BackgroundEthan the Ezrahite, like Heman, is named in 1 Kings 4:31 among Israel's wise men; the psalm closes Book III with a doxology (v52); the body of the psalm voices a crisis where the Davidic throne has fallen, almost certainly the Babylonian exile (~586 BC) or its immediate aftermath, though some commentators argue for an earlier setback.
Psalm 89: The Covenant Looked Broken
A Maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite.
By Bea Zalel
Psalm 89
A Maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite.
- I will sing of the loving devotion of the LORD forever; with my mouth I will proclaim Your faithfulness to all generations.
- For I have said, “Loving devotion is built up forever; in the heavens You establish Your faithfulness.”
- You said, “I have made a covenant with My chosen one, I have sworn to David My servant:
- ‘I will establish your offspring forever and build up your throne for all generations.’” Selah
- The heavens praise Your wonders, O LORD— Your faithfulness as well— in the assembly of the holy ones.
- For who in the skies can compare with the LORD? Who among the heavenly beings is like the LORD?
- In the council of the holy ones, God is greatly feared, and awesome above all who surround Him.
- O LORD God of Hosts, who is like You? O mighty LORD, Your faithfulness surrounds You.
- You rule the raging sea; when its waves mount up, You still them.
- You crushed Rahab like a carcass; You scattered Your enemies with Your mighty arm.
- The heavens are Yours, and also the earth. The earth and its fullness You founded.
- North and south You created; Tabor and Hermon shout for joy at Your name.
- Mighty is Your arm; strong is Your hand. Your right hand is exalted.
- Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; loving devotion and faithfulness go before You.
- Blessed are those who know the joyful sound, who walk, O LORD, in the light of Your presence.
- They rejoice in Your name all day long, and in Your righteousness they exult.
- For You are the glory of their strength, and by Your favor our horn is exalted.
- Surely our shield belongs to the LORD, and our king to the Holy One of Israel.
- You once spoke in a vision; to Your godly ones You said, “I have bestowed help on a warrior; I have exalted one chosen from the people.
- I have found My servant David; with My sacred oil I have anointed him.
- My hand will sustain him; surely My arm will strengthen him.
- No enemy will exact tribute; no wicked man will oppress him.
- I will crush his foes before him and strike down those who hate him.
- My faithfulness and loving devotion will be with him, and through My name his horn will be exalted.
- I will set his hand over the sea, and his right hand upon the rivers.
- He will call to Me, ‘You are my Father, my God, the Rock of my salvation.’
- I will indeed appoint him as My firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.
- I will forever preserve My loving devotion for him, and My covenant with him will stand fast.
- I will establish his line forever, his throne as long as the heavens endure.
- If his sons forsake My law and do not walk in My judgments,
- if they violate My statutes and fail to keep My commandments,
- I will attend to their transgression with the rod, and to their iniquity with stripes.
- But I will not withdraw My loving devotion from him, nor ever betray My faithfulness.
- I will not violate My covenant or alter the utterance of My lips.
- Once and for all I have sworn by My holiness— I will not lie to David—
- his offspring shall endure forever, and his throne before Me like the sun,
- like the moon, established forever, a faithful witness in the sky.” Selah
- Now, however, You have spurned and rejected him; You are enraged by Your anointed one.
- You have renounced the covenant with Your servant and sullied his crown in the dust.
- You have broken down all his walls; You have reduced his strongholds to rubble.
- All who pass by plunder him; he has become a reproach to his neighbors.
- You have exalted the right hand of his foes; You have made all his enemies rejoice.
- You have bent the edge of his sword and have not sustained him in battle.
- You have ended his splendor and cast his throne to the ground.
- You have cut short the days of his youth; You have covered him with shame. Selah
- How long, O LORD? Will You hide Yourself forever? Will Your wrath keep burning like fire?
- Remember the briefness of my lifespan! For what futility You have created all men!
- What man can live and never see death? Can he deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah
- Where, O Lord, is Your loving devotion of old, which You faithfully swore to David?
- Remember, O Lord, the reproach of Your servants, which I bear in my heart from so many people—
- how Your enemies have taunted, O LORD, and have mocked every step of Your anointed one!
