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Commentary on Psalms 89 verses 38–52
In these verses we have,
I. A very melancholy complaint of the present deplorable state of David's family, which the psalmist thinks hard to be reconciled to the covenant God made with David. "Thou saidst thou wouldst not take away thy lovingkindness, but thou hast cast off." Sometimes, it is no easy thing to reconcile God's providences with his promises, and yet we are sure they are reconcilable; for God's works fulfil his word and never contradict it. 1. David's house seemed to have lost its interest in God, which was the greatest strength and beauty of it. God had been pleased with his anointed, but now he was wroth with him (Psa 89:38), had entered into covenant with the family, but now, for aught he could perceive, he had made void the covenant, not broken some of the articles of it, but cancelled it, Psa 89:39. We misconstrue the rebukes of Providence if we think they make void the covenant. When the great anointed one, Christ himself, was upon the cross, God seemed to have cast him off, and was wroth with him, and yet did not make void his covenant with him, for that was established for ever. 2. The honour of the house of David was lost and laid in the dust: Thou hast profaned his crown (which was always looked upon as sacred) by casting it to the ground, to be trampled on, Psa 89:39. Thou hast made his glory to cease (so uncertain is all earthly glory, and so soon does it wither) and thou hast cast his throne down to the ground, not only dethroned the king, but put a period to the kingdom, Psa 89:44. If it was penned in Rehoboam's time, it was true as to the greatest part of the kingdom, five parts of six; if in Zedekiah's time, it was more remarkably true of the poor remainder. Note, Thrones and crowns are tottering things, and are often laid in the dust; but there is a crown of glory reserved for Christ's spiritual seed which fadeth not away. 3. It was exposed and made a prey to all the neighbours, who insulted over that ancient and honourable family (Psa 89:40): Thou hast broken down all his hedges (all those things that were a defence to them, and particularly that hedge of protection which they thought God's covenant and promise had made about them) and thou hast made even his strong-holds a ruin, so that they were rather a reproach to them than any shelter; and then, All that pass by the way spoil him (Psa 89:41) and make an easy prey of him; see Psa 80:12, Psa 80:13. The enemies talk insolently: He is a reproach to his neighbours, who triumph in his fall from so great a degree of honour. Nay, every one helps forward the calamity (Psa 89:42): "Thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries, not only given them power, but inclined them to turn their power this way." If the enemies of the church lift up their hand against it, we must see God setting up their hand; for they could have no power unless it were given them from above. But, when God does permit them to do mischief to his church, it pleases them: "Thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice; and this is for thy glory, that those who hate thee should have the pleasure to see the tears and troubles of those that love thee." 4. It was disabled to help itself (Psa 89:43): "Thou hast turned the edge of his sword, and made it blunt, that it cannot do execution as it has done; and (which is worse) thou hast turned the edge of his spirit, and taken off his courage, and hast not made him to stand as he used to do in the battle." The spirit of men is what the Father and former of spirits makes them; nor can we stand with any strength or resolution further than God is pleased to uphold us. If men's hearts fail them, it is God that dispirits them; but it is sad with the church when those cannot stand who should stand up for it. 5. It was upon the brink of an inglorious exit (Psa 89:45): The days of his youth hast thou shortened; it is ready to be cut off, like a young man in the flower of his age. This seems to intimate that the psalm was penned in Rehoboam's time, when the house of David was but in the days of its youth, and yet waxed old and began to decay already. Thus it was covered with shame, and it was turned very much to its reproach that a family which, in the first and second reign, looked so great, and made such a figure, should, in the third, dwindle and look so little as the house of David did in Rehoboam's time. But it may be applied to the captivity in Babylon, which, in comparison with what was expected, was but the day of the youth of that kingdom. However, the kings then had remarkably the days of their youth shortened, for it was in the days of their youth, when they were about thirty years old, that Jehoiachin and Zedekiah were carried captives to Babylon.
