Psalm 89
Prayer for the Fulfillment of God’s Promise
1 A maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite.
2 I will sing forever of the Lord’s kindness;
with my lips I will proclaim your faithfulness
throughout the generations.
3 You said, “My kindness lasts forever;
my faithfulness is as firmly established as the heavens.
4 “I have made a covenant with my chosen one;
I have sworn to my servant David:
5 ‘I will establish your descendants forever
and allow your throne to endure for all generations.’ ” Selah
6 Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Lord,
your faithfulness in the assembly of your holy ones.
7 For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord?
Is there any heavenly being who is like the Lord,
8 a God who is feared in the council of the holy ones,
greater and more awesome than any who stand in his presence?
9 O Lord, God of hosts, who is like you?
Almighty Lord, your faithfulness is never absent.
10 You control the raging sea,
calming its surging waves.
11 You crushed Rahab with a deadly blow;
you scattered your foes with your mighty arm.
12 Yours are the heavens and yours is the earth;
you founded the world and all that is in it.
13 You created the north and the south;
Tabor and Hermon joyously praise your name.
14 Mighty is your arm and strong is your hand;
your right hand is forever raised high.
15 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;
kindness and faithfulness go before your face.
16 Blessed are the people who know how to acclaim you, O Lord,
who walk in the light of your countenance.
17 In your name they rejoice all day long,
and they exult in your righteousness.
18 You are the strength in which they glory,
and by your kindness our horn is exalted.
19 For the Lord is our shield,
the Holy One of Israel, our King.
20 On one occasion you spoke in a vision
and said to your faithful servants:
“I have appointed as leader one who is mighty;
I have exalted one chosen from the people.
21 I have found David, my servant,
and with my holy oil I have anointed him.
22 “My hand will sustain him;
my arm will make him strong.
23 No enemy will overcome him;
no one who is wicked will oppress him.
24 “I will crush his foes before him
and strike down those who hate him.
25 My faithfulness and my kindness will be with him;
through my name his horn will be exalted.
26 “I will stretch his hand as far as the sea
and his right hand as far as the rivers.
27 He will cry to me, ‘You are my Father,
my God, the Rock of my salvation.’
28 “I will designate him as my firstborn,
the highest of all earthly kings.
29 Forever I will maintain my kindness for him,
and my covenant with him will never end.
30 I will establish his dynasty forever
and his throne as long as the heavens.
31 “If his descendants forsake my law
and refuse to conform to my decrees,
32 if they break my statutes
and do not keep my precepts,
33 I will punish their disobedience with the rod
and their iniquity with scourges.
34 “But I will not deprive him of my kindness
or fail to observe my faithfulness.
35 I will not violate my covenant
or alter the promise I have spoken.
36 “By my holiness I have sworn once and for all:
never will I break faith with David.
37 His dynasty will last forever,
and his throne will endure before me like the sun.
38 It will endure forever like the moon,
a faithful witness in the sky.” Selah
39 But now you have spurned and rejected him,
you have become filled with wrath against your anointed one.
40 You have repudiated your covenant with your servant
and dishonored his crown in the dust.
41 You have breached all his walls
and turned his strongholds into ruins.
42 Every passer-by has despoiled him;
he has become a laughingstock to his neighbors.
43 You have exalted the right hand of his foes
and caused all his enemies to rejoice.
44 You have driven back his drawn sword
and left him to fight without your support.
45 You have put an end to his glory
and toppled his throne to the ground.
46 You have curtailed the time of his youth
and enveloped him in shame. Selah
47 How long, O Lord? Will you remain hidden forever?
How long will your wrath blaze like a fire?
48 Remember how brief is my span of life
and how weak you have made all mortals.
49 Who can live and never experience death?
Who can save himself from the power of the netherworld? Selah
50 Where is your kindness of old, O Lord,
which you swore to David in your faithfulness?
51 Remember, O Lord, the insults hurled at your servant;
recall how I have borne in my heart the slanders of all the peoples.
52 Your enemies have leveled insults at us, O Lord;
they have taunted the footsteps of your anointed one.
53 Blessed be the Lord forever.
Amen! Amen!
Footnotes
- Psalm 89:1
- Psalm 89:1
- Psalm 89:2
- Psalm 89:2
- Psalm 89:5
- Psalm 89:6
- Psalm 89:6
- Psalm 89:7
- Psalm 89:9
- Psalm 89:11
- Psalm 89:12
- Psalm 89:13
- Psalm 89:15
- Psalm 89:16
- Psalm 89:18
- Psalm 89:18
- Psalm 89:20
- Psalm 89:20
- Psalm 89:26
- Psalm 89:28
- Psalm 89:31
- Psalm 89:34
- Psalm 89:35
- Psalm 89:39
- Psalm 89:39
- Psalm 89:43
- Psalm 89:46
- Psalm 89:47
- Psalm 89:47
- Psalm 89:50
- Psalm 89:53
