Psalms 89

Psalms 89:38-52

This pfalm bears the name of Etham, of him mentioned 1 Kings iv. 31. or of a finger, who lived in Salome’s reign, and join the decline of David’s house on his decease, or by one of his name during the captivity in Babylon. 2. He begins with joy. (1.) In God’s covenant of mercy, ver. 1—4. (2.) In his glorious perfection, ver. 5—14. (3.) In the happiness of those who are admitted into communion with him, ver. 15—18. (4.) In the hope of the Messiah’s enduring kingdom, ver. 19—37. 2. He ends with mourning over the calamities of the house of David, ver. 38—45. Compilators with God thereon, ver. 46—49. and begs redress, ver. 50, 51.

9. Machil of Etham the Ezrahite. 9 PC. cont. P. Col. 1. King or 51. 1. 2. Noon. 6.

10. 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 shall thou establish in the very heavens. 3. I have made a covenant with my cholem, I have sworn unto David my servant. 4. Thy feed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations. Selah.

c. 1—4. The Psalmist opens with praise, notwithstanding the desolations before him, which so deeply affected and afflicted him; for no troubles should outdate our hearts: we can be in no state or condition, when we have not matter for a song, and shall get more hearty—safe by pushing than complaining.

1. The Psalmist declares his purport to celebrate with ceaseless praise, the mercies and faithfulness of the Lord, v. 1. However dark present providences appeared, he could not doubt his boundless mercy, nor distrust his invinciable faithfulness; and therefore not only his lips should praise, but he would make known God’s mercy and truth, and leave it upon record to future generations.

2. He professes his own faith and hope in God. For I have said, confiding in God’s promise, in opposition to all appearances, Mercy shall be built up for ever, the tabernacle of David be revived from its ruins, flourish for ever through God’s mercy: thy faithfulness shall thou establish in the very heavens, his promises enduring as the heavens, and his faithfulness most eminently proved, when his saints shall be taken up to heaven, and herein with unshaken confidence he rested.

3. The ground on which this faith was built, is God’s everlasting covenant of grace. I have made a covenant with my cholem David, as the type of the Messiah, and called by the name of David, Enel. xxixiv. 23. 24. Hgl. iii. 5. cholem from eternity, appointed to be the covenant head of his people, their farety and representative, and in whose hands all the blessings of the covenant are lodged. I have given unto David my servant, to have the immutability of his counsel, Heb. vi. 18. Thy feed will I establish for ever, not his natural seed merely, but all believers, the spiritual seed of Christ, who have an interest in this everlasting covenant; and build up thy throne to all generations, the throne of Christ, which kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and of his government there will be no end. And this is the grand foundation of every believer’s hope and confidence, that the covenant stands firm in Christ, and therefore is sure to all the seed, however sore beets with trials, and compailed with enemies on every side. We have the word, the oath of God for us; till they fail, we cannot.

4. And the heavens shall praise thy wonders, O LORD: thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints.

one Chrift. Found and provided of God from eternity, amined with the oil of gladness above his fellows, for the dechange of all his offices of prophet, priest, and king: Holy laid upon him, that he might be fully qualified for the arduous work of bringing many sons unto glory, from the depths of wretchedness and weakness into which we were fallen; God’s servant willingly undertaking the business affirmed him, and excluded by him to the highest place of honour and dignity at his right hand, all power being committed to him in heaven and in earth, and angels, principalities, and powers made subject unto him.