From all this complaint let us learn, 1. What work sin makes with families, noble royal families, with families in which religion has been uppermost; when posterity degenerates, it falls into disgrace, and iniquity stains their glory. 2. How apt we are to place the promised honour and happiness of the church in something external, and to think the promise fails, and the covenant is made void, if we be disappointed of that, a mistake which we now are inexcusable if we fall into, since our Master has so expressly told us that his kingdom is not of this world.
II. A very pathetic expostulation with God upon this. Four things they plead with God for mercy: -
1.The long continuance of the trouble (Psa 89:46): How long, O Lord! wilt thou hide thyself? For ever? That which grieved them most was that God himself, as one displeased, did not appear to them by his prophets to comfort them, did not appear for them by his providences to deliver them, and that he had kept them long in the dark; it seemed an eternal night, when God had withdrawn: Thou hidest thyself for ever. Nay, God not only hid himself from them, but seemed to set himself against them: "Shall thy wrath burn like fire? How long shall it burn? Shall it never be put out? What is hell, but the wrath of God, burning for ever? And is that the lot of thy anointed?"
2.The shortness of life, and the certainty of death: "Lord, let thy anger cease, and return thou, in mercy to us, remembering how short my time is and how sure the period of my time. Lord, since my life is so transitory, and will, ere long, be at an end, let it not be always so miserable that I should rather choose no being at all than such a being." Job pleads thus, Job 10:20, Job 10:21. And probably the psalmist here urges it in the name of the house of David, and the present prince of that house, the days of whose youth were shortened, Psa 89:45.
(1.)He pleads the shortness and vanity of life (Psa 89:47): Remember how short my time is, how transitory I am (say some), therefore unable to bear the power of thy wrath, and therefore a proper object of thy pity. Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain? or, Unto what vanity hast thou created all the sons of Adam! Now, this may be understood either, [1.] As declaring a great truth. If the ancient lovingkindnesses spoken of (Psa 89:49) be forgotten (those relating to another life), man is indeed made in vain. Considering man as mortal, if there were not a future state on the other side of death, we might be ready to think that man was made in vain, and was in vain endued with the noble powers and faculties of reason and filled with such vast designs and desires; but God would not make man in vain; therefore, Lord, remember those lovingkindnesses. Or, [2.] As implying a strong temptation that the psalmist was in. It is certain God has not made all men, nor any man, in vain, Isa 45:18. For, First, If we think that God has made men in vain because so many have short lives, and long afflictions, in this world, it is true that God has made them so, but it is not true that therefore they are made in vain. For those whose days are few and full of trouble may yet glorify God and do some good, may keep their communion with God and get to heaven, and then they are not made in vain. Secondly, If we think that God has made men in vain because the most of men neither serve him nor enjoy him, it is true that, as to themselves, they were made in vain, better for them had they not been born than not to be born again; but it was not owing to God that they were made in vain; it was owing to themselves; nor are they made in vain as to him, for he has made all things for himself, even the wicked for the day of evil, and those whom he is not glorified by he will be glorified upon.
(2.)He pleads the universality and unavoidableness of death (Psa 89:48): "What man" (what strong man, so the word is) "is he that liveth and shall not see death? The king himself, of the house of David, is not exempted from the sentence, from the stroke. Lord, since he is under a fatal necessity of dying, let not his whole life be made thus miserable. Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? No, he shall not when his time has come. Let him not therefore be delivered into the hand of the grave by the miseries of a dying life, till his time shall come." We must learn here that death is the end of all men; our eyes must shortly be closed to see death; there is no discharge from that war, nor will any bail be taken to save us from the prison of the grave. It concerns us therefore to make sure a happiness on the other side of death and the grave, that, when we fail, we may be received into everlasting habitations.
3.The next plea is taken from the kindness God had for and the covenant he made with his servant David (Psa 89:49): "Lord, where are thy former lovingkindnesses, which thou showedst, nay, which thou swaredst, to David in thy truth? Wilt thou fail of doing what thou hast promised? Wilt thou undo what thou hast done? Art not thou still the same? Why then may not we have the benefit of the former sure mercies of David?" God's unchangeableness and faithfulness assure us that God will not cast off those whom he has chosen and covenanted with.
