Psalms 89
ButlerWith this complaint the harp drops out of the poet’s hand. He becomes silent and waits for God to solve the riddle of this affliction. We may infer from the Book of Job that He really appeared to him. He is far more faithful than men. No soul that in the midst of wrath lays hold of His love, whether it be with firm or trembling hand, is lost. D.—The ear remains in suspense, until the majestic eighty-ninth Psalm shall burst upon it like a bright resurrection-morning. W. Kay.
1. I WILL sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever:
With my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.
2. For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever;
Thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens.
3. I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant;
4. Thy seed will I establish for ever, And build up thy throne to all generations. [Selah
5. And the heavens shall praise thy wonders, O LORD;
Thy faithfulness also in the assembly of the holy ones.
6. For who in the skies can be compared unto the LORD?
Who among the sons of the mighty is like unto the LORD,
7. A God very terrible in the council of the holy ones,
And to be feared above all them that are round about him?
8. O LORD God of hosts,
Who is a mighty one, like unto thee, O JAH? And thy faithfulness is round about thee.
9. Thou rulest the pride of the sea:
When the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them.
10. Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain;
Thou hast scattered thine enemies with the arm of thy strength.
11. The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine:
The world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them.
12. The north and the south, thou hast created them:
Tabor and Hermon rejoice in thy name.
13. Thou hast a mighty arm :
Strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand.
14. Righteousness and judgment are the foundation of thy throne :
Mercy and truth go before thy face.
15. Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound :
They walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance.
16. In thy name do they rejoice all the day :
And in thy righteousness are they exalted.
17. For thou art the glory of their strength :
And in thy favour our horn shall be exalted.
18. For our shield belongeth unto the LORD ;
And our king to the Holy One of Israel.
19. Then thou spakest in vision to thy saints,
And saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty ;
I have exalted one chosen out of the people.
20. I have found David my servant ;
With my holy oil have I anointed him :
21. With whom my hand shall be established ;
Mine arm also shall strengthen him.
22. The enemy shall not exact upon him ;
Nor the son of wickedness afflict him.
23. And I will beat down his adversaries before him,
And smite them that hate him.
24. But my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him ;
And in my name shall his horn be exalted.
25. I will set his hand also on the sea,
And his right hand on the rivers.
26. He shall cry unto me, Thou art my father,
My God, and the rock of my salvation.
27. I also will make him my firstborn,
The highest of the kings of the earth.
28. My mercy will I keep for him for evermore,
And my covenant shall stand fast with him.
29. His seed also will I make to endure for ever,
And his throne as the days of heaven.
30. If his children forsake my law,
And walk not in my judgments ;
31. If they break my statutes,
And keep not my commandments ;
32. Then will I visit their transgression with the rod,
And their iniquity with stripes.
33. But my mercy will I not utterly take from him,
Nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.
34. My covenant will I not break,
Nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
35. Once have I sworn by my holiness ;
I will not lie unto David ;
36. His seed shall endure for ever,
And his throne as the sun before me.
37. It shall be established for ever as the moon,
And as the faithful witness in the sky.
[Selah
38. But thou hast cast off and rejected,
Thou hast been wroth with thine anointed.
39. Thou hast abhorred the covenant of thy servant :
Thou hast profaned his crown even to the ground.
40. Thou hast broken down all his hedges ;
Thou hast brought his strong holds to ruin.
41. All that pass by the way spoil him :
He is become a reproach to his neighbours.
42. Thou hast exalted the right hand of his adversaries ;
Thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice.
43. Yea, thou turnest back the edge of his sword,
And hast not made him to stand in the battle.
44. Thou hast made his brightness to cease,
And cast his throne down to the ground.
45. The days of his youth hast thou shortened :
Thou hast covered him with shame. [Selah
46. How long, O LORD, wilt thou hide thyself for ever ?
How long shall thy wrath burn like fire ?
47. O remember how short my time is :
For what vanity hast thou created all the children of men !
48. What man is he that shall live and not see death,
That shall deliver his soul from the power of Sheol ? [Selah
49. Lord, where are thy former mercies,
Which thou swarest unto David in thy faithfulness ?
50. Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants ;
How I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty peoples ;
51. Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O LORD,
Wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.
