Psalm 89:5

Psalm 89 is a Maskil, a psalm for instruction and thought, and its heading names Ethan the Ezrahite. He is most likely the man whose wisdom is set beside Solomon’s in 1 Kings 4:31, and possibly the Levite singer of the family of Merari named in 1 Chronicles 6:44.

The psalm begins with the LORD’s oath to David (Psalm 89:3–4), the promise of a lasting house and throne given in 2 Samuel 7:12–16. Verses 5 to 18 praise the God who swore that oath. From Psalm 89:19 the psalm sets out the covenant in full, and from verse 38 it turns to lament over a king defeated and humbled, as though God had abandoned his promise (Psalm 89:38–45). The disaster goes unnamed. It was a heavy blow to the house of David, and some place it as late as the fall of Jerusalem and the exile (2 Kings 25).

The order is deliberate. Before he brings his complaint, Ethan sets down what is always true of God: none can match his strength, his faithfulness surrounds him, the world is his, and his throne stands on justice. His later questions are built on this. A God this strong is able to keep his word to David, and a God this faithful will keep it, so the lament becomes an appeal to God to act as the God he is. The psalm shows us how to pray when what we see is hard to square with what God has promised.

“And the heavens shall praise thy wonders, O LORD.” The word for wonders, peleʼ, means a marvel, an extraordinary deed of the kind that leaves people astonished, and it is used of God’s works in creation, salvation and judgment. The heavens praise these wonders by being what God made them to be: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork” (Psalm 19:1). Their praise is silent, and Paul says that God’s eternal power and Godhead are clearly seen through the things he has made (Romans 1:20).

“Thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints.” Faithfulness, ʼĕmûwnâh, is firmness, steadiness and truth, the quality of one who keeps his word whatever happens. The congregation, qâhâl, is an assembly called together, a gathered company of people. The saints are the holy ones, those set apart for God, and in the first place they are Israel gathered to worship, where God’s faithfulness was told, sung and trusted. Verse 7 goes on to speak of “all them that are about him”, the host around his throne, so the holy ones who praise him stand in heaven as well as on earth. The heavens praise what God has done, and the people who have lived on his promises praise his faithfulness.

The gathered people of God still give this praise. Hebrews urges believers to stir one another up to love and good works and to keep assembling together (Hebrews 10:24–25), and Paul tells those who belong to Christ that they are fellowcitizens with the saints, built together for a habitation of God (Ephesians 2:19–22). John saw where this praise ends, when the angels round the throne and every creature in heaven and on earth give blessing and honour to God and to the Lamb (Revelation 5:11–13).

The LORD stands alone, and verse 6 says so with a question that has only one answer. “For who in the heaven can be compared unto the LORD? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the LORD?” Asking it this way draws the hearer in to give the answer himself, and the answer is “none”.

The two lines use two verbs. The first, ʻârak, means to set in a row, to arrange or put in order, and so to set one thing beside another and weigh it. The second, dâmâh, means to compare or liken, and so to resemble. Together they say that none can be set beside the LORD and none is like him. The “heaven” of verse 6 is the sky and the clouds, the heights where God’s throne is. If none up there compares with him, none anywhere does.

Both lines end on the name of the LORD, Yᵉhôvâh, God’s personal name, by which he made himself known to Israel. It speaks of the self-existent, eternal One who told Moses, “I AM THAT I AM” (Exodus 3:14). So the God beyond all comparison is the God of the covenant, the very God who swore to David.

Israel’s neighbours worshipped many gods, and their stories told of an assembly of gods meeting together. This psalm sets the LORD apart from all of them as unique and singular, with every power in heaven beneath him. Scripture says it again and again. Moses asked, “what God is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might?” (Deuteronomy 3:24). Hannah sang, “There is none holy as the LORD: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God” (1 Samuel 2:2). Israel confessed, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD” (Deuteronomy 6:4), and God himself says, “I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me” (Isaiah 45:5), and “To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One” (Isaiah 40:25–26). Because none compares with him, his rule reaches everywhere: “his kingdom ruleth over all” (Psalm 103:19).

“Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them.” To rule, mâshal, is to rule or have dominion. The raging, gêʼûwth, comes from gâʼâh, to rise up, and the noun can mean majesty, a lifting up, or pride. The sea swells and lifts itself like a proud thing, and God rules it. To still, shâbach, is a verb that can mean to speak in a loud voice, and here it means to quiet or calm. When the waves rise up, he lays them down.

The nations around Israel feared the sea as a place of chaos and monsters, and their stories told of gods who fought to subdue the waters. The LORD rules the sea as its Maker. In the beginning the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters (Genesis 1:2), and God gathered the waters together and called them Seas (Genesis 1:9–10). He gave the sea his decree, that the waters should keep within the bounds he set (Proverbs 8:29), and he asked Job who shut up the sea with doors and said, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed” (Job 38:8–11). Isaiah calls on the arm of the LORD that dried the sea and made its depths a way for the ransomed to pass over (Isaiah 51:9–10).

The disciples on the Sea of Galilee saw this verse done before their eyes. Jesus woke in the storm, rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace, be still”, and they asked, “What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:39–41). They knew that such power belongs to God, and the answer to their question is in this psalm. He also walked upon the sea (Matthew 14:25), and he told his disciples, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

“The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them.” The heavens, shâmayim, a word plural in form, are the sky above and all that is in it, and with the earth they make up all that God has made. The world is the inhabited earth, and its fulness, mᵉlôʼ, is everything that fills it: its creatures, its people and its riches. To found, yâçad, is to set, found or establish, as a builder lays the foundation of a house.

The verse grounds God’s ownership in his creating. Everything is his because he made it. “The earth is the LORD’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein” (Psalm 24:1). “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Nehemiah 9:6 confesses that the LORD alone made heaven and earth and the seas and all that is in them, and preserves them all, and Isaiah calls him “the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth”, who “fainteth not, neither is weary” (Isaiah 40:28).

This is why the hymn speaks of creation in a psalm about the covenant. The God who owns everything and laid its foundations is able to keep his promise to David, whatever has happened to David’s house.

“Thou hast a mighty arm: strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand.” Three short lines build on one another. The arm, zᵉrôwaʻ, is the same word as the “strong arm” of verse 10, God’s power put into action. The hand, yâd, stands for power and control, and with a preposition (“by the hand of”) it marks anyone through whom something is done, so a strong hand is a grip that holds and a power that carries things out. The right hand, yâmîyn, was the hand of strength, honour and decisive action, in battle and in blessing. The same word can mean the south, because the right hand lies to the south of one who faces east. “High” comes from rûwm, to be lifted up or exalted, so God’s right hand is raised above every other power, supreme and victorious.

These are the words of the exodus. Moses spoke of the LORD taking a nation for himself “by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm” (Deuteronomy 4:34), the power that opened the Red Sea (Exodus 14), and Israel sang, “Thy right hand, O LORD, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O LORD, hath dashed in pieces the enemy” (Exodus 15:6). Another psalm sings, “The right hand of the LORD is exalted: the right hand of the LORD doeth valiantly” (Psalm 118:16). The hand that made the promise to David has all the power it needs to keep it.

“Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.” Justice here is tsedeq, rightness, righteousness and justice, the right in conduct, in judgment, in speech and in honest weights. Judgment is mishpâṭ, a verdict given by a judge, a sentence or decree, and the doing of justice. The habitation, mâkôwn, is a fixed place, a base, a dwelling, so justice and judgment are the ground on which God’s throne is set. Another psalm says the same: “righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne” (Psalm 97:2). Every decision God makes comes from this throne, so every one is right and fair. Kings in Israel’s day often ruled harshly or corruptly, and this throne stands on righteousness.

