with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations.
2 I declare that your steadfast love is established forever;
your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens.
I have sworn to my servant David:
4 ‘I will establish your descendants forever,
and build your throne for all generations.’”Selah
“I have set the crown on one who is mighty,
I have exalted one chosen from the people.
20 I have found my servant David;
with my holy oil I have anointed him;
21 my hand shall always remain with him;
my arm also shall strengthen him.
22 The enemy shall not outwit him,
the wicked shall not humble him.
23 I will crush his foes before him
and strike down those who hate him.
24 My faithfulness and steadfast love 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 cry to me, ‘You are my Father,
my God, and the Rock of my salvation!’
Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26 is part of a royal psalm. Pannenberg says it is an exilic Psalm. Some would make it apply to 587 BC, but there is no specific reference to this event. It may have been used at times of national distress. It was part of a worship festival. Dynasty considerations predominate. The poet prays for the restoration of the Davidic dynasty, and thus, for the end of the exile and the restoration of the Jews to their land as an independent people, as they were before the exile. If exilic, the psalm becomes a long meditation on the perplexing nature of the covenant of the Lord with Israel, specifically, the Lord’s covenant with David. It becomes a poetic reinterpretation of the promise to David in II Samuel 7:11-17. The poet omits references to the Temple and focuses on the permanence of Davidic kingship. This is a striking departure from most exilic psalms, which have more concern with the Temple than with the dynasty. Among the most difficult experiences for an individual, community, or nation occurs when everything is falling apart. The exile was that time for Israel, Judah, priests, royal family, and prophets. In this case, the issue was the love and mercy from the Lord which the covenant promised facing the harsh reality of exile.
For “Ethan” in the superscription, mentioned only here in the psalms, but see I Kings 5:11, in which he is a sage whose wisdom only Solomon surpassed, and I Chronicles 2:6, in which he is one of the Levitical singers in the temple. At least a portion of Psalm 89 comes from his hand.
Psalm 89:1-4, a section that continues to verse 18, the Lord is proclaimed as king. Verses 1-4 offers praise of the steadfast love and faithfulness of the Lord in the choice of David and the establishment of the Davidic dynasty, which is eternal and unconditional (II Samuel 7:15-16, contrasting with the conditional promise in Psalm 132:12. The faithfulness with which the dynastic promise was made is the main theme of the psalm.
Has love ever inspired you to make some vaguely ridiculous, over-the-top actions or declarations? This Psalm begins in that way.
The Psalm opens with a common declaration of devotion in the psalter, 1I will sing. In the ancient world, singing before others was not primarily for entertainment. Singing had a didactic purpose. It served to remind people who could not read of their primary historical connections. Such singing contributed to cultural cohesion and strength. The content of the song is of your steadfast love (chesed), O Lord, forever. An unusual dimension of the Hebrew construction is the plural formulation, and thus could refer to “the loving acts of the Lord.” We frequently see it ascribed to the God of Israel as one of several synonymous attributes, such as we will find here. It refers to the gratuitous nature and persistence of the divine nature. Thus, with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness, a common pairing with chesed, to all generations.[1]2I will declare (Psalm 40:10 as well)[2] that your steadfast love (chesed) is established (banah, niphal or passive root, meaning “build” usually as in physical objects, but also house of wisdom (Proverbs 9:1) or a family or dynastic line (Ruth 4:11). Only here does steadfast love requiring building or establishing. Such a combination of words is unusual in the Old Testament. Further, he declares, your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens.
The psalmist affirms that the love of God is an always type of love. Such love arises out of the sense of a covenant loyalty and bond. The divine promise of such faithfulness might remind us of the marriage promise. Such love is unconditional. Such love is a risk, and thus the opposite of cautious or careful. Such love dives into the relationship with full commitment. Even if the people of the Lord are unappreciative, the love of the Lord remains steadfast and firm.