THE inscription assigns this Psalm to Ethan the Ezrahite, the colleague of Asaph and Heman. Supposing it to have been composed toward the end of his life, some few years after the death of Solomon, every portion of the Psalm finds a perfect explanation in the circumstances of that period. It is written not by the king, but by one closely connected with him; by a man specially conversant with the Divine promises and terms of the covenant with the family of David. The king had been subjected to severest chastisement, an object of God’s wrath (v. 38); his crown had been dishonored (v. 39); the frontiers of his territory had been broken down, his strongholds ruined, his adversaries had prevailed and triumphed over him, his attempts at resistance had failed at once and ignominiously, his glory had passed away, his throne was cast down, old age has come on him in early manhood, he is covered with shame. Each of these points tallies exactly with the facts recorded of the invasion of Shishak, whose enormous army overran the whole country, destroyed the strongholds which had been fortified by Rehoboam, and who reduced the kingdom for a time to a state of vassalage, which is expressly stated to have been a punishment for the sins of the princes, and to have effected its object; for when the king “humbled himself, the wrath of the Lord turned from him;” for “yet in Judah there were good things.” (See 2 Chron. 12: 1-12, especially vs. 4, 5, 8, and 12.) The tone of hopefulness, which, notwithstanding the terrible suffering, pervades the Psalm, is thus accounted for, and is strikingly unlike the forebodings of the prophets who were commissioned to announce the ruin of the descendants of Josiah, especially of Jehoiakin, of whom it was expressly said, no more of his seed should “prosper sitting on the throne of David.” (See Jer. 22: 24-30.) Cook.
The Psalm opens with a reference to the promise given to David (2 Sam. 7: 8). This promise, and the attributes of God on which the promise rests, and which are the great pledge of its fulfilment, form the subject of the poet’s grateful acknowledgment, before he passes to the mournful contrast presented by the ruin of the house of David and the blighting of his people’s hopes. He turns to the glorious past, that by its aid he may rise out of the grief and discouragement of the present. He takes the promise and turns it into a song. He dwells upon it and lingers over it. He dwells on that which is the ground and pillar of the promise, the faithfulness of God; and then he first lifts his loud lament over the disasters which have befallen his king and people, speaking out his disappointment till his words sound like a reproach; and next pleads earnestly with God that He would not suffer his enemies to triumph. P.
The majestic COVENANT PSALM, according to the Jewish arrangement, closes the third book of the Psalms. It is the utterance of a believer, in presence of great national disaster, pleading with his God, urging the grand argument of covenant engagements, and expecting deliverance and help because of the faithfulness of Jehovah. This is most fitly called a Maschil, for it is most instructive. No subject is more important or is so fully the key to all theology as that of the covenant. S.
1. I will sing.** The Psalmist has a sad complaint to make, yet he begins with songs of praise; for we must in everything, in every state, give thanks. We think when we are in trouble we get ease by complaining; but we do more, we get joy, by praising. Let complaint, therefore, be turned into thanksgiving. Though we may find it hard to reconcile present dark providences with the goodness and truth of God, yet we must abide by this principle, that God’s mercies are inexhaustible, and His truth inviolable; and these must be the matter of our joy and praise. We must sing of God’s mercies as long as we live, train up others to sing of them when we are gone, and hope to be singing of them in heaven, world without end; and this is singing of the mercies of the Lord forever. H.
Sing of mercies. Mercies are love’s messengers, sent from heaven to win our hearts to love again, and entice us thither. Our mercies, therefore, should be used to this end. That mercy that doth not increase, or excite and help our love, is abused and lost, as seed that is buried when it is sowed, and never more appeareth. Earthly mercies point to heaven, and tell us whence they come, and for what. Like the flowers of the spring, they tell us of the reviving approaches of the sun; but, like foolish children, because they are near us, we love the flowers better than the sun; forgetting that the winter is drawing on. Baxter.
2. This “mercy built up forever” is the glorious and gracious fabric of our salvation, founded in the eternal purpose of God; carried into execution by the labors and the death of Jesus Christ, and then applied and brought home to the heart by the illuminating and converting power of the Holy Ghost. This is that “mercy” which is “built up forever.” It was planned from everlasting, and will know no ruin or decay through the illimitable line of eternity itself. It stands on a rock, and is immovable as the rock on which it stands, the threefold rock of God’s inviolable decree, of Christ’s finished redemption, and of the Spirit’s never-failing faithfulness. Toplady.
Thy faithfulness. Faithfulness is the mercy of God’s mercies, the brightest jewel in the crown of goodness. Unchangeable love and immutable promises demand everlasting songs. In times of trouble it is the Divine faithfulness which the soul hangs upon; this is the bower anchor of the soul, its holdfast, and its stay. Because God is, and ever will be, faithful, we have a theme for song which will never be worn out, never be disproved, never be unnecessary. S.
Therefore mercy shall be built up forever, because thy faithfulness shall thou establish in the very heavens. Though our expectations are in some particular instances disappointed, yet God’s promises are not disannulled; they are established in the very heavens—that is, in His eternal counsels; they are above the changes of this lower region, and out of the reach of the opposition of hell and earth. The stability of the material heavens is an emblem of the truth of God’s Word; the heavens may be clouded by vapors arising out of the earth, but they cannot be touched, they cannot be changed. H.