4.The last plea is taken from the insolence of the enemies and the indignity done to God's anointed (Psa 89:50, Psa 89:51): "Remember, Lord, the reproach, and let it be rolled away from us and returned upon our enemies." (1.) They were God's servants that were reproached, and the abuses done to them reflected upon their master, especially since it was for serving him that they were reproached. (2.) The reproach cast upon God's servants was a very grievous burden to all that were concerned for the honour of God: "I bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people, and am even overwhelmed with it; it is what I lay much to heart and can scarcely keep up my spirits under the weight of." (3.) "They are thy enemies who do thus reproach us; and wilt thou not appear against them as such?" (4.) They have reproached the footsteps of thy anointed. They reflected upon all the steps which the king had taken in the course of his administration, tracked him in all his motions, that they might make invidious remarks upon every thing he had said and done. Or, if we may apply it to Christ, the Lord's Messiah, they reproached the Jews with his footsteps, the slowness of his coming. They have reproached the delays of the Messiah; so Dr. Hammond. They called him, He that should come; but, because he had not yet come, because he did not now come to deliver them out of the hands of their enemies, when they had none to deliver them, they told them he would never come, they must give over looking for him. The scoffers of the latter days do, in like manner, reproach the footsteps of the Messiah when they ask, Where is the promise of his coming? Pe2 3:3, Pe2 3:4. The reproaching of the footsteps of the anointed some refer to the serpent's bruising the heel of the seed of the woman, or to the sufferings of Christ's followers, who tread in his footsteps, and are reproached for his name's sake.
III. The psalm concludes with praise, even after this sad complaint (Psa 89:52): Blessed be the Lord for evermore, Amen, and amen. Thus he confronts the reproaches of his enemies. The more others blaspheme God the more we should bless him. Thus he corrects his own complaints, chiding himself for quarrelling with God's providences and questioning his promises; let both these sinful passions be silenced with the praises of God. However it be, yet God is good, and we will never think hardly of him; God is true, and we will never distrust him. Though the glory of David's house be stained and sullied, this shall be our comfort, that God is blessed for ever, and his glory cannot be eclipsed. If we would have the comfort of the stability of God's promise, we must give him the praise of it; in blessing God, we encourage ourselves. Here is a double Amen, according to the double signification. Amen - so it is, God is blessed for ever. Amen - be it so, let God be blessed for ever. He began the psalm with thanksgiving, before he made his complaint (Psa 89:1); and now he concludes it with a doxology. Those who give God thanks for what he has done may give him thanks also for what he will do; God will follow those with his mercies who, in a right manner, follow him with their praises.
