Psalm 89

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

The lovingkindnesses of Yahweh

¹ I will sing of the lovingkindnesses of Yahweh forever; to all generations I will make known Your faithfulness with my mouth. ² For I have said, "Lovingkindness shall be built up forever; in the heavens You will establish Your faithfulness."

³ "I have made a covenant with My chosen one; I have sworn to David My servant: ⁴ 'Your seed I will establish forever, and build up your throne to all generations.'" Selah.

⁵ The heavens praise Your wonders, Yahweh, and Your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones. ⁶ For who in the skies can be compared to Yahweh? Who is like Yahweh among the sons of El? ⁷ El is greatly feared in the council of the holy ones, and awesome above all who are around Him. ⁸ Yahweh Elohim Tsevaot, who is like You? Mighty are You, O Yah, and Your faithfulness surrounds You.

⁹ You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, You still them. ¹⁰ You crushed Rahab like one who is slain; You scattered Your enemies with Your mighty arm. ¹¹ The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours; the world and all that fills it, You have founded them. ¹² The north and the south, You created them; Tabor and Hermon shout for joy in Your name. ¹³ You have a mighty arm; strong is Your hand, high is Your right hand. ¹⁴ Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; lovingkindness and truth go before Your face.

¹⁵ Blessed are the people who know the shout of joy; Yahweh, they walk in the light of Your face. ¹⁶ In Your name they rejoice all the day, and in Your righteousness they are exalted. ¹⁷ For You are the glory of their strength, and by Your favor our horn is exalted. ¹⁸ For our shield belongs to Yahweh, and our king to the Holy One of Israel.

The covenant with David

¹⁹ Then You spoke in a vision to Your godly ones, and said: "I have laid help upon a mighty one; I have exalted one chosen from the people. ²⁰ I have found David My servant; with My holy oil I have anointed him, ²¹ with whom My hand shall be established; My arm also shall strengthen him. ²² The enemy shall not deceive him, nor shall the wicked oppress him. ²³ I will crush his foes before him, and strike those who hate him. ²⁴ My faithfulness and My lovingkindness shall be with him, and in My name his horn shall be exalted. ²⁵ I will set his hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers.

²⁶ He shall call to Me, 'You are my Father, my El, and the Rock of my salvation.' ²⁷ I also will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. ²⁸ My lovingkindness I will keep for him forever, and My covenant shall be made sure for him. ²⁹ I will make his seed endure forever, and his throne as the days of the heavens.

³⁰ If his sons forsake My Torah and do not walk in My judgments, ³¹ if they profane My statutes and do not keep My commandments, ³² then I will punish their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with strokes; ³³ but My lovingkindness I will not take from him, nor be false to My faithfulness. ³⁴ I will not profane My covenant, nor alter what has gone out of My lips.

³⁵ Once for all I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David. ³⁶ His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before Me; ³⁷ like the moon it shall be established forever, and the witness in the skies is faithful." Selah.

The crown in the dust

³⁸ But You have cast off and rejected; You have been furious with Your anointed. ³⁹ You have renounced the covenant of Your servant; You have profaned his crown in the dust. ⁴⁰ You have broken down all his walls; You have brought his fortified places to ruin. ⁴¹ All who pass by on the way plunder him; he has become a reproach to his neighbors. ⁴² You have exalted the right hand of his foes; You have made all his enemies rejoice. ⁴³ You have also turned back the edge of his sword, and have not made him stand in battle. ⁴⁴ You have made his splendor cease and cast his throne to the ground. ⁴⁵ You have shortened the days of his youth; You have covered him with shame. Selah.

⁴⁶ How long, Yahweh? Will You hide Yourself forever? Will Your wrath burn like fire? ⁴⁷ Remember how brief my lifetime is! For what vanity have You created all the sons of men? ⁴⁸ What man can live and not see death? Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah.

⁴⁹ Adonai, where are Your former lovingkindnesses, which You swore to David in Your faithfulness? ⁵⁰ Remember, Adonai, the reproach of Your servants, how I bear in my bosom the insults of all the many peoples, ⁵¹ with which Your enemies have reproached, Yahweh, with which they have reproached the footsteps of Your anointed.

The close of Book Three

⁵² Blessed be Yahweh forever! Amen and amen.