3. 4. These are the words of God, the sum of His promise as given in 2 Sam. 7. They are introduced with remarkable abruptness, standing alone in their forcible brevity, while the Psalmist passes on to celebrate at length the might and faithfulness of the Promiser. In the nineteenth verse he returns to the promise, expands and dwells upon it.
5. At first sight the passage which follows, to v. 18, appears to break the train of thought. But the object of the Psalmist is to place in the strongest light those attributes of God on which the fulfilment of His promise depends, for “in a promise everything depends upon the person who promises.” The question therefore occurs, “Has he the will and the power to fulfil the promise?” Hence the Psalmist dwells first upon God’s power as exhibited and confessed in creation, then upon His righteousness, goodness, and truth, as manifested especially to his people. P.
5-8. Nothing can be more simple than the structure of these verses, which are not more evidently poetical in Hebrew than they are in English; and yet, such is the sublimity of the thought expressed, that none can fail to be affected by it, as by the most perfect form of metrical language. Indeed, so successfully and completely is the effect of poetry produced, that a somewhat rude prose translation of the Psalms, either in Latin or in English, is available for the purposes of music in a way that no other human compositions have ever been, or can be. Certainly, if a model were wanted which should serve as a universal type of poetry, we should turn instinctively to the Old Testament; for there, and there only, the phenomenon presents itself of poetry which again and again has been proved to be so in the languages of the east and west, and north and south. S. Leathes.
5. Thy wonders.** As the heavens are a proof of God’s power, in respect of His first framing them out of nothing; so are they a pattern of God’s faithfulness, in their constant and orderly motion according to His word since their framing: “The heavens shall praise Thy faithfulness also.” However the power and faithfulness of God may be seen and heard in the work and speech of the heavens by all men, yet are they not observed and hearkened unto except in the Church by God’s children; therefore saith he, “They shall praise Thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints.” Dickson.—Thy faithfulness and the truth of Thy promise, that rock on which the Church is built, shall be praised in the congregation of the saints, who owe their all to His faithfulness, and whose constant comfort it is, that there is a promise, and that He is faithful who has promised. Anon.
7. To be feared.** Reverence in a reasonable creature is his conscious bowing of himself before One whom he knows to be worthy of such adoration from him, and whose presence and works he sees ever around and within himself; so that to such an one all is from God and all is leading up to God. Bishop Wilberforce.—Reverence is fear tempered by love. In the Old Testament, the fear predominated, in the New Testament, the love; but the sentiment of reverence pervades all religion on earth and in heaven. Whether as sacred dread or loving fear, it abideth always. W. B. Pope.
There is beauty in reverence, there is joy in reverence, there is an uplifting and an ennobling power in reverence. He who lacks a reverent spirit lacks an attribute of the truest manhood. He who is reverent, and who gives reverence wherever it is due, shows more of the likeness, and grows more in the likeness, of Him who has commanded reverence as a duty, and to whom is due the supremest duty of reverence. Only in a reverent attitude is there the possibility of progress in the line of God’s plans and God’s providences; for at the best we cannot fully know God, and we must give reverent trust beyond our sphere of knowledge and of sight. H. C. T.
**8. O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto Thee? Or Jehovah, God of Hosts, who is like Thee, Mighty Jah. Alexander remarks, that the infinite superiority of God to men and angels is here expressed, or rather indicated, by an accumulation of descriptive titles. Here we have the name which displays His self-existence, the title which denotes His dominion over all His creatures, and an adjective which sets forth the power with which he exercises His sovereignty. Yet this great and terrible God has entered into covenant with men! Who would not reverence Him with deepest love? S.
Thy faithfulness is round about Thee. Whatever He doth, He is mindful of His faithfulness and covenant, before and behind, and on each side; He can look no way, but that is in His eye. And though He employ angels, and send them down into the world, and they stand round about Him, yet He hath better harbingers than these, mercy, and truth, and faithfulness, that wait round about Him. T. Goodwin.
9. Thou stillest them.** Let not faith go to sleep in our hearts when we have to face the storms and billows of this world. Do not be overcome by the waves which agitate the heart. If the wind has come down upon us, if it has stirred up the feelings of our soul, let us not despair; let us wake up Christ, that we may sail on in quietness, and reach our country. Aug.
9,10. The power of God in stilling the raging of the sea symbolizes His power to subdue the rebellious raging of the nations. Its introduction is fitly followed in the second line of the couplet by the mention of Rahab, a prophetic name of Egypt, and other enemies of God as scattered by His power. De Witt.
10. Thou didst crush, like the slain, Rahab; with Thine arm of strength Thou didst scatter Thy foes. This relates wholly to the sea of nations, in which Egypt stands first, as the earliest national enemy of Israel, and also perhaps because the power of Pharaoh, at the exodus, was literally broken in the sea. A.
