Psalms 89:19 - Meaning and Application

The covenant God made with David and his descendants was already mentioned in Psalm 89:3-4. Here it is explained further and appealed to, as the royal family seems almost ruined. Yet it clearly points to Christ and finds its full fulfillment in him far more than in David. In fact, some parts of it can hardly apply to David at all, and must be understood of Christ alone, who is therefore called David our king (Hosea 3:5). These are great and precious promises made to the Redeemer, and they give the redeemed strong ground for faith and hope.

The comforts of our salvation come from the covenant of redemption, the agreement by which God planned to save his people through Christ. All our springs are in that covenant (Isaiah 55:3). God says, “I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the sure mercies of David” (Acts 13:34). Here we are given an account of those sure mercies.

We are first shown how sure the promise is, which should encourage us to trust it. God spoke it in a vision to his holy one, that is, to Nathan the prophet, when he gave David his promise (2 Samuel 7:12-17). Then, when the Holy One of Israel was their king, he appointed David to serve under him. But God also spoke to all the prophets, his holy servants, in visions about Christ, and especially to Christ himself, who had rested in the Father’s love from eternity and knew the full plan of redemption (Matthew 11:27).

The promise was also sworn and confirmed. God says, “Once have I sworn by my holiness” (Psalm 89:35). Holiness is his special delight, and in swearing by it, he swore by himself. He is as sure to remain holy as he is to exist at all. He only needed to swear once. He does not need to repeat his oath, as David did (1 Samuel 20:17), because God’s word and oath are two unchangeable things. As Christ was appointed priest by an oath, so he was appointed king by an oath too (Hebrews 7:21). His priesthood and kingdom will never change.

Next, we see the person chosen for this promise. David was a king of God’s own choosing, and so is Christ. That is why both are called God’s kings (Psalm 2:6). David was strong, brave, and fit for the work. He was chosen from among the people, not from among the princes, but from the shepherds. God found him, raised him up, helped him, and told Samuel to anoint him. But this points most of all to Christ.

Christ is mighty in every way, fully fit for the great work he took on. He is able to save completely. He is mighty in strength, because he is the Son of God. He is mighty in love, because he can truly understand and comfort those who are tempted. He is the mighty God (Isaiah 9:6). He is chosen out of the people, one of us, bone of our bone, sharing flesh and blood with us. Since he was appointed for people, he was taken from among people, so that his greatness would not frighten us.

God has found him. He is a Savior God himself provided, because salvation from start to finish is entirely the Lord’s work. He has found the ransom (Job 33:24). We could never have found a person fit for this task (Revelation 5:3-4). God has laid help upon him, not only helping him, but placing help in him for us. He charged him to raise fallen humanity and to bring the chosen remnant to heaven. “In me is your help” (Hosea 13:9).

God has exalted him by making him prophet, priest, and king of his church, giving him authority, raising him from the dead, and seating him at his own right hand. Those whom God chooses and uses, he will also exalt. God has anointed him, meaning he has equipped him for his office and confirmed him in it by giving him the Spirit, not in a limited measure, but without measure, far above all others. He is called Messiah, or Christ, which means the Anointed One. In all this, God intended him to be his own servant for carrying out his eternal purpose and advancing his kingdom among people.

Now come the promises made to this chosen one, to David as the picture of him, and to the Son of David as the true fulfillment. These are not only gracious promises, but glorious ones too. In relation to Christ himself, as king and servant of God, what is promised to him also benefits all his willing subjects.

God promises to stand by him and strengthen him in his work (Psalm 89:21). “My hand will be with him” means more than momentary help. It means firm and settled support, so that he will be established in all his offices. None of them will be overthrown, even though the man of sin would later seize them and fight against them. Christ had hard work to do and hard treatment to endure, but the one who gave him his commission also gave him enough strength to carry it out. “My arm also shall strengthen him.” No good work can fail in the hands of those whom God himself strengthens.

God also promises that Christ will win over his enemies and that they will not overpower him (Psalm 89:22). The son of wickedness will not exact upon him or afflict him. The one who first broke the peace would try to oppose the one who came to make peace and would do all he could to ruin the plan. But he could only bruise Christ’s heel. He could go no farther. Christ became our guarantor, the one who took responsibility for our debt, and Satan and death thought they would gain an advantage over him. But he met the demands of God’s justice, and then they could not exact upon him. “The prince of this world is coming, and he has no claim on me” (John 14:30).