2. The great and precious promises made to this mighty and exalted Messiah.

(1.) For himself God promises, (1.) That in all his undertakings he shall be supported with the arm of omnipresence; enabled to encounter and overcome all difficulties; be ready armed against every temptation, and unmoved under every affauds, v. 21. Note, If almighty strength be engaged for us, then surely we cannot miscarry. (2.) He shall be made victorious over his enemies. Satan, with all his wilms, shall not prevail, nor be able to exact upon him more than as the finner’s fury be undertook to bear; or afflict him farther than the determinate counsel and fore-knowledge of God decreed: and though he raised up all the malice of earth and hell, the blow he meditates must crush his own head. God will bear down all his foes before him, whether the powers of darkness, or the Jewish people that conspired against him, or the antichristian oppression of his people: all who have him must be confounded at his feet; bow down, and feel his iron rod breaking them in pieces as a potter’s vessel, and dooming them to the everlasting burnings, the just punishment of their sins. Note, The end of all the enemies of the Redeemer and his people is to perish for ever. (3.) God will never fail him in his undertaking. All faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him: all the promises shall be made good to him, and all the blessings engaged for in the covenant of grace be lodged in his hands for his people’s use and benefit; so that out of his fulness we may all receive, and find all the promises of God in him, yea, and Amen. (4.) He shall be advanced to great honour and extensive dominion. In my name, shall his harm be exalted, high in power and glory: I will set his hand in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers: both continent and islands, sea and rivers, with all that dwell in them, and occupy their business there, shall own his sway, and submit to his government. (5.) He shall be owned of God as his Son, as his first-born, and enjoy the blessings of that endeared relation, which in a sense belonged to Solomon, 2 Sam. vii. 14 but more peculiarly to Christ Jesus. He shall cry unto me, Thus art my Father, by eternal generation, as he is very God of very God; or rather as Mediator, for whom a body was prepared, when in the fulness of time it was fulfilled, This day have I begotten thee, Pfal. ii. 7. My God, whose power and protection were engaged for him and over him, John xx. 17. and the rank of my Johnstons, to carry him through his arduous undertaking, and enable him to accomplish it for his own and his people’s glory. Affix I will make him my first-born, the most eminent and exalted of all the sons of God in the human nature, he having in all things the pre-eminence, higher than the kings of the earth, for he is King of kings, and Lord of lords, Rev. xix. 16. His throne exalted over all, and that for ever and ever, for his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. (6.) In him God’s covenant shall stand fast for ever with all those for whom he hath undertaken: all the enemies of the everlasting covenant shall be sure to them both in time and eternity.

(2.) For them God promises, in general, that his feed shall make for ever, which cannot well be applied to David and his posterity, which, though the throne long continued in his family, are now no more, unless considered as still fulfilling in the Messiah, whose throne is established for ever. But it must properly belong to believers, the spiritual seed of Christ, who shall have a people to the praise of the glory of his grace, whilst sun and moon endureth; and when these luminaries are extinguished, shall still reign over his chosen through all the ages of eternity: and though in some seasons the prospect looks threatening, through declensions, persecutions, and apology, and few men left, yet not one jot or tittle of the promises shall ever fail.

(1.) It is supposed, that even among the redeemed, some things, yea much, may be found amish. They may be guilty of many and great offences, by omission, and commission, thro’ neglect, yea, thro’ wilfulness: all but the unpassionable for they may be seduced to commit; yet, though they are false, God is faithful to his covenant with Christ, and will not destroy, but recover them, v. 30, 31.

(2.) He will visit them with a father’s rod; though they are not unborn, they shall not go unpunished. Yea, with herest scourges shall they be often made to smart for their forerankness and folly, yet whilst God’s honour is thus vindicated, and their souls humbled, the effects wrought will be peace and righteousness, and good be brought even out of their evil. Note, This should teach us to hear and kiss the rod, and bless the hand that corrects us, that we should not be given over unto death.

(3.) God’s covenant shall nevertheless stand fast with them. My kindness will not take from them, though the sense of it may be withdrawn, yet his mercy shall not ever totally or finally depart. There remain a father’s bowels under the feverish strokes of deserved chastisement, and this because of the faithfulness of God to his Messiah, according to his promise, confirmed by an oath to him. Whatever breaches or profanations they were guilty of in God’s law and worship, he would not break, or prephere, as the word signifies, his covenant. He had promised him a seed for ever on earth, perpetual as sun and moon, and the bright bow in the clouds, the faithful witness of God’s covenant with Noah, and the emblem of this everlasting covenant of grace. Nor shall they end with the days of time, but live and reign with their exalted head coeval with the days of eternity.

38. But thou hast cast off and abhorred, thou hast been wroth with thine anointed. 39. Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant: ’thou hast profaned his crown, by saying it to the ground. 40. Thou hast broken down all his hedges, thou hast brought his strong holds to ruin. 41. All that pails by the way, spoil him: he is a reproach to his neighbour. 42. Thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries: thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice. 43. Thou hast also turned the edge of his sword, and hast not made him to stand in the battle. 44. Thou hast made his glory to cease, and cast his throne down to the ground. 45. The days of his wrath hast thou shortned: thou hast covered him with shame. Selah. 46. ‘How long, LORD, wilt thou hide thyself for ever? 47. Thou hast thy wrath burn like fire? 48. Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast thou made all men in vain? 49. ‘What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? 50. Whometh thou feareth of thy service? 51. Remember, LORD, the reproach of thy servants: ‘how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people; 52. ‘Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O LORD; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed. 53. ‘Bleifed be the LORD for evermore. Amen, and amen.