*11. The world and the fulness thereof, all the riches contained in it, all the inhabitants of it, both the tenements and the tenants, they are all Thine; for Thou hast founded them. And the Founder may justly claim to be the Owner. He specifies the remotest parts of the world, the north and south, the countries that lie under the two poles which are uninhabited and little known; “Thou hast created them, and therefore knowest them, takest care of them, and hast tributes of praise from them.” H.
In Col. 1:16 the whole universe is, as it were, set in one class, and Christ alone over against it. No language could be more emphatically all-comprehensive. Four times in one sentence we have “all things”—the whole universe—repeated, and traced to Him as Creator and Lord. “In the heavens and the earth” is quoted from Genesis, and is intended here, as there, to be an exhaustive enumeration of the creation according to place. “Things visible or invisible” again includes the whole under a new principle of division; there are visible things in heaven, as sun and stars, there may be invisible on earth, but wherever and of whatever sort they are, He made them. “Whether thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers,” an enumeration evidently alluding to the dreamy speculations about an angelic hierarchy filling the space between the far-off God, and men immersed in matter. So Paul groups together the whole universe of created beings, actual or imaginary, and then high above it, separate from it, its Lord and Creator, its upholder and end, he points to the majestic person of the only-begotten Son of God, His Firstborn, higher than all the rulers of the earth, whether human or superhuman. A. M.
12. Tabor and Hermon.** Mount Tabor represents the east side of the Holy Land, and Mount Hermon the west side. In connection with “the north and the south,” in the preceding line, they fill out the conception of universal joy in the creative and sustaining power of God. De Witt.—They are mentioned as conspicuous mountains in a mountain land. Tabor, “remarkable for the verdure, which climbs—a rare sight in Eastern scenery—to its very summit;” Hermon, as its name imports, “The lofty, prominent peak,” crowned with snow, the most striking of all the mountains of Palestine, are fit representatives of the whole country. P.
Mount Tabor, now Jebel et Tûr, is one of the most striking and celebrated mountains of the Holy Land. It is not lofty, only 1400 feet above the plain, which here is 500 feet above the sea; but its peculiarly isolated position, standing out into the plain completely severed from the bank of Galilean hills behind it, its remarkable symmetry of form and graceful outline, its wooded slopes, in a land where timber is so scarce, its shaded leafy glades, have won for it universal admiration. The ascent to the top of Tabor is not difficult, and on its summit is a flattened platform, strewn with ruins of considerable importance, but now utterly uninhabited. The view from the summit gives the best idea of this part of Palestine. All the Plain of Esdraelon is spread like a map before us, from the Mediterranean past the ridge of Carmel, a vast expanse of green, to Jebel Duhy, with Nain and Endor in front and Mount Gilboa peering out behind them; then the slope down to the Valley of the Jordan by Bethshen, and the river for many miles up, till the eye rests on the Sea of Gillee, the south part of which is shut out from view, and the dark walls of the mountains of Gilead stretching far away. To the north the Horns of Hattin stand out over the hidden Plain of Gennesaret, and beyond is the high table-land of Bashan, as far as the rugged Hauran, while over Hattin towers the snowy peak of Hermon, and to the northeast the southern roots of Lebanon stretch to the sea. (See Vol. III., p. 187.) Hermon was the great landmark of the whole country to the northward. From the plains of the coast, from the Jordan valley, from Gilead and the highlands of Bashan alike, that white-crowned cone towers into the blue sky. Tristram.
14. Justice and judgment are the habitation of Thy throne.** The Holy Ghost alludeth to the thrones of earthly princes, which were underpropped with pillars, as Solomon’s throne with lions, that were both a support and an ornament to it. Now, saith the Psalmist, justice and judgment are the pillars upon which God’s throne standeth; as Calvin expoundeth it, the robe and diadem, the purple and sceptre, the regalia with which God’s throne is adorned. Swinock.
The Christian faith has come to be less and less regarded as a commanding and mighty power from heaven, a voice of authority, a law of holy life, but more and more as an easy-going guide to a future happiness and an indiscriminate salvation. The Gospel is a gift of grace; but if it does not keep the disciple out of the schemes of sharpers and liars, the grace has miscarried. The Gospel is love; but it has a law-element in it, too, which the saintliest Christian never outgrows. The Old Testament goes into the New. The Saviour says explicitly He came not to destroy the law, but to fill it full, and that He is coming again to judge every follower by his deeds. If you cut the New Testament apart from the Old, your one Bible is gone, and rationalism will pick the fragments to pieces at its leisure. We want that elder and eternal Testament which gives us the text, “Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne.” See how that word “righteous” studs all the Scripture-pages, and how the glorious reality it represents is the steadfast foundation of the welfare of souls, from the first creation on to the new heavens and the new earth. F. D. H.
