Psalm 89 Feb. 20 A contemplation by Ethan, the Ezrahite.  1I will sing of the grace of Yahweh forever. With my mouth I will make known Your faithfulness to all generations. 2I indeed declare, Love stands firm forever because You established the skies; Your faithfulness is in them.  3I have made a covenant with My chosen one, I have sworn to David My servant, 4‘I will establish Your seed forever, and build up Your throne to all generations’. Selah. 5The skies will praise Your wonders, Yahweh; Your faithfulness also in the assembly of the holy ones. 6For who in the skies can be compared to Yahweh? Who among the sons of the heavenly beings is like Yahweh, 7a very awesome God in the council of the holy ones, to be feared above all those who are around Him? 8Yahweh, God of Armies, who is a mighty one like You? Yah, Your faithfulness is around You. 9You rule the pride of the sea; when its waves rise up, You calm them. 10You have broken Rahab in pieces, like one of the slain. You have scattered Your enemies with Your mighty arm. 11The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours; the world and its fullness; You have founded them. 12The north and the south, You have created them; Tabor and Hermon rejoice in Your name. 13You have a mighty arm, Your hand is strong and Your right hand is exalted. 14Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; grace and truth go before Your face. 15Blessed are the people who learn to acclaim You; they shall walk in the light of Your face, Yahweh. 16In Your name they rejoice all day. In Your righteousness, they are exalted. 17For You are the glory of their strength. In Your favour, our horn will be exalted. 18For our shield belongs to Yahweh; our king to the Holy One of Israel. 19Then You spoke in vision to Your saints and said, I have bestowed strength on the warrior. I have exalted a young man from the people. 20I have found David My servant, I have anointed him with My holy oil, 21with whom My hand shall be established; My arm will also strengthen him. 22No enemy will tax him, no wicked man will oppress him. 23I will beat down his adversaries before him, and strike those who hate him. 24But My faithfulness and My grace will be with him; in My name, his horn will be exalted. 25I will set his hand also on the sea and his right hand on the rivers. 26He will call to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation!’. 27I will also appoint him My firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. 28I will keep My grace for him forever. My covenant will stand firm through him. 29I will also make his seed endure forever and his throne as the days of heaven. 30If his children forsake My law and don’t walk in My ordinances, 31if they break My statutes and don’t keep My commandments; 32then I will punish their sin with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. 33But I will not completely take My grace away from him, nor allow My faithfulness to fail. 34I will not break My covenant, nor alter what My lips have uttered. 35Once have I sworn by My holiness that I will not lie to David. 36His seed will endure forever, his throne like the sun before Me. 37It will be established forever like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky. Selah.  38But you have rejected and spurned, You have been angry with Your anointed. 39You have renounced the covenant of Your servant; You have defiled his crown in the dust. 40You have broken down all his hedges, You have brought his strongholds to ruin. 41All who pass by the way rob him; he has become a reproach to his neighbours. 42You have exalted the right hand of his adversaries, You have made all of his enemies rejoice. 43Yes, you turn back the edge of his sword and haven’t supported him in battle. 44You have ended his splendour, and cast his throne down to the ground. 45You have shortened the days of his youth, You have covered him with shame. Selah. 46How long, Yahweh? Will You hide Yourself forever? Will Your wrath burn like fire? 47Remember how short my time is! For what vanity have You created all the children of men! 48What man is he who shall live and not see death, who shall deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah. 49Lord, where are Your former graces which You swore to David in Your faithfulness? 50Remember, Lord, the reproach of Your servants, how I bear in my heart the taunts of all the mighty peoples, 51with which Your enemies have mocked, Yahweh, with which they have mocked the footsteps of Your anointed one.  52Blessed be Yahweh forever. Amen, and Amen. 

Commentary

89:2 We often doubt God’s love and whether He will really keep His covenant with us. Yet the very existence of creation, that it’s not been destroyed despite human sin, should be a constant reminder to us of God’s faithfulness- if we let ourselves perceive it.
89:12 This shows how God reckons the points of the compass with reference to Jerusalem; He is believer-centric, so central are we to His thinking. We are never forgotten by Him.
89:20 I have found David My servant- God is in search of man; this is a repeated theme of the prophets (Hos. 9:10; Dt. 32:1; Is. 50:2; 65:1,2; 66:4). So it’s not us as it were reaching out to God; He is fervently reaching out to us, and we have to come to realize that. We don’t so much as find God, as realize that He already is earnestly with us. And yet we of course feel that we are or have been searching for God, for the ultimate Truth. Yet God is searching for us; in conversion to Christ, God and man meet in a profound way; for there, in Christ, God finds us and we find Him.
89:26-32 This is clearly a commentary on the promises to David concerning his great descendant, who was also to be God’s Son (2 Sam. 7:12-16). They were fulfilled in Christ (Lk. 1:31-35). The fact Christ called God “my God” and God was His salvation, His saviour from death through resurrection, is all more evidence that the Trinitarian understanding of Jesus is wrong. Jesus wasn’t God Himself in person.
89:35 The promises God makes involve a solemn commitment by Him to us- the serious, binding nature of His oath to us is easy to forget. God swore to David “by My holiness”. The Hebrew for “holiness” is the same word translated “dedication”. David’s response to God’s dedication to him was to dedicate [s.w.] all the silver and gold which he had won from this world, to the service of God’s house (1 Kings 7:51; 1 Chron. 26:26; 2 Chron. 5:1). Our response to God’s dedication to us should be a like dedication of what we have to Him. Covenant relationship with God requires much of both Him and us.
89:52 Blessed be Yahweh forever- Despite all the doubts about God expressed in this Psalm, the faithful writer is still committed to thanking and praising God. His apparent silence in specific areas of our lives shouldn’t ever stop us from praising Him for who He is.