messiah's trail
Psalm 89 leaves the Davidic covenant in crisis: the crown “profaned… to the ground.” Isaiah answers the house of David with a sign: a virgin conceives and bears a son, and calls his name Immanuel, God with us (Isa 7:14).
Isaiah 7:14→Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel.
MT-ASV; LXX parthenos
v. 3 · A stretch of this thread
covenant sworn (v.3-4) then cast off in exile (v.38-39) - the psalm that makes the not-yet ache
Psalms 89:38→Now, however, You have spurned and rejected him; You are enraged by Your anointed one.
text
v. 4 · The same word
H2233 zera -> 'thy seed will I establish forever'; spine into the royal psalms
Genesis 22:18→And through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
verse_words (verified)
v. 20 · Quoted here
'David... a man after mine own heart': Paul (w/ 1Sa 13:14).
Acts 13:22→After removing Saul, He raised up David as their king and testified about him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after My own heart; he will carry out My will in its entirety.’
public-domain commentaries in agreement
v. 27 · An echo of this verse
'the FIRSTBORN of the dead, ruler of the kings' echoes Ps 89:27
Revelation 1:5→and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood,
public-domain quotation
Where scholars push back(1)
Isaiah 7:14. The Hebrew word is ʿalmah, “young woman”; the Greek Old Testament rendered it parthenos, “virgin,” three centuries before Christ, and which sense Isaiah intended is argued.
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.