Mercy and truth go before Thy face. Not in the sense of preceding, but of standing in the presence of God; the two great attributes of the Lord God are, so to speak, personified, thus adumbrating the doctrine to be revealed, mercy incarnate in the Son, truth disclosed in the Spirit, that “leadeth into all truth.” Cook.
Justice and judgment are the basis of the Divine government, the sphere within which His sovereignty moves. God as a sovereign is never unjust or unwise. He is too holy to be unrighteous, too wise to be mistaken; this is constant matter for joy to the upright in heart. “Mercy and truth shall go before Thy face.” They are the harbingers and heralds of the Lord; He calls these to the front to deal with guilty and changeful man; He makes them, in the person of the Lord Jesus, to be His ambassadors, and so poor, guilty man is enabled to endure the presence of his righteous Lord. If mercy had not paved the way, the coming of God to any man must have been swift destruction. Thus has the poet sung the glories of the covenant God. S.
The sublimest spirits in heaven were at a loss how to unravel the difficulty and to find out the miraculous way to reconcile infinite mercy with inflexible justice—how to satisfy the demands of the one and the requests of the other. God was to overcome Himself before He restored man. In this exigence His mercy excited His wisdom to interpose as an arbiter, which, in the treasure of its incomprehensible light, found out an admirable expedient to save man without prejudice to His other perfections. And in the plan which was actually devised, there is a sweet concurrence of all the attributes. Mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace kiss each other. Who can count up this heap of wonders? Who can unfold all the treasures of this mysterious love? The tongue of an angel cannot explicate it according to its dignity; it is the fairest copy of the Divine wisdom, the consummation of all God’s counsels, wherein all the attributes are displayed in their brightest lustre; it is here the manifold wisdom of God appears. The angels of light bend themselves with extraordinary application of mind and ardent affections to study the rich and unsearchable variety that is in it. Only the same understanding comprehends it which contrived it. But as one that views the ocean, though he cannot see its bounds or bottom, yet sees so much as to know that that vast collection of waters is far greater than what is within the compass of his short sight, so, though we cannot understand all the depths of that immense wisdom which ordered the way of our salvation, yet we may discover so much as to know with the apostle that it surpasses knowledge. Bates.
15. Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound.** The trumpets sounded in token of joy at the great festivals, and chiefly on the first day of the seventh month, the feast of trumpets, and on extraordinary occasions, especially after the yearly atonement, on the day of jubilee, the tenth day of the seventh month of the fiftieth year, proclaiming liberty to bondmen, and restoration of their inheritance to them that had forfeited it (Lev. 25 : 8-10). As the jubilee joy did not come till after the atonement, so no Gospel joy and liberty are ours till first we know Christ as our atonement. Fausset.—The sound of the jubilee-trumpet was a joyful sound to servants and debtors, to whom it proclaimed release. The Gospel is indeed a joyful sound—a sound of victory, of liberty, of communion with God, and the sound of abundance of vain; blessed are the people that hear it, and know it, and bid it welcome. H.
The text does not say, they shall sit down in the light of Thy countenance; or, they shall lie down in the light of Thy countenance; but “they shall WALK in the light of Thy countenance.” That holy walking which God’s Spirit enables all His people to observe is a continued, progressive motion in every good word and work. And the self-same “light of God’s countenance” in which the believer is enabled to walk will keep him in a walking and in a working state to the end. Toplady.
16. In Thy name shall they rejoice all the day.** To the soul which, in Christ Jesus, has entered into covenant with God, every attribute is a fountain of delight. There is no hour in the day, and no day in our life, in which we may not rejoice in the name, person, and character of the Lord. We need no other reason for rejoicing. S.—True religion is of right the happiest, gladdest thing in this world. It does not merely permit us to be glad, nor merely make it our duty to be glad. It offers such an opportunity, occasion, and reason for gladness, and turns everything into such a constant source of gladness, as nothing else on earth does or can do. It bids us “rejoice and be exceeding glad,” not to offset a gloom attending it, as we spice and sweeten medicines, but because it removes the cause of gloom from all things, and gives us power to turn the heaviest visitations themselves into blessings. Many other things bring delights, but we are sure to find their stream more or less mixed with things distasteful. They who reject religion, and we in so far as we misconstrue it, close or obstruct the only path to the pure headwaters of joy. And true religion always was the gladdest thing in the world. It is the very recipe for giving everything a permanent gladness. Man has not always given it a glad key-note; but that was always man’s fault, not religion’s necessity; and “Blessed is,” and always was and will be, “the people that know the joyful sound” of true religion, and key their life and worship to that note. Religion is not jocund, hilarious, pleasant to the senses; but it is the only influence permanently effective to make us independent of such conditions, and blessed in them and without them. Israel’s religion was a silver trumpet call to glad rejoicing. Cable.