- Blessed be the LORD forever! Amen and amen.
Theme
Psalm 89 is fifty-two verses long, and it is structured as one of the great trapdoors of the Psalter. Verses 1-37 are a soaring hymn of the Davidic covenant. The psalmist sings of God's "hesed" and "emet" forever. He recounts creation, Rahab the sea-monster of chaos defeated, the throne established on righteousness and justice. He puts in God's mouth the great covenant words of 2 Samuel 7: "I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant: I will establish your line forever and make your throne firm through all generations." "His line will endure forever, his throne as long as the sun before me." "I will not violate my covenant or alter what my lips have uttered." If you stop reading at verse 37, this is the most confident covenant theology in the Bible. The reader thinks: this is the song of a kingdom that will never end.
Verse 38 opens with one Hebrew word, "v'attah," "but you," and the floor falls out. "But you have rejected, you have spurned, you have been very angry with your anointed one. You have renounced the covenant with your servant; you have defiled his crown in the dust." For the next fourteen verses, the psalm catalogs the ruin: the walls breached, the strongholds in ruins, the king's splendor put to an end, his throne cast to the ground, his enemies rejoicing. Whoever sang this was not theorizing. Most likely they were standing in the rubble of 586 BC, watching what was left of the Davidic line dragged into exile, and they were doing the most faithful thing a believer can do in that moment: holding God to his own promises in front of his own face. "Where is your former hesed, LORD, which in your faithfulness you swore to David?"
The genius of this psalm is that it does not resolve the contradiction. It does not say, "but it was Israel's fault, so the covenant is suspended fairly." It does not say, "but God will fix it tomorrow." It says, "How long, O LORD?" and "Remember, LORD, how mocked your servant is." Then it ends, almost shockingly, with verse 52: "Praise be to the LORD forever! Amen and amen." This is not the psalmist's triumph; it is the editor's signature, the doxology that closes Book III of the Psalter. Each of the five books of psalms ends with such a doxology (Pss 41, 72, 89, 106, 150). So the worshiper is left with a tension the canon refuses to soften: the Davidic covenant looks broken, the question "how long" hangs unanswered, and the people of God still close the book with "amen and amen." Faith here is not the answer; faith is the doxology spoken before the answer comes.
The Christian reader cannot help reading this psalm forward. Matthew opens his Gospel with a genealogy that runs from David to "Jesus, who is called the Christ" (Mt 1:1, 1:17), and Luke 1:32-33 has Gabriel tell Mary that her son will be given "the throne of his father David" and that "his kingdom will never end." The New Testament's claim is that the question of Psalm 89, "where is your hesed sworn to David," is answered in a Galilean baby. But anchor first in the post-exilic crisis: a community standing in the ashes, holding the song of David's eternal throne in one hand and the empty throne in the other, refusing to let either go. That posture, refusing to drop either the promise or the present pain, is what produces psalms like this one and prayers like "thy kingdom come."
Discussion questions
- Read verses 1-37 alone, then read verses 38-51 alone. How does the experience of reading change when you take the two halves separately?
- What does it tell us that the editors of the Psalter chose to close Book III with a psalm whose body ends in "how long, O LORD?"
- Why is the single Hebrew word "v'attah" ("but you") in verse 38 one of the most theologically loaded turns in the Bible?
- Read 2 Samuel 7:8-16. How does Psalm 89 quote and rely on that earlier covenant text?
- Ethan the Ezrahite, listed in 1 Kings 4:31 among Israel's wise men, wrote this. What does Israel's wisdom tradition contribute by being willing to lament a covenant that looked broken?
- What does it mean to keep praying "how long" when the answer is not coming on your timetable?
- How does the doxology in verse 52 function differently if you read it as Ethan's voice versus the editor's voice closing Book III?
- Read Luke 1:32-33. How does Gabriel's announcement to Mary answer the lament of Psalm 89?
- The post-exilic community held the promise of David's eternal throne in one hand and an empty throne in the other. Where in your own faith do you hold a promise and an empty seat at the same time?
- How does this psalm equip you to pray honestly during long seasons when God's promises and your circumstances seem to contradict each other?
Read this psalm in another translation
The inline text above is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB). Open in a new tab to compare with a modern licensed translation: