Psalm 89: A Commentary for All Psalms

The principles used in creating this commentary on Psalm 89 can be used in interpreting all the Psalms.

In fact, "interpreting" is the wrong word. We don't want to interpret the Psalms; we want to get everything God has for us in them.

That can mean using the Psalm to praise God or to learn how to praise God, to separate prophecy from praise, and to catch the subtle truths that are communicated in these songs that the nation of Israel sang to its Maker and Leader, Yahweh.

Verse 1: Praise and Testimony

The first and foremost thing we should always look for in Scripture is whether our lives line up with it. I'm not talking about massive self-absorption. We don't live under the Law, and we should be obsessing over Jesus Christ, not over our own lives.

Nonetheless, the main point of the Scriptures is to provide resources for correction and instruction in righteousness so that we can be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17).

With that in mind, verse one reads:

I will sing of the lovingkindness of the Lord forever; To all generations I will make known Your faithfulness with my mouth. (New American Standard Bible, as with all further Psalm 89 quotes on this page.)

We are not only to praise the Lord, but to make his faithfulness known to all generations; that is, to those older and younger than us. The Scriptures speak directly of testifying about God and his Word to our children at every opportunity (Deut. 6:7).

I am not speaking only of evangelism here. I believe we over-emphasize evangelism today. Evangelism is not the main goal of being a Christian. If we walk with Christ, evangelism will be an automatic by-product of that walk. You will find almost no mention of evangelism in any of the New Testament letters. At least, you will not find any exhortations to evangelize, just comments that it was happening very effectively (1 Thess. 1:8).

It is the saints that we are told repeatedly to exhort. In fact, our brothers and sisters need our exhortation to continue in their walk with God (Heb. 3:13).

Thus, it is not enough for us just to be Christians. We need to have the faithfulness and lovingkindness of the Lord on our tongue at all times, whether in song or in expressions of gratefulness and praise.

Verse 5: The Heavens

Psalm 89:5 tells us that the heavens will glorify God everywhere ...

The heavens will praise Your wonders, O Lord; Your faithfulness also in the assembly of the holy ones.

Today, there is much discussion about whether the heavens actually praise the wonders of the Lord. Do they instead declare that the universe is billions of years old and that the Bible is therefore inaccurate?

I believe that's the wrong question to ask. Whether the heavens declare that they are very old or that they are very young is irrelevant. They declare the glory of God. No one can look at the incredible NASA photos of galaxies, nebulae, and the vast array of stars in the heavens without being in awe. The heavens do declare the wonders of the Lord.

They also declare his faithfulness as day after day progresses. The sun faithfully arises each morning. The moon and the stars continue on their courses faithfully year and year and month after month.

These things are reminders for us that the promise of resurrection that God has given us is a faithful promise, and it is good to remind each other of these things. The winter may come, and death may surround us each year, but Spring always comes. The trees bud, the flowers bloom, and the insects and birds resume the chorus of life.

Verses 6 and 7: The Council of the Holy Ones

It is wise for us not miss the things that we don't understand or think about. The Scriptures put them in front of our faces each day.

For who in the skies is comparable to the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty is like the Lord, a God greatly feared in the council of the holy ones and awesome above all those who are around Him?

Who are the council of the holy ones? Who are the sons of the mighty? Who are those around the Lord?

We can find good earthly answers to this, but we will be making a mistake.

Job 1:6 has an interesting description of a council of holy ones ... which included at least one unholy one:

There was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and satan also came among them.

This is not the only mention of such an event. The prophet Micaiah describes such a council, which included a lying spirit, in 1 Kings 22:19-22.

So many interesting things are described in the Bible, but because we don't look past our traditions, we miss them. God holds councils of holy ones in the heavens. Dragons surround his throne. These things are awesome, they are in the Bible, and so few of us know about them so that we can rejoice and exult over the greatness of our God.

Note, too, that the reference to "the sons of the mighty" can also be translated "sons of God," which is what the other members of the council are called in Job 1:6 as well.