We have here an awful change. The language of praise and exultation is sunk to the lowest depth of mourning and woe; and this may be considered as a lamentation over, the fall of the house of David under Rehoboom, or during the captivity, when he and his God appeared to be fallen past recovery, their honour tarnished, their strength broken, their enemies prevailing, and their utter ruin expected. But as the former part of the psalm seems most eminently to relate to the spiritual David and his church, these words may be better interpreted of them. We have here.

1. A melancholy complaint of their miserable state, when the Messiah appeared in his sufferings, as soft off and abhorred of God, under God’s wrath, v. 38. The covenant made with him broken, and his crown laid in the dust, v. 39. His people given up to be a spoil to the enemy, himself reproached and compelled, his enemies triumphant, his days cut short by an ignominious death, and laid with shame in the dust of death, v. 40—45. And by the afflictive dispensation of God’s providence, the church hath often since been brought low, oppressed, devoured, and reviled by the antichristian foe, pagan and papal, that all the promises to appearance seemed to fail: but as in the lowest state of the Saviour’s humiliation the covenant stood fast, and by his death his conquests were obtained; so when the sufferings of his people are greatest; their enemies must secure and joyous; the sword of the Spirit, as they fear, blunted; and themselves ready, as they apprehend, to be utterly consumed; their fears will be proved groundless, and their troubles only heighten their triumphs.

2. A very pathetical exultation with God, (1.) On the continuance and severity of the trial. How long wilt thou hide thyself for ever? and shall thy wrath burn like fire? which may be the words of Christ, under his sufferings; or of his church, to whom the withdrawing of the foolish tokens of his favour is very grievous, and his wrath apprehended the bitterest affliction. Note, (1.) A soul who hath ever sailed God’s love, cannot but dread the thoughts of his displeasure. (2.) The torments of the damned arise from this eternal and fiery wrath of God.

(2.) On the shortness of life, and the certainty of death, v. 47, 48. Remember how short my time is; but a moment, and therefore let it not wholly be consumed in misery. Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain? as they would be, if the unointed Messiah

Meditation were left under the power of his enemies; of death particularly, for no redemption then could be hoped for by any of his people. He had man to be, however mighty, that death, and shall not be death? I shall be dearer his soul from the hand of the grave? No: death is the sure portion of man; and therefore, if after death the everlasting covenant did not stand fast, we, who have believed, should be of all men most miserable. But, blotted be God, Christ is risen from the dead, and is become the first fruits of those that sleep. Note, (1.) It is a truth deserving our constant remembrance, how short, how uncertain, our days are here below. (2.) If we would not have lived in vain, it must be our care, through Jesus the resurrection and the life, to live to God’s glory here, that we may live with God in glory for ever.

(3.) On his former loving-kindnesses. Lord, where are thy former loving-kindnesses, the promises of the everlasting covenant, including every spiritual blessing, which thus found unto David in thy truth? Confirmed to Christ by the truth and oath of Jehovah, and therefore cannot fail. However his death may have shaken the confidence of his people, his resurrection shall confirm all the promises. Note, They who plead the covenanted mercies of David, are sure not to be disappointed; for faithful is he that hath promised.

(4.) On their enemies’ reproaches and triumphs. The scribes and Pharisees having crucified the master, reviled his servants. They reproached him as a Sabbath-brother, as in connection with Satan, as executed among the vilest criminals, and mocked at them for placing any dependance on a crucified man, v. 50, 51. And thus the mighty people of this world are in general scoffers still; neither hath the offence of the cross ceased. They who will be Christ’s disciples, must still go to him without the camp, bearing their reproach.

g. The plaintiff, in the person of all God’s people, concludes with a triumphant benediction, as an answer to all their own fears, and their enemies’ reproaches, blotted be the Lord for ever more? Jesus is risen from the dead; the covenant stands fast; we are begotten to a new and lively hope; and, since he now for ever lives to make intercession for us, we know our work shall shortly be everlasting praise, when he shall perfect in us the redemption he hath obtained for us; and therefore every faithful soul cannot but join the plaintiff in his faith and hope, and cry, Amen and Amen.