Mercy is cheçed, kindness and favour, and above all steadfast, loyal love, the love that keeps covenant. Truth is ʼemeth, truth and faithfulness, the reliability of one whose word holds. These two “go before thy face” like heralds walking ahead of a king, so that wherever God comes, his loyal love and his faithfulness arrive first. They belong to the name God proclaimed to Moses: “The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth” (Exodus 34:6–7).

So God’s rule holds justice and mercy together. “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (Psalm 85:10). Another psalm sings that his mercy is in the heavens and his righteousness is like the great mountains (Psalm 36:5–6), and Isaiah calls him “a just God and a Saviour” (Isaiah 45:21).

“Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance.” Blessed, ʼesher, means happiness and blessedness, and it is used as the cry “How happy!”, the word that opens the Psalms (Psalm 1:1). It names those who are fortunate because God has blessed them.

The joyful sound, tᵉrûwʻâh, is a loud shout or blast, from voice or instrument: an acclamation of joy, a battle cry, or the clangor of trumpets as an alarm. In Israel’s life it was heard often. The trumpets sounded an alarm for war (Numbers 10:9) and proclaimed the year of jubile (Leviticus 25:9). Trumpets sounded at the feasts, and when Solomon was anointed king the trumpet blew and the people cried, “God save king Solomon” (1 Kings 1:39). God’s people shouted for joy before him in worship: “Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing” (Psalm 100:1–2).

To know, yâdaʻ, is to know by acquaintance. The people who know the joyful sound understand what it means. They recognize the shout that greets God as King, the sound of his saving acts and his presence among them, and they answer it with faith and joy. Their happiness comes from the God they acclaim.

“They shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance.” To walk, hâlak, is the Bible’s way of speaking of a whole manner of life. Light, ʼôwr, is illumination. Countenance, pânîym, is the face, plural in form and always used as a singular, and from the face it comes to mean presence. To walk in the light of God’s face is to live day by day under his favour, as a subject lives under a king’s smile. Proverbs says, “In the light of the king’s countenance is life.” The priests blessed Israel with the words “The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee” (Numbers 6:24–26), and a psalm prays, “LORD, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us” (Psalm 4:6). God’s light guides as well as gladdens: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105). Later in this psalm the psalmist feels that God has hidden his face, and verse 15 shows what he longs to have again.

“In thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.” God’s name, shêm, stands for his whole revealed self, his character, his reputation and his authority. To rejoice in his name is to be glad in who he is, in his power, holiness, love and faithfulness. The verb is gîyl, to rejoice or be glad, and its root sense is to spin round, so it is a lively, glad joy. Verse 12 has the same English word, “rejoice”, for a different Hebrew verb. This joy runs “all the day”, through every hour, because its source is constant.

It holds in hard times too. “The joy of the LORD is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10), and Paul writes, “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice” (Philippians 4:4). Sorrow and grief are real, and underneath them the God in whom his people rejoice stays the same.

Righteousness here is tsᵉdâqâh, God’s justice and integrity, which takes in his faithfulness to what he has promised and his right dealing with his people. To be exalted is to be lifted up and given honour and standing. That honour comes from God’s righteousness as his gift, and humility goes before it: “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time” (1 Peter 5:6).

“For thou art the glory of their strength: and in thy favour our horn shall be exalted.” Glory, tiphʼârâh, means beauty, glory or ornament, the state of being worthy of honour. Strength, ʻôz, is might or power, and also a stronghold, the same word as in the “strong arm” of verse 10. So the God whose arm is strong is the glory of his people’s strength. He gives it, and he is its honour and its beauty. Favour, râtsôwn, is delight, goodwill and acceptance, God’s pleasure toward his people.

The pronouns change here. The psalmist has been speaking of “their strength”, and now he says “our horn”, counting himself among the people he has been describing.

“For the LORD is our defence; and the Holy One of Israel is our king.” Defence is mâgên, a shield, the smaller shield or buckler a soldier carried, and the word is also a title for God or for a king as protector. God told Abram, “I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward” (Genesis 15:1), and a psalm calls him “our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). Israel had known him as the warrior who protected them in the exodus and in the conquest of the land.