Even David himself knew this. Consider his words; "You have rejected and brought him down to nothing." Where then is Your promise? "You have put off Your Anointed." This expression cheers us, among much that is sorrowful: for the promise of God is still valid; for You have put off Your Anointed, not taken Him away. See then what was the fate of that David, in whom the ignorant hoped for the fulfilment of the promises of God, in order that those promises might be more firmly relied upon for their fulfilment in another. "You have put off Your Anointed: You have overthrown the testament of Your servant." For where is the Old Testament of the Jews? Where that land of promise, in which they sinned while they dwelt in it, on the overthrow of which they wandered afar? Ask you for the kingdom of the Jews; it exists not: you ask for the altar of the Jews; it is not: you ask for the sacrifice of the Jews; it is not: you ask for the priesthood of the Jews; it is not. "You have overthrown the testament of Your servant, and profaned his holiness on the earth." You have shown that what they thought holy, was earthly. "You have broken down all his hedges," with which You have entrenched him: for how could he have been spoiled unless his hedges had been broken down? "You have made his strongholds a terror." Why terror? That it should be said to the sinners, "For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not you." [Romans 11:21]
"All they that go by the way have spoiled him:" that is, all the heathen that go by the way, meaning, all who pass through this life, have spoiled Israel, have spoiled David. First of all, see his fragments in all nations: for it is of the Jews that it is said, "They shall be a portion for foxes." For the Scripture calls wicked, crafty, and cowardly kings, whom another's virtue terrifies, foxes. Thus when our Lord Himself was speaking of the threatening Herod, He said, "Go, and tell that fox." [Luke 13:32] The king who fears no man, is not a fox: like that Lion of Judah, of whom it is said, "Stooping down You rose up, and slept as a lion." [Genesis 49:9] At Your will You stooped down, at Your will rose; because You would, You slept. And thus in another Psalm he says, "I slept." Was not the sentence complete, "I slept, and took rest, and rose up again, because the Lord shall uphold Me"? Why is the word ego added? And thus with a strong emphasis on the word I, they raged against Me, they troubled Me: but had I not willed, I had not slept. Those then concerning whom it was declared that they should be a portion for foxes, are now spoken of as follows; "All they that go by have spoiled him: and he has become a reproach to his neighbours" [Psalm 89:41]. "You have set up the right hand of his enemies, and made all his adversaries to rejoice" [Psalm 89:42]. Look at the Jews, and see all things fulfilled that were predicted. "You have turned away the help of his sword." How they were used to fight few in number, and to strike down many. "You have turned away the help of his sword, and You give him not victory in the battle" [Psalm 89:43]. Naturally then is he conquered, naturally taken prisoner, naturally made an outcast from his kingdom, naturally scattered abroad: for he lost that land, for which he slew the Lord. "You have loosed him from cleansing" [Psalm 89:44]. What is this? Amongst all the evils, this is a matter for great fear; for howsoever God may beat, howsoever He may be angry, howsoever He may flog and scourge, yet let Him scourge him bound, whom He is to cleanse, not "loose him from cleansing." For if He loose him from being purified, he becomes incapable of cleansing, and must be an outcast. From what cleansing then is the Jew loosed? From faith; for by faith we live: [Galatians 3:11] and it is said of faith, "purifying their hearts by faith:" [Acts 15:9] and as it is only the faith of Christ that cleanses; by disbelief in Christ, they are loosed from purification. "You have loosed him from cleansing, and cast his throne down to the ground." And so You have broken it. "The days of his seat have You shortened" [Psalm 89:45]. They imagined that they should reign for ever. "And covered him with confusion." All these things happened to the Jews, Christ yet not being taken away, but His advent deferred.
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SUMMARY
Psalms 89:43 is a poignant lament within a psalm that initially celebrates God's unwavering faithfulness to the Davidic covenant. This verse starkly portrays the Davidic king's devastating military defeat and profound humiliation, unequivocally attributing his utter powerlessness and inability to prevail directly to God's active and deliberate intervention. It encapsulates the psalmist's deep distress and theological perplexity over the apparent contradiction between God's solemn promises of perpetual protection and victory for the Davidic line and the devastating reality of divine abandonment in battle.