19. The mention of the king in the preceding verse leads now to the resumption and expansion of the promise given to David. The two aspects of God’s relation to David and his house and kingdom are herein presented to us, an outward and an inward, corresponding to the two great attributes of God which are praised in vs. 1-18, His omnipotence and His faithfulness. To the first of these belong, David’s exaltation to the throne (v. 19); God’s constant aid, and hence his victory over his foes (vs. 21-23), and extended dominion (vs. 21, 25). To the second, which is the most prominent, God’s fatherly relation to David’s seed, which is shown in the exaltation to the dignity of a son, who is also the firstborn, and therefore holds the pre-eminence above all kings (vs. 26, 27); accordingly an everlasting covenant made with him and his seed, and an everlasting kingdom (vs. 28, 29); hence, too, the transgressions of his sons cannot make the covenant void (vs. 33, 34); with the assurance finally repeated, that this covenant, which God has once confirmed by an oath, cannot lie, and that therefore the seed as well as the throne of David must endure as the very heavens. P.
19,20. I have exalted one chosen out of the people.** In his extraction, election, and exaltation, David was an eminent type of the Lord Jesus, who is the man of the people, the chosen of God, and the king of His Church. S.—He has exalted Him, by constituting Him the prophet, priest, and king of His Church; clothing Him with power, raising Him from the dead, and setting him at His own right hand. Whom God chooses and uses He will exalt. He has anointed Him, has qualified Him for His office, and so confirmed Him in it, by giving Him the Spirit, not by measure, but without measure, infinitely above His fellows. He is called Messiah, or Christ, the Anointed. In all this, He designed Him to be His own servant, for the accomplishing of His eternal purpose, and the advancement of the interests of His kingdom among men. H.
21. The almightiness of God abides permanently with Jesus in His work as Redeemer and Ruler of His people. The fulness of Divine power shall attend Him. This covenant promise ought to be urged in prayer before the Lord, for the great lack of the Church at this time is power. We have everything except the Divine energy, and we must never rest content until we see it in full operation among us, and then there will be no lack of force in any of our Church agencies. S.
25. His kingdom should be greatly enlarged; I will set his hand in the sea; he shall have the dominion of the seas, and the isles of the sea, and his right hand in the rivers, the inland countries that are watered with rivers. David’s kingdom extended itself to the great sea, and the Red Sea, to the river of Egypt, and the River Euphrates. But it is in the kingdom of the Messiah that this has its full accomplishment. H.
26. My Father.** Never until Christ uttered these words, never until He appeared on earth in humanity as the Son of God, did any man or any child of humanity address God in this endearing character. It was after Christ said, “I ascend unto My Father, and your Father,” that believers were enabled to look up to God and to say, “Abba, Father.” Here you see distinctly that this applies to Christ. He was the first to say this; David did not say it. Molyneaux.
27. My firstborn.** As he calls me “Father,” so I not only acknowledge him as my son, but as my firstborn, and therefore my heir. (So Israel is called the firstborn, Ex. 4 : 22). P.—The great Jehovah, the Maker and the Owner and the Ruler of the universe, hath said respecting His Christ, “I will make Him my firstborn;” that is, I will constitute Him the chief of all creatures, and the depository of all power, and the possessor of all privileges, and the heir of all creation. By way of excellence, He is the firstborn, “higher than all the kings of the earth,” enjoying priority in point of time, and precedence in point of place. Pitcairn.—When all power was given to Christ both in heaven and in earth, and all things were delivered unto Him by the Father, then God made Him His firstborn, and far higher, more great and honorable than the kings of the earth, for He is the King of kings, angels, authorities, and powers being made subject to Him (1 Pet. 3 : 22).
28. My mercy will I keep for Him, to be disposed of by Him forevermore; in the channel of Christ’s mediation all the streams of Divine goodness will forever run. Therefore it is the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ which we look for unto eternal life (Jude 21; John 17 : 2). And as the mercy of God flows to us through Him, so the promise of God is, through Him, firm to us; My covenant shall stand fast with Him, both the covenant of redemption made with Him, and the covenant of grace made with us in Him. The new covenant is therefore always new, and firmly established, because it is lodged in the hands of a Mediator (Heb. 8 : 6). The covenant stands fast, because it stands upon this basis. H.—Is not Christ the Fountain of all mercy to us? Is it not the mercy of God the Father flowing to us through Christ that we enjoy? Is he not the Depository of it all? God says, then, I will keep it for Him; forever and ever shall it be lodged in Christ, and His people shall enjoy it throughout eternity. Molyneaux.