The Holy One, qâdôwsh, is the one who is sacred and set apart, pure and distinct from all he has made. The same word is used of angels and of saints, and it is the word for the holy ones in verse 7, and as God’s title it names him above them all. “The Holy One of Israel” joins his holiness to his bond with one people, for the holy God has bound himself to Israel as their God. The title is much loved by Isaiah, where God says, “I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour” (Isaiah 43:3).

The King, melek, is the one who rules with full right and authority. Israel’s earthly kings often failed, and the house of David was to be humbled, as the rest of the psalm shows. Verse 18 sets the true King above them all. “The LORD reigneth, he is clothed with majesty” (Psalm 93:1). With this confession the hymn ends, and verse 19 turns to God’s covenant with David.

The New Testament shows us the incomparable LORD of this psalm in Jesus Christ. “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). The heavens and the earth of verse 11, and the thrones and powers of heaven that verse 6 calls the sons of the mighty, were created by him and for him. He is “the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:3), the one in whom it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell (Colossians 1:19), and the only begotten Son who has declared the Father (John 1:18). In him God’s name, his whole revealed self, is made known.

His works show the strength of verses 9, 10 and 13. On the cross and in his rising he triumphed over principalities and powers (Colossians 2:15) and won the victory over death that Paul celebrates in 1 Corinthians 15:54–57, so that in him believers are “more than conquerors” (Romans 8:37). The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29) is the one in whom God’s strong arm wins its greatest victory. He is “the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24), and Paul prays that believers may know “the exceeding greatness of his power” (Ephesians 1:19).

The high right hand of verse 13 is where Jesus now reigns. He was “by the right hand of God exalted” (Acts 2:33), and “Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour” (Acts 5:31). He said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18). He is the head of all principality and power (Colossians 2:10), and God has given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth (Philippians 2:9–11).

He is also the answer to the psalm’s great question about David. The angel told Mary that God would give her Son “the throne of his father David” and that “of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:32–33). Zacharias blessed God for raising up “an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David” (Luke 1:69), the horn of verse 17 lifted high. “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen” (2 Corinthians 1:20).

The throne of verse 14 is seen in him. He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15), and God set him forth to be a propitiation, that God might be just and the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus (Romans 3:25–26). Justice and mercy meet at the cross, and the Word made flesh was “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). The righteousness of verse 16 is revealed in the gospel (Romans 1:17). Believers are made the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21) and raised up to sit together with him in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6), which is the exaltation God’s righteousness gives.

The joyful sound of verse 15 rang out at his birth, when the angel brought “good tidings of great joy” (Luke 2:10). He said, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12) and “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), so to walk in the light of God’s countenance is to walk with him. Christ in his people is “the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27), his strength is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9), and Paul could say, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13). He is the glory of their strength.

He is the shield and the King of verse 18. He “ever liveth to make intercession” for those who come to God by him (Hebrews 7:25). He is “the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24), and God has delivered his people from the power of darkness and translated them into the kingdom of his dear Son (Colossians 1:13), having made peace through the blood of his cross to reconcile all things to himself (Colossians 1:20). Through him those who fear God may come boldly unto the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16) and worship the Father in spirit and in truth (John 4:23–24).

These verses give us a God past all comparison. The heavens praise him, the mightiest beings of heaven fear him, the sea lies still at his word, and the proudest empire of its day broke before his arm. Everything is his because he made it. His power is always joined to his character, for his throne stands on justice, and mercy and truth go before him wherever he goes.

That is why Ethan could praise first and lament afterwards. When the house of David lay humbled, God was still the God of verses 5 to 18, and his promise rested on his own strength and faithfulness. In Christ, David’s Son, that promise stands fulfilled. Those who belong to him are the people who know the joyful sound. Their joy is in his name, their honour comes from his righteousness, their strength is his gift, and their shield and King is the Holy One of Israel.