Psalm 89:3-4 singles out the promise the Lord made to David. 3 You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to my servant David: 4 ‘I will establish (the uncommon verb qun) your descendants forever, and build your throne for all generations.’” Selah. We can read the narrative of this covenant in II Samuel 7:8-16 and another poetic account in Psalm 132:11-12, which make this promise conditional on the faithfulness of the descendants. This abrupt change in the subject matter could mean the writer of the Psalm is David, one of his descendants, or even a court official. Regardless, this verse is a significant contribution to the notion of the election of individuals in the Old Testament.[3]
Psalm 89: 19-26, a section that continues to verse 37, proclaims David and his dynasty king. The covenant with David and his descendants will be eternal even in the face of human sin. This is a poetic reformulation of II Samuel 7:22-27, which like that text assumes an eternal, unbreakable David covenant, contrasting with Psalm 132_11-12 and I Kings 9:4-9. Verses 19-26 are part of a section that extends to verse 37 that recapitulates the divine promise to David. The writer has offered a list of the magnalia Dei, the gracious acts of the Lord on behalf of Israel. The king responds to what the Lord has said by recalling another significant act of the Lord on behalf of Israel, the promise to David. He affirms that not even human sin will end the covenant. Such an intimate relationship as we see here between the Lord and the king become the basis for the intimate relation within the Trinity between Father and Son.[4] He says, 19 Then you spoke in a vision (chazon, only time to occur outside of prophetic writings) to your faithful one (chasid, MT is plural, possibly referring to a prophet, from which the Jewish sect the Hassidim derive their identity and name). Specifying how the Lord communicates with a human being is not typical of the Psalms. In this vision, and the Lord said: “I have set the crown[e]on one who is mighty, I have exalted one chosen from the people. 20I have found (a word never elsewhere used to describe contact between the Lord and David) the servant of the Lord (II Samuel 3:18, 7:5, I Kings 11:13, etc.), David, and with my holy oil I have anointed him (Exodus 30:22-33, tent of meeting, the Ark, the altar, etc., but nowhere for the royal anointing referred to in I Samuel 16:13). Thus, this is the only passage to refer to sacral chrism as the oil used to anoint David. Of course, the oil did not possess holiness. Rather, the Lord bestowed holiness upon it. 21 My hand shall always remain with him; my arm also shall strengthen him. 22 The enemy shall not outwit him, the wicked shall not humble him. 23 I will crush his foes before him and strike down those who hate him. Even with steadfast love and faithfulness as a divine promise, we see here this covenant loyalty does not promise absence of danger, loss, or stress. Even David will have his enemies and wicked ones who seek him harm. The promise contained in divine love and faithfulness is that such opposition will not prevail. The path of a human life will have pain and sorrow. Yet, this covenant loyalty, such steadfast love and faithfulness, will accompany the human partner along a precarious journey. Human beings can count on this love, for this love is strong and true. 24 My faithfulness and steadfast love, often occurring together in the Old Testament because this turn in love toward the creatures the Lord has made reveals the identity and consistency of the eternal God,[5] shall be with him; and in my name his horn shall be exalted. In fact, 25 I will set his hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers. Powers associated with the Lord in verses 9-10 are bestowed upon David. 26 He shall cry to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, an idea found in Psalm 2:7 and II Samuel 7:14. Israel shared with its neighbors the idea of the king being the adopted son of a god who ordained that he should rule. Priests and prophets already claimed direct communication with the Lord, while royalty claimed this connection late. Surrounding cultures made this a major theme, but the theme, important as it is, is rare in the Old Testament. However, it was undoubtedly an important part of royal ideology. The king was hardly the only leader to whom the deity regularly communicated (and was the last of the three great leadership institutions to claim that privilege), so the divine parentage of the king never achieved in Israel the prominence it enjoyed elsewhere in the ancient world, as, for example, among the pharaohs of Egypt or the Roman emperors. Whatever the king's accomplishments on behalf of the chosen people and none were held in higher esteem than David's -- the king remained principally and finally the servant of the Lord. Further, the king shall cry that the Lord is the Rock of my salvation!
The type of love of which the psalmist writes is the mature and lasting love that stands the tests and trials of time. Such love is tough, enduring, and prepared to meet obstacles directly. Such love will offer armor and protection in order to see the partners in the covenant through the up and down of a human journey through life. Such love is humbling in its passion and amazing in its depth. On the divine side, such love does not fade or weaken.
Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams. Love in dreams is greedy for immediate action, rapidly performed and in sight of all. Men will give their lives if only the ordeal does not last long but is soon over, with all looking on and applauding as if on the stage. But active love is labor and fortitude.[6]
[1] The Hebrew text of Psalm 89 is quite unstable, with the various ancient versions attempting to harmonize the somewhat erratic use of pronominal suffixes. (The Syriac, for example, reads "his faithfulness" in verse 1b, where the NRSV reads "your faithfulness," to agree with MT's "the steadfast love of the Lord.") The variations attest to the long history of transmission of the composition.
[2] Ordinarily the phrase "I said" or "I say" is used in the psalter to convey interior reflection (such as Psalm 30:6, "As for me, I said [to myself] in my prosperity . . ."; see also Psalm 39:1) or communication with the deity (such as Psalm 32:5, "Then I acknowledged my sin to you . . . I said . . ."; see also Psalm 31:14, 22; 38:16 [where the verb is actually translated "pray"]; etc.). The construction in Psalm 89, a verbal declaration of the divine attributes, is much less common (occurring also at Psalm 40:10).
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[6] --Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov (Macmillan, 1922), 55.
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