Notes

• 89:1 Title: on "Maskil" see the note at 32:1. Ethan the Ezrahite is named with Heman among the famous wise men whom Solomon surpassed (1 Kings 4:31; see the note at 88:1), and an Ethan was also one of David's three chief singers, a Levite of Merari (1 Chronicles 6:44; 15:19), perhaps the singer called Jeduthun elsewhere. In Hebrew Bibles the title is verse 1, so the verse numbers there run one higher than in English Bibles. The psalm has three movements: a hymn to Yahweh's faithfulness in heaven and on earth (verses 1-18), His covenant with David (19-37), and a lament that the covenant seems broken (38-51). Its two key words, chesed, "lovingkindness," and emunah, "faithfulness," each stand seven times (chesed in verses 1, 2, 14, 24, 28, 33, 49; emunah in verses 1, 2, 5, 8, 24, 33, 49).
• 89:3 Yahweh speaks here in brief what verses 19-37 unfold. 2 Samuel 7 does not use the word "covenant," but David calls the promise "an everlasting covenant" (2 Samuel 23:5), and the psalm takes up the wording of Nathan's oracle where the Hebrew is the same: "your seed" and "I will establish" (2 Samuel 7:12-13; verses 4, 29, 36), "your throne" (7:16), "this vision" (7:17; verse 19), "the wicked will not oppress" (7:10; verse 22), "I will be his Father" (7:14; verse 26), "the rod" and "strokes" (7:14; verse 32), lovingkindness that is not taken away (7:15; verse 33), and "made sure" (ne'eman, 7:16; verse 28; the same word is "faithful" in verse 37). Peter recalls this oath in Acts 2:30.
• 89:10 Rahab here is the sea monster, a poetic picture of the raging sea and of the powers of chaos that only Elohim subdues, not Rahab of Jericho (see the notes at Job 9:13 and 26:12); in Psalm 87:4 and Isaiah 30:7 the name stands for Egypt, and many hear in this verse the crossing of the sea as well. "The slain" is the word used in 88:5. From the sea the psalm turns to the whole creation: north and south, and Tabor and Hermon, the two great mountains of the land, the one rising alone from the Valley of Jezreel, the other snowcapped in the far north. "South" is yamin, literally "right hand," since the Hebrew faces east to name the directions.
• 89:27 "Firstborn" (bekhor) here is a matter of rank and inheritance, not of birth: Yahweh said of His people, "Israel is My son, My firstborn" (Exodus 4:22), and David was the youngest of his brothers. "The highest" is elyon, the word used of Elohim Himself as "the Most High" (7:17): as Yahweh is above all, so David and his line are to stand above the kings of the earth. Verses 26-27 take up the promise "I will be his Father, and he shall be My son" (2 Samuel 7:14; compare 2:7). Paul calls Yeshua the firstborn of all creation (Colossians 1:15), and Revelation 1:5 names Him the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth, words that echo verses 27 and 37 of this psalm.
• 89:38 The lament turns every promise around: the anointed king, once raised high (verse 19), is cast off; the covenant (verses 3, 28, 34) is renounced (verse 39); his throne, meant to stand "as the sun" (verse 36), is cast to the ground (verse 44); his strongholds lie in ruins. "Your anointed" is the king of David's line (see the note at 2:2). The psalm does not name the disaster; many think of the fall of Jerusalem and the exile of King Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24:10-15; 25:27), others of an earlier invasion. The singer does not deny the promise: he holds Yahweh to His own oath, "which You swore to David in Your faithfulness" (verse 49). In verse 50 "the insults" is supplied (literally "how I bear in my bosom all the many peoples"), and "the footsteps of Your anointed" (verse 51) means every step the king takes. In later Jewish tradition "the footsteps of the Messiah" (ikvot meshicha, the same word ikkevot, in a passage at the end of Mishnah Sotah, 9:15; the Mishnah was compiled about AD 200) became a name for the troubled times before the Messiah comes, a phrase many connect with these words.
• 89:52 This blessing is not part of Psalm 89 alone; it closes the third book of the Psalms (73-89), as 41:13 closed the first and 72:18-19 the second (see the note at 1:1); the fourth will close at 106:48. Like them it ends "Amen and amen": "it is so, let it be so" (see the note at 41:13). It follows a lament that ends with its question still open, and the blessing is spoken anyway. Book Four opens with a prayer of Moses (Psalm 90), and many read its psalms that proclaim Yahweh as King (93, 96-99) as an answer to the fallen throne of verse 44.

Psalm 88 · Psalm 90

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