Sometimes life comes crashing down around our ears and the very things we were sure God wanted for our lives and for the world lay in rubbled ruin around us.
A mission trip long prayed over goes sideways and becomes a disaster of physical injury with lasting consequences, like the friend whose stay on the mission field was cut short by numerous bouts with malaria that have compromised his eyesight.
A marriage that many held up as the ideal of Christian virtue and divine blessing falls to pieces, leaving everyone asking, “How did that happen? And if it happened to them, are any of our marriages safe?”
A church that was growing steadily and beautifully for years runs into snag after snag and dwindles down to a tiny core not because of any identifiable sin or failure, but just happens, leaving everyone shrugging their shoulders and feeling helpless to do anything about it.
There are so many scenarios where lives and ministries which have been a true blessing to others have hit the wall and crumpled to the ground below.
What gives? Did God remove his blessing? Did he break his promise? Was there some hidden sin that caused the blessing to leak out? If God is good all the time and not just most of the time, why do his best people suffer so much?
Psalm 89 struggles with what happens when the “forever” promises of God don’t last forever, when the one who known as the Faithful One seems to break faith with his own people.
The biblical name Ethan conjures up images of strength and permanence. Hebrew isn’t an abstract language, but is based on concrete images. So, the name draws on a river whose waters never run dry but are forever bringing life and health. It’s fitting then that Psalm 89, penned by Ethan the Ezrahite, begins by singing about Yahweh’s forever faithfulness (though it may seem ironic where it goes from there).
I will sing of the LORD’s great love forever;
with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known
through all generations.
I will declare that your love stands firm forever,
that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself.
You said, “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’” (Ps. 89:1-4, emphasis added).
The forever/through-all-generations love and faithfulness of God is evidenced by the forever/through-all-generations line and throne of David. The proof that our God’s love and faithfulness never stop is that the dynasty of David never stops.
Because this love goes on forever as seen by a throne that goes on forever, Ethan says his singing in praise of our forever-God will go on forever.
Ethan then turns to creation, starting with the heavens and the heavenly beings, to see more evidence of God’s permanence in faithfulness.
The heavens praise your wonders, LORD,
your faithfulness too, in the assembly of the holy ones.
For who in the skies above can compare with the LORD?
Who is like the LORD among the heavenly beings?
In the council of the holy ones God is greatly feared;
he is more awesome than all who surround him.
Who is like you, LORD God Almighty?
You, LORD, are mighty, and your faithfulness surrounds you (Ps. 89:5-8, emphasis added).
Faithfulness is at the beginning and end of these verses, emphasizing that it is the defining characteristic of God. And he’s compared with the “holy ones,” whom I take to be angelic beings. But not only them, Yahweh is compared with the “heavenly beings,” whom I take to be the gods of other nations. And in every case, Yahweh towers over the rest not just in his wonder and might, but most supremely in his faithfulness.
Ethan then turns to view the other two realms of creation, the seas and the earth, to see if any compare with our God. And he comes up empty.
You rule over the surging sea;
when its waves mount up, you still them.
You crushed Rahab like one of the slain;
with your strong arm you scattered your enemies.
The heavens are yours, and yours also the earth;
you founded the world and all that is in it.
You created the north and the south;
Tabor and Hermon sing for joy at your name.
Your arm is endowed with power;
your hand is strong, your right hand exalted (Ps. 89:9-13).
While the name Rahab is best known biblically in reference to the temple prostitute of Jericho who aided the Hebrew spies in their scouting mission against her home city, her name came from an anti-creation sea monster the Canaanites would have thought rivaled Yahweh. But Psalm 89 pictures Yahweh taking down deep sea dwelling Rahab with a single punch. This terrifying goddess is powerless in comparison.
Mount Hermon, with its three peaks, is to the very north of Israel in what is now the Golan Heights. Mount Tabor is to the southeast of the Sea of Galilee. Both were impressive mountains to the ancient Israelites: the higher a mountain, the closer it is to the heavenly courtroom. And here in Psalm 89, these peaks which scrape the bottom of heaven sing a duet in praise of Yahweh’s name.
From the depths of the seas, where Rahab roamed, to the heights of the earth, where the summits touch heaven, Yahweh’s might and glory are in evidence.
But what kind of kingship does this earth-spanning monarch have?
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;
love and faithfulness go before you.
Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you,
who walk in the light of your presence, LORD.
They rejoice in your name all day long;
they celebrate your righteousness.
For you are their glory and strength,
and by your favor you exalt our horn.
Indeed, our shield belongs to the LORD,
our king to the Holy One of Israel (Ps. 89:14-18).
Love and faithfulness speak to God’s commitment to his covenant with his people. He is absolutely trustworthy, because his love and faithfulness are unshakeable.
Righteousness and justice speak to God’s commitment to care for the weakest and most vulnerable among his people. He doesn’t just shield them, he is their shield. He is so committed to actively protecting his people, he has in effect become a shield.
Having thus considered God’s might and the character of his creation-encompassing reign, Ethan turns to the real point, which he hinted at in the first few verses: David’s dynasty, the test case for God’s faithfulness and love.
Once you spoke in a vision,
to your faithful people you said:
“I have bestowed strength on a warrior;
I have raised up a young man from among the people.
I have found David my servant;
with my sacred oil I have anointed him.
My hand will sustain him;
surely my arm will strengthen him.