30. There follows a paraphrase of 2 Sam. 7 : 14. The chastisement is a necessary part of the paternal relationship (Heb. 12). The sins of individuals will be punished by God’s fatherly correction, but the covenant cannot cease, the promises made to the seed as a whole cannot be withdrawn. Their unfaithfulness cannot make the faithfulness of none effect. P.
30-34. God here says two things: first, that He will chastise them; next, that He will not, on that account, cast them out of His covenant. Oh, wonderful tempering of the kindness and severity of God! in which He finds His own glory, and believers their safety! Daille.—When our heavenly Father is, as it were, forced to put forth His anger, He then makes use of a father’s rod, not an executioner’s axe. He will neither break His children’s bones, nor His own covenant. He lashes in love, in measure, in pity, and compassion. T. Lye.
33. My mercy will I not utterly take from him.** If the covenant could be made void by our sins it would have been void long ere this. God may leave His people, and they may thereby suffer much and fall very low, but utterly and altogether He never can remove His love from them; for He adds, “nor suffer My faithfulness to fail.” Man fails in all points, but God in none. To be faithful is one of the eternal characteristics of God, in which He always places a great part of His glory; His truth is one of His peculiar treasures and crown jewels, and He will never endure that it should be tarnished in any degree. This passage sweetly assures us that the heirs of glory shall not be utterly cast off.
35. Once have I sworn by My holiness that I will not lie unto David.** Because He could swear by no greater He swore by Himself, and by that peculiar attribute which is His highest glory, being the subject of threefold adoration by all the hosts of heaven, God here pledges the crown of His kingdom, the essence of His nature. In what stronger language can He express His unalterable adherence to the truth of His promise? We cannot imagine that God could lie, yet He puts it so, that if the covenant were not kept by Him, He would regard it as a lie. Here is ground for strong confidence. S.—When God plights His holiness He plights His right to the love, homage, and adoration of His creatures. He plights all claim upon their worship, veneration, and obedience. He virtually engages to abdicate His throne and to be stripped of the prerogatives that belong to Him, to lose His own self-respect, to forfeit forever His name, if He should be found unfaithful to His Word. What a security to the heirs of the promise! How can we hesitate in committing our souls, our interests for time and for eternity, to that everlasting covenant which is charged with the glory of God? What broader foundation could be laid for our faith? As if it were not enough to appeal to us upon the eternal principles of truth and justice and righteousness, as if these were too abstract and impalpable to arouse our sympathies and wake up a warm and living interest, God comes to us in a relation which is pre-eminently personal, and stands before us as one who has a Name to vindicate, and puts His faithfulness on a ground which, in the case of man, a creature like ourselves, we recognize as the most sacred and solemn of all sanctions. As certainly as God cannot deny Himself, as certainly as His own glory is the end of all His works, the scope of every manifestation of His being; as certainly as His own great name is dear to Him, so certainly shall every pledge of His love be redeemed. Not one word of all the good things He hath spoken shall ever fall to the ground. Heaven and earth may pass away, but the Word of the Lord abideth forever, and this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto us. Thornwell.
36. Endure forever.** Thus far David’s seed and throne did endure, that, notwithstanding the wickedness of many of his posterity, who were the scandals of his house, yet his family continued in the imperial dignity a very long time; that, as long as Judah continued a kingdom, David’s posterity were kings of it, and the royalty of that kingdom was never in any other family; and that the family of David continued a family of distinction till that Son of David came whose throne should endure forever. If David’s posterity in aftertimes should forsake God and their duty and revolt to the ways of sin, God would bring desolating judgments upon them and ruin the family; and yet He would not take away His lovingkindness from David nor break His covenant with him, for in the Messiah, who should come out of his loins, all these promises shall have their accomplishment to the full. If we apply it to Christ, by His seed we are to understand His subjects, all believers, His spiritual seed, the children which God has given Him (Heb. 2 : 13). This is that seed which shall be made to endure forever, and His throne in the midst of them, in the Church, in the heart, as the days of heaven. To the end Christ shall have a people in the world to serve and honor Him; He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days. This holy seed shall endure forever in a glorified state, when time and days shall be no more; and thus Christ’s throne and kingdom shall be perpetuated; the kingdom of His grace shall continue through all the ages of time, and the kingdom of His glory to the endless ages of eternity. H.