More than that, his enemies will fall before him (Psalm 89:23). God will bring his foes down before his face. The prince of this world will be cast out, powers will be stripped of their strength, and Christ will become the death of death itself and the destruction of the grave (Hosea 13:14). Some apply this to the ruin God brought on the Jewish nation, which persecuted Christ and put him to death. But in the end, all Christ’s enemies, those who hate him and refuse to let him rule over them, will be brought out and slain before him (Luke 19:27).

God also promises that Christ will be the great trustee of the covenant between God and people, so that God may be gracious and true to us (Psalm 89:24). “My faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him.” They were with David, since God kept showing him mercy and proved himself faithful. They were with Christ, since God kept every promise he made to him. But there is more. God’s mercy to us, and his faithfulness to us, are with Christ too. God is pleased with him, and with us in him. It is in Christ that all God’s promises are “yes” and “amen.”

So if poor sinners hope to receive anything from God’s mercy and faithfulness, they must know that these gifts are with Christ. They are placed in his hand, and they must come to him for them (Psalm 89:28). “My mercy will I keep for him” means that God has reserved mercy for him to give out forever. Through Christ’s mediation, the channel by which he brings us to God, all the streams of divine goodness will keep flowing forever.

Therefore, it is the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that we look for as the path to eternal life (Jude 1:21; John 17:2). God’s mercy comes to us through him, and so does God’s promise. His covenant will stand firm with him, both the covenant of redemption, made with Christ, and the covenant of grace, made with us in him.

The new covenant is always new and securely fixed because it is placed in the hands of a Mediator, that is, one who stands between God and us and brings us together (Hebrews 8:6). The covenant stands firm because it rests on this foundation. This brings everlasting honor to the Lord Jesus, because the whole matter between God and man is given to him. The Father has put all judgment in his hands, so that all people may honor the Son as they honor the Father (John 5:22, John 5:23). So it is said here, “In my name his horn will be exalted,” meaning his power and honor will be lifted up. This will be his glory, that God’s name is in him (Exodus 23:21), and that he acts in God’s name. “As the Father gave me commandment, so I do.”

The psalm also says that his kingdom would spread greatly (Psalm 89:25). “I will set his hand in the sea,” meaning he will rule over the seas and the islands of the sea, “and his right hand in the rivers,” meaning the inland lands watered by rivers. David’s kingdom reached to the Great Sea and the Red Sea, and to the river of Egypt and the Euphrates. But this promise is fulfilled most fully in the kingdom of the Messiah, and it will be fulfilled more and more, until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ (Revelation 11:15), and the islands wait for his law.

The psalm also says that he would call God his Father, and that God would own him as his Son, even his firstborn (Psalm 89:26, Psalm 89:27). This explains Nathan’s message about Solomon, who also was a type of Christ as well as David: “I will be his Father, and he shall be my Son” (2 Samuel 7:14). The relationship is recognized on both sides. He will cry to me, “You are my Father.” Solomon may have done this, but Christ surely did, during the days of his human life, when he offered up strong cries to God and spoke of him as holy Father and righteous Father. He also taught us to come to God as our Father in heaven.

Christ, in his agony, cried, “You are my Father” (Matthew 26:39, Matthew 26:42). On the cross he said, “Father, forgive them,” and, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” He also regarded God as his God, and so he obeyed him completely and submitted to his will in all he did. “He is my God and your God” (John 20:17). God was also the rock of his salvation, the one who would support him and carry him through his work, and make him more than a conqueror, indeed a complete Savior. So he endured the cross and despised the shame, knowing he would be both justified, shown to be right, and glorified.

“I will make him my firstborn.” This cannot easily be applied to David. It is Christ’s special honor to be the firstborn of every creature, and, as such, the heir of all things (Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:2, Hebrews 1:6). When all authority in heaven and on earth was given to Christ, and when the Father handed all things over to him, then God made him his firstborn. He is far higher, greater, and more honorable than the kings of the earth. He is the King of kings, and angels, authorities, and powers are subject to him (1 Peter 3:22).

The promise also looks at his seed. God’s covenants always included the covenant partner’s children, and this one does too (Psalm 89:29, Psalm 89:36). “His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven.” This is understood differently, depending on whether we apply it to Christ or to David.