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Psalms 89:43 masterfully employs several literary devices to convey the depth of the psalmist's lament and the severity of the king's defeat. Personification is evident in the active role attributed to God, who "turns the edge" of the sword and "has not made him to stand," giving human-like, intentional actions to the divine. This emphasizes God's direct and personal involvement in the king's plight, rather than portraying it as mere happenstance. Metonymy is also powerfully present, where the "sword" serves as a stand-in for the king's entire military power, authority, and capacity for warfare; by rendering the sword useless, God effectively disarms the king entirely, symbolizing a complete emasculation of his royal strength. The stark imagery of a blunted or ineffective sword and an inability to stand creates a powerful visual of utter defeat and humiliation, functioning as a form of Hyperbole to underscore the completeness and totality of the king's military collapse. Furthermore, the verse functions as a direct Complaint or Lament, characteristic of this latter section of the psalm, expressing profound distress and questioning God's actions in light of His covenant promises, thereby inviting the reader into the psalmist's theological struggle.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Psalms 89:43 grapples with the profound tension between God's unwavering covenant promises and the painful, often contradictory, reality of human experience. It forces the reader to confront the mystery of divine sovereignty, particularly when God's actions appear to contradict His character or prior commitments. The verse asserts that even in the throes of defeat and humiliation, God is ultimately in control, actively orchestrating outcomes. This raises fundamental questions about the nature of the Davidic covenant—was it truly unconditional, or did human obedience play a role in its practical outworking? The psalmist's lament highlights the universal human struggle to reconcile a God of faithfulness and love with the experience of suffering, apparent abandonment, and the humbling of His chosen instruments. It serves as a powerful reminder that God's ways are often inscrutable, and His purposes extend far beyond immediate human understanding, even when they involve the temporary downfall of His anointed.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Psalms 89:43, while rooted in a specific royal and national crisis, offers profound and enduring lessons for individual believers navigating their own "battles" and perceived defeats. It powerfully validates the human experience of lament, encouraging us to bring our honest questions, frustrations, and feelings of abandonment directly to God, even when His actions seem perplexing or contrary to our expectations of His promises. This verse serves as a stark reminder that God's sovereignty extends over all circumstances, including our moments of weakness, failure, or spiritual struggle. When we feel our "swords" are blunted, our efforts ineffective, or our strength failing, it can be a divine invitation to cease relying on our own might and instead lean entirely on God's power and wisdom. It challenges us to cultivate a deeper trust in His overarching, often mysterious, plan, even when the immediate reality is one of defeat, knowing that His ultimate purposes are always good, and His faithfulness remains, even when our understanding or circumstances falter. This posture of humble reliance in the face of apparent divine opposition can paradoxically lead to a profound strengthening of faith.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Does Psalms 89:43 imply God causes all defeats, or only those of His anointed?
Answer: Psalms 89:43 specifically attributes the defeat of the Davidic king to God's direct action, stating, "Thou hast also turned the edge of his sword, and hast not made him to stand in the battle." This passage strongly emphasizes God's ultimate and active sovereignty over the outcomes of human endeavors, particularly concerning His covenant people and their leaders. While it doesn't explicitly state that God causes all defeats for everyone in every circumstance, it powerfully asserts His prerogative to orchestrate such outcomes, especially when they serve His larger redemptive, disciplinary, or covenantal purposes. In the specific context of the Davidic covenant, such a profound defeat would be understood as a divine judgment or a severe test, forcing a re-evaluation of the relationship between God's promises and the people's faithfulness. Other scriptures also affirm God's control over battles, whether for victory or defeat, as seen in Deuteronomy 28:25, which links disobedience to defeat, or Judges 7:2, where God intentionally reduces an army's size to ensure victory is attributed to Him alone.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
The lament of Psalms 89:43, with its portrayal of a Davidic king whose sword is turned and who cannot stand in battle, finds its ultimate and glorious resolution in Jesus Christ. While the earthly Davidic monarchy experienced periods of weakness, defeat, and eventual collapse, seemingly contradicting God's eternal covenant, Christ is the true and eternal Son of David whose kingdom will never end and whose "sword" of truth and judgment will never be turned away. The Davidic covenant, which appeared to fail in the face of human sin and historical circumstances, is perfectly fulfilled in Jesus, who is the King of kings whose throne is forever (Hebrews 1:8). Unlike the earthly king in Psalms 89:43, Jesus was "made to stand" in the ultimate battle against sin, death, and the powers of darkness, not by human might but by divine power, triumphing decisively over them on the cross (Colossians 2:15). His victory is eternal, and His reign is unshakeable, fulfilling the promises of an everlasting kingdom that no earthly power or divine judgment can undermine (Luke 1:32-33). Indeed, from His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, a sword that is never blunted or turned away, signifying His ultimate and unchallengeable authority and the certainty of His final victory (Revelation 19:15).