Maybe—no, probably—this is the "us" that is mentioned in Gen. 1:26.

Verses 9 and 10: Recounting the Great Deeds of the Lord

One of the greatest uses of the Psalms is to teach us how to praise the Lord.

I remember a prayer meeting I was at almost three decades ago. A very young Christian was praising the Lord ... somewhat too literally:

Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! (etc.)

I don't know if you realize this, but "Praise the Lord!" is a command. It's a command that you issue to people. There really is no reason to say it to the Lord himself.

In fact, it's nonsensical to tell the Lord to praise the Lord!

Hallelujah is not any better. Now you're just telling the Lord to praise the Lord in Hebrew.

Rather than telling the Lord to praise the Lord, we ought to obey that Scriptural command and praise the Lord. The problem is, so few of us know how.

The Psalmists knew, however ...

Your rule the swelling of the sea; when its waves rise, You still them. You Yourself crushed Rahab like one who is slain; You scattered Your enemies with Your mighty arm.

Psalmists often praised the Lord by recounting his great deeds. That was probably the most common way to praise him, though they also praised him for attributes, such as his lovinkindness and his mercy.

Read through the Psalms, and you can actually learn to praise the Lord so that you can obey others when they cry out, "Praise the Lord!"

Verse 11: The Heavens and the Earth

Sacrifices in the Early Christian Writings

One of the earliest Christian writings outside the New Testament, the Letter to Diognetus, lets us know that he early church understood Psalm 50 literally. God doesn't need sacrifices!

Note that this is typical of all early Christian writings for the next two centuries. This understanding is not an anomaly.

"The Gentiles, when they offer [sacrifices] to things that are destitute of feeling and hearing, provide an example of madness. The Jews, on the other hand, when they think to offer these things to God as if he needed them, ought to consider their sacrifices an act of foolishness rather than divine worship. For the One that made heaven and earth and everything in them, and who gives us everything we need, certainly does not require any of those things which he himself bestows on the very ones who are thinking to provide them to him!

"Those who imagine that they are offering sacrifices to him with blood and the smoke of sacrifices and burnt offerings, and who think that by such "honors" they are showing him respect—well, these people who suppose that they can give anything to the One who stands in need of nothing appear to me to be no different than those who studiously confer the same honor on things that are destitute of feeling and therefore incapable of enjoying such honors." (ch. 3)
The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours; the world and all it contains, You have founded them.

The earth is the Lord's, and he can take what he wants. There is a very interesting application to this that most Christians do not know about.

As it turns out, the fact that God owns everything on earth is a reason that God doesn't need—and has never needed—sacrifices. I wrote about this in a blog on Psalm 50. It reads ...

I shall take no young bull out of your house nor male goats out of your folds. Fer every beast of the forest is Mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird of the mountains, and everything that moves in the field is Mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is Mine, and all it contains. Shall I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of male goats? Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High; call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me. (Ps. 50:9-15, NASB)

Put simply, God doesn't need sacrifices. Sacrifices were for us. He says it again in Jeremiah ...

For I did not speak to your fathers nor command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, "Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, that it may be well with you. (vv. 22-23, NASB)

Sacrifices were not added until Moses came down from the mount and found the people worshiping an idol. God added sacrifices for the Israelites, to keep their minds drawn towards him, not for himself.

God has always wanted repentance in order to forgive sins, not sacrifices ...

If you're a modern Evangelical, the above probably makes you wonder about the purpose of Jesus death. I cover that pretty thoroughly here, and here, and here. (None of those links will open in new windows. Hold the ctrl button when you click them if you want to leave this window open while you follow those links.)

I also want to cover the fact that although the earth is the Lord's, he has given it to man (Ps. 115:16). We wonder why God doesn't intervene more than he does, but I believe it's because the earth is ours. He intervenes when we invite him to. He wants us to need him.

And he will intervene. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man really does avail in the most amazing ways. God, however, wants us to pray. He has given the earth to us.