The enemy will not get the better of him;
the wicked will not oppress him.
I will crush his foes before him
and strike down his adversaries.
My faithful love will be with him,
and through my name his horn will be exalted.
I will set his hand over the sea,
his right hand over the rivers.
He will call out to me, ‘You are my Father,
my God, the Rock my Savior.’
And I will appoint him to be my firstborn,
the most exalted of the kings of the earth.
I will maintain my love to him forever,
and my covenant with him will never fail.
I will establish his line forever,
his throne as long as the heavens endure (Ps. 89:19-29).
With a whole string of “I will” lines ascribed to Yahweh, Ethan lays out God’s promise to David. This promise is, by extension, a promise to all of God’s people. For how God deals with the king is how God deals with all of his people, for all of the people relate to God through the king. (This, of course, extends to how God relates to Jesus the Anointed King and through him to the Church, his people.)
These 11 verses are packed with covenant language. The Father-Son language establishes the covenant relationship between God and king. And victory in battle is laid out as a sign of God being with David and his dynasty. Like a bull or a buck, his “horn” is an image of domination over those who would seek to stand against him.
All of this is to be a forever deal.
But wait. There is an exception.
“If his sons forsake my law
and do not follow my statutes,
if they violate my decrees
and fail to keep my commands,
I will punish their sin with the rod,
their iniquity with flogging; (Ps. 89:30-32)
Failure to maintain the covenant on our part will result in painful consequences. And the books of 1 and 2 Kings (and 1 and 2 Chronicles) detail the failure of the David dynasty to maintain covenant loyalty.
But even so, human failure was never meant to sunder the covenant completely, as damaging as it might be. For God is not a man and he does not break his covenants like we do. God is different and he does things differently.
but I will not take my love from him,
nor will I ever betray my faithfulness.
I will not violate my covenant
or alter what my lips have uttered.
Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness —
and I will not lie to David —
that his line will continue forever
and his throne endure before me like the sun;
it will be established forever like the moon,
the faithful witness in the sky” (Ps. 89:33-37).
Even if we violate our part in the covenant, God declares that he will never violate his part. He is as changeless as the sun in the sky, rising over an ever-changing world and giving his light nevertheless.
At least, that’s the promise. The evidence seems to tell a different tale.
But you have rejected, you have spurned,
you have been very angry with your anointed one.
You have renounced the covenant with your servant
and have defiled his crown in the dust.
You have broken through all his walls
and reduced his strongholds to ruins.
All who pass by have plundered him;
he has become the scorn of his neighbors.
You have exalted the right hand of his foes;
you have made all his enemies rejoice.
Indeed, you have turned back the edge of his sword
and have not supported him in battle.
You have put an end to his splendor
and cast his throne to the ground.
You have cut short the days of his youth;
you have covered him with a mantle of shame (Ps. 89:38-45).
Instead of a shield, shame.
Instead of rejoicing, rejection.
Instead of victory, vanquished.
Instead of love, loss.
All of this leads to a question: How long?
How long, LORD? Will you hide yourself forever?
How long will your wrath burn like fire?
Remember how fleeting is my life.
For what futility you have created all humanity!
Who can live and not see death,
or who can escape the power of the grave?
LORD, where is your former great love,
which in your faithfulness you swore to David?
Remember, LORD, how your servant has been mocked,
how I bear in my heart the taunts of all the nations,
the taunts with which your enemies, LORD, have mocked,
with which they have mocked every step of your anointed one (Ps. 89:46-51).
The question must be “How long?” It can’t be any other question.
This must be a temporary setback, regardless of how long it lasts, because anything else is unthinkable. Anything else means God has broken his promise — either intentionally or because of an inability to follow through. And God breaking his promise simply can’t be true for either of those possibilities.
The whole reason Ethan has taken his time in laying out the nature of Yahweh’s power and the character of his reign has been to remind himself (and his readers along with him) of who Yahweh is.
He doesn’t break his promises, even though it looks like he has.
He isn’t weak. He can’t be defeated, even though it looks like he’s powerless and beaten down.
He isn’t unjust, even though injustice abounds.
He isn’t a covenant breaker, even though the covenant looks like it’s been dashed to bits.
True. Things are not how we expected them to be. Everything is topsy-turvy. There is pain where there ought to be pleasure. There is defeat where there ought to be success. There is mockery where there ought to be celebration. But …
But the story isn’t done yet.
What’s wrong will be set right. There is no other option. We simply have to wait for it, as difficult as the waiting has been and continues to be.
So, no. God doesn’t break his promises. It just looks like it sometimes. It just feels like it sometimes. And sometimes we have to wait and wait and wait.
Ethan never saw what he was looking for. In fact, by the time Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the Bible scholars could point the magi to the place and yet not make the short journey there themselves. They had grown too weary in the waiting.
How about you? Have you given up yet? I hope not.
And so, as Psalm 89 concludes, it also finishes Book III of the Psalms. And so, as with the other books within the Psalms, we get a brief exclamation of praise as a coda to Book III.
Praise be to the LORD forever!
Amen and Amen (Ps. 89:52).
And even though verse 52 is really the conclusion of Book III, it is a fitting conclusion to Psalm 89.
Where the forever-love of God looks like it’s run out of gas, this just isn’t true, for the forever-praise of God goes on, because he is truly forever-loyal to his covenant with us. His promise isn’t broken. It’s just taking longer than we thought it would.