The kingdom of David was an emblem, however faint, of that which would be erected by Jesus Christ; wonderfully preserved as was the throne of Judah, while the greatest monarchies were marked by perpetual vicissitudes; the kings of Israel were ever changing in their line, while the descendants of David maintained a direct succession. No Roman emperor, with the exception of Vespasian, was followed by his proper successor during a hundred and fifty years from the time of Julius Caesar; they passed and chased one another like shadows. Here, meanwhile, “in the house of Judah,” was a preternatural stability, destined as an image (though an imperfect image) of the fixed, indestructible empire of Jesus Christ. His throne has never been shaken for a moment; He has appeared without a rival in the field. Who has ever dared to question His pretensions? who has dared to challenge a comparison with Him in prophecies, in miracles, in virtues, in doctrines? Not a doubt has been entertained among competent judges of His being the true Messiah. R. Hall.
37. Naturally reads: “As the moon shall it [His throne] stand forever, and the witness in the heavens is sure;” the moon on the sky, and the sun perhaps as well, are the witness that God has measured the duration of this promise by the existence of the sun and the moon, hung out before mortal eyes in the heavens. “Selah” fitly calls for special attention and meditation here, before the Psalmist passes on to other points. C.
46. The transition from expostulation to pleading, which of itself shows how the expostulation is to be understood. It is human weakness discovering to God its inmost heart. There is a sense of wrong, and the true man says that he feels it, speaks it out, and asks God to set it right. It is an example of the perpetual clash between convictions and facts. The pleading consists of two parts, each comprised in three verses. The argument of the first is the shortness of human life; that of the second, the dishonor cast upon God by the triumph of His enemies. P.
46-48. Remember, take into account. A great plea with God. The Psalmist is deeply impressed with the fleeting nature of all earthly things. Vanity seems to be written on all things under the sun. Death is the grand demonstration of the vanity of human things. Man’s contemplations, desires, plans, purposes, proceedings, responsibilities, have a range beyond the boundaries of time. Death seems to cut them short and bring them to an abrupt and untimely end. Sheol is here equivalent to the grave. This trial of verses contains the plea that the life of man is vain, if it were not for the hopes founded on the promises of God. It is properly set apart by the Selah. M.
49-51. Here he comes to grand pleading, hand-to-hand work with the covenant angel. We may remind the Lord of His first deeds of love, His former love to His Church, His former favor to ourselves. Then may we plead His oath, and beg Him to remember that He has sworn to bless His chosen; and we may wrestle hard also, by urging upon Him His own character, and laying hold upon His inviolable truth. We may bring forth our strong reasons and debate the case with our condescending God, who has Himself said, “Come now, and let us reason together.” S.
What had become of the loving-kindness of God, what of His faithfulness, what of His power? Ethan, in his report of the promise, answered his own difficulty. The covenant with David depended upon conditions. Ethan himself states the supreme condition in the words of the Divine Author of the covenant: “If David’s children forsake My law, and walk not in My judgments, then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their sin with scourges.” Now, as always, the promises of God to His people are largely conditioned. If the gates of hell shall not prevail against His Church, much short of this may happen as a consequence of the unfaithfulness of her members or her ministers. Of this let us be sure, that if God’s promises seem to any to have failed, the fault lies not with Him, but with ourselves; it is we who have changed, not He. H. P. L.
52. The Doxology is no part of the original Psalm, but was added subsequently to mark the close of the book. P.
The Psalm is not directly Messianic; the whole tone of expostulation and prayer belongs to local and temporary circumstances; but the anticipations are grounded on promises which have their true fulfilment in Christ. It is a noble ode, and forms a fitting close to the book, which contains the deep teaching of seers trained in the school of David. The concluding words, though added to mark the completion of this division, seem to have a special connection with the beginning of the Psalm, and express the innermost and permanent conviction of the composer. Cook.
The idea of the Covenant on which Jehovah entered with Israel is the fundamental and principal idea of the entire Old Testament religion. Though the covenant is in idea a compact relation, involving a reciprocity of obligations, still the mutual obligations have been fixed wholly by the one side, by Jehovah in the exercise of His unconditioned freedom and independence. Jehovah, therefore, is the sole Founder of the Covenant. In the absolute freedom of His gracious will, He has chosen Israel from among all the peoples of the earth to be His peculiar people (Ex. 19 : 5 ; Amos 3 : 2). Thus, in consequence of the election and the covenant, Jehovah is the God of Israel, and Israel is His holy and peculiar people.
To devout Israelites ceremonial intercourse with Jehovah was, by the very fact of its externality, unsatisfactory; it could not in their eyes be what was intended in the covenant and the election. Every godly man, who carried the law of God in his heart and had his delight in the commands of Jehovah, every one who in any degree knew from his own intimate experience who the God of grace enlightens and leads the individual by His Holy Spirit, how inwardly near to Him accepted suppliants come, how He hears and answers them when they call upon Him, and what bliss it is to be able to call God his inheritance and his portion, would necessarily recognize in this inwardness of communion with his God what is most of all essential to the realization of the idea of the covenant. Richm.