Verses 19 – 29: Prophecies of Christ and How They Work

I won't write out all these verses. There are eleven of them. I will summarize them instead.

In the first few verses, he seems to be speaking of David, and he mentions him by name. Soon, though, God begins to make some incredible promises. He says that he will set David's hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers. He says that he will make him his firstborn and the highest of the kings of the earth. He says he will keep him forever, confirm his covenant to him, and establish his descendants forever.

As Peter points out in Acts 2, we know that David is buried and his tomb is with us to this day.

Jesus' tomb, however, is empty. He is called David because he is the son of David, but he is the Lord of David as well (Matt. 22:42-45). This part of the Psalm is not about David, it is about the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth.

Prophecies are like that. They are not always like that, and I'm pretty sure the prophets were not always aware of them. Sometimes they are simply dropped, almost unnoticed, into the midst of some passage, and if we are not careful readers, we will miss them.

And by being careful readers I mean in both the carnal and spiritual sense. Sometimes the Spirit of God taps our ear and makes us notice that something is different. Other times we should simply catch it because we are reading words the Lord God Almighty has preserved for us, and thus we ought to read them with the greatest of care as the most important written words on earth.

Verses 30 – 37: Eternal Security

Once again, this is a long passage that I will simply summarize. This is a fascinating message tucked away in these verses.

I am about to touch on a controversial subject. I do not in any way believe in unconditional eternal security. I don't believe it even remotely fits in the New Testament Scriptures. Just because there are verses, even several verses, that seem to teach a doctrine, that does not mean you can believe it when there are other verses that refute that doctrine. You have to change your thinking.

Change you thinking to what, you ask?

Maybe nothing. Maybe for a time, you need to say you don't know what to believe. No matter how much you think that John 10:27-28 teaches eternal security, the fact that 2 Pet. 1:5-11 and 2:21 clearly teach against it means that you have to drop the doctrine.

Sorry if you don't like that, but it's simply silly and dishonest to do otherwise. I'm not sure why people aren't embarrassed about the bizarre interpretations they give as they try to dance around 2 Pet. 2:21.

Never do that. It will simply leave you missing out on what God wants to teach you.

Try my page on Sola Fide for the view the church held on salvation, faith, and works for centuries. I think you'll find it Scriptural, and though it's unique today, it used to be the only doctrine around. Thus it qualifies as being the historic Christian faith.

In verses 30 to 32, God says that if David's sons forsake the Law of God, then he will punish them. However, he will not break off his lovingkindness toward David, who is—as we saw in the last section—not David, but Jesus. God says he won't violate the covenant, nor alter anything he said. He'll stick it out with David, he says, and ensure that his descendants and his throne last forever.

One of the more fascinating takes on "the elect" in the New Testament that I've seen is the teaching that the elect is Christ. Those who are in Christ are elect. As long as you are in Christ, you have eternal life. If you depart from the way, though, then not only do you no longer have the eternal life that is in Christ, but you are no longer elect, and—astonishingly to our minds—you never were!

We all know about Jesus' statements to people who thought they were in him that Jesus never knew them (e.g., Matt. 7:23). In 1 Jn. 2:19, we read that those who leave the church "were never of us."

"Us" are those who are in Christ. Jesus is the Elect One, and if we are in him, then we are elect as well. Eternal life, according to 1 Jn. 5:11, is in the Son. If we have the Son, we have the life. If we don't have the Son, then we don't have the life (1 Jn. 5:12). And if we leave the Son, then the truth is that we never had the life. We didn't; only Christ did.

This passage in Psalm 89 backs that up. If the sons forsake the Law, he will deal with them, but he will never break his covenant with David nor stop his lovingkindness towards him.

Verses 33 – 45: The Old Covenant

Finally, a short section for you!

Verses 33 to 37 and verses 38 to 45 represent the two covenants. The new covenant is made with Christ, and it is unbreakable. If we are in Christ, we will find unlimited forgiveness and power to overcome all that rises up against us. We may be punished, but in Christ we can find restoration.

The old covenant, however, was subject to being overthrown by God. According to verse 38, God casts off and rejects, and he's full of wrath even against his anointed.

For this reason, the new covenant is "a better covenant with better promises" (Heb. 8:6).

Verses 46 – 51: The Human Element

Is every word in Scripture a word from God?

I believe there's a sense in which this is true. I believe that all Scripture is inspired. In other words, God wanted it to be written, he preserved it, and he wants us to read it. He can also speak through it.

However, not all Scripture represents something God believes or wants to say. Scripture records the words of satan. It records the words of Job's "friends," who were rebuked by God for what they said. So not all Scripture ought to be quoted as the word of God in the sense of it representing something God would say.

Here in verses 46 through 51 we run across the human element. Earlier we saw prophecy dropped into this Psalm from the Spirit of God. We learned things that were taught by the Psalmist, some of which he understood, and some of which he didn't (1 Pet. 1:10-11). Now, though, we get to see the words of the Psalmist, who is frustrated and longing for the deliverance of God.

He reminds God that it is not an honor to God when his people are under judgment, and he asks how long God will hide himself and be angry.

These things are not what God wants to say, nor necessarily what we ourselves ought to say. This is part of the human element of the Scriptures.

The benefit for us is in seeing that the human element is normal. It is not rejected by God. It is in the Scriptures for a reason. We do not have to repent for crying out to God for help, nor for pleading with God to turn away his anger.

There was a song that Keith Green used to sing. I believe it was called "Oh Lord, You're Beautiful." It had a line that went, "Help me to never seek a crown, for my reward is giving glory to you."

That's noble, but God is not asking that of us. A crown is mentioned as a reward and motivator for the saints 6 times in the NT (e.g., 1 Cor. 9:25; Jam. 1:12).

It's okay to be human. God wants us to get our human element under control, but it is apparent from Scripture that he doesn't want it to go away. We can ask God about the things that trouble us. We can serve him in hope of reward. He doesn't mind motivating us with the promise of joy or praise.

Verse 52: The Higher Part of the Human Element

In verse 52, we see the human element brought under control. The Psalmist cries, "Blessed be the Lord forever! Amen and Amen."

Why should he do that?

The Psalmist has just finished asking God where his former lovingkindnesses are. He has just described the reproach of his enemies. There is no answer to his question. There is no remembering of a promise of deliverance. There is just a cry to God, asking when he will go back to thinking about them.

Nonetheless, he ends by declaring that the Lord is to be blessed forever, and he amens it twice.

This is the human element brought under control. We can cry out to God, but in the end, like Job, we must cry, "Blessed be the name of the Lord." We must offer him trust; we must remember who he is, the Creator of all, and we must bless him.

Overview: Interpreting the Psalms

When we are reading the Scriptures, we are reading a message sent from God. It is worth our effort to read them diligently and carefully!

An early Christian once wrote ...

it was the intention of the Holy Spirit to enlighten [only] those holy souls who had devoted themselves to the service of the truth. (Origen, De Principiis IV:1:14, c. A.D. 230)

I believe the apostle Paul knew that was true. So he wrote ...

Be diligent to show yourself approved, a worker that does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2 Tim. 2:15)

There are abundant treasures just below the surface of Scripture. They are left there for those who will diligently pursue wisdom.

Dig even deeper, and you will find even more.

Not everyone is called to be a teacher. Not everyone should be devoting hours—or even an hour, necessarily—to studying the Scriptures. But we are all called to be disciples, to be learning, to love truth, and to pursue the wisdom that comes from above.

The problem arises when we look at the Psalms, or Leviticus, or Proverbs, and we sigh and look at the pages of Scripture as a chore, a duty that must be fulfilled. No, the Scriptures are the treasure house of the Lord, and those who love his truth and diligently pursue it will find themselves richly rewarded.

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