If we apply it to David, his seed means his successors, Solomon and the later kings of Judah, who came from David’s line. They might fall into sin and fail to walk in the spirit and steps of David. If that happened, they would come under God’s discipline, as David’s house was experiencing at this time (Psalm 89:38). Still, this should encourage them. Even if they were corrected, they would not be rejected or cut off from the family. This matches Nathan’s message: “If he commits iniquity, I will punish him, but my mercy will not depart from him” (2 Samuel 7:14, 2 Samuel 7:15).

In this sense, David’s seed and throne endured forever because, despite the wickedness of many descendants, his family remained in power for a very long time. As long as Judah was a kingdom, David’s descendants were its kings, and no other family took that royal place, unlike the ten tribes, whose rule passed from Jeroboam to Baasha and others. David’s family also remained a marked and honored family until that Son of David came whose throne would endure forever (Luke 1:27, Luke 1:32; Luke 2:4, Luke 2:11). If David’s later descendants turned from God and became rebellious, God would bring heavy judgments on them and ruin the family line. Yet he would not take away his faithful love from David or break his covenant with him, because in the Messiah, who would come from David’s line, all these promises would reach their full meaning. In the same way, when the Jews were set aside, the apostle showed that God’s covenant with Abraham was not broken, because it was fulfilled in his spiritual seed, the heirs of the righteousness that comes by faith (Romans 11:7).

If we apply it to Christ, his seed means his subjects, all believers, his spiritual children, the ones God has given him (Hebrews 2:13). This is the seed that will endure forever, with his throne among them, in the church and in the heart, as long as the heavens endure. Christ will always have a people in the world to serve and honor him. He will see his seed, and he will prolong his days. This holy seed will endure forever in a glorified state, when time and days are no more. In that way, Christ’s throne and kingdom will continue. The kingdom of his grace will last through all time, and the kingdom of his glory through endless eternity.

The continuance of Christ’s kingdom seems doubtful because of the sins and sufferings of his subjects. Their wrongdoing and troubles seem to threaten its ruin. This is stated so that we will not be disturbed when it happens in real life, but will understand that it still fits with the stability of the covenant. First, the psalm assumes there will be much that is wrong among the subjects of Christ’s kingdom. His children may turn away from God’s law (Psalm 89:30) by failing to do what they should, and break his statutes (Psalm 89:31) by doing what they should not. There are stains among God’s children, as there are among his people generally (Deuteronomy 32:5). There are many corruptions in the church’s life, as well as in the hearts of its members, and these corruptions show themselves. Second, they are told that they will be punished for it (Psalm 89:32): “I will punish their sin with a rod,” and their own sin will be dealt with before the sins of others.

God said, “You only have I known,” and therefore, “I will punish you” (Amos 3:2). Being related to Christ will not excuse his people from giving account. Still, notice what suffering is for God’s people. It is only a rod, not an axe or a sword. It is meant for correction, not destruction.

This shows gentleness in suffering. It is the rod of men, like the kind of rod people use to correct their children. It also shows a good purpose in the suffering, because such a rod can produce “the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” The rod is in God’s hand, for he says, “I will visit them.” He is wise and knows what he is doing. He is gracious, and he will do what is best.

It is also a rod that God uses only when there is real need. “If they break my law, then I will visit their transgression with the rod, but not otherwise.” Then it is necessary that God’s honor be defended, and that they be humbled and brought low.

Still, the permanence of Christ’s kingdom is made sure by God’s unbreakable promise and oath, even with all this (Psalm 89:33). “Nevertheless, my kindness will I not totally and finally take from him.” So, in spite of their sins, God’s covenant will not be broken. Afflictions are not only consistent with covenant love, they come from it. Though David’s descendants are disciplined, that does not mean they are disowned. They may be brought low, but they are not cast off.

God’s favor continues to his people for Christ’s sake. In him, mercy is stored up for us, and God says, “I will not take it from him” (Psalm 89:33). “I will not lie to David” (Psalm 89:35). We are unworthy, but he is worthy.

God’s favor also continues for the covenant’s sake. “My faithfulness shall not fail, my covenant will I not break.” It was said that they had broken God’s statutes, profaning and polluting them, for that is what the word means. But God says, “I will not break, I will not profane and pollute my covenant.” It is the same word.

What God has said and sworn is this: he will have a church in the world as long as the sun and moon endure (Psalm 89:36, Psalm 89:37). The sun and moon are faithful witnesses in heaven to the wisdom, power, and goodness of the Creator, and they will continue while time lasts, since they measure time. In the same way, the seed of Christ will be established forever. They are lights in the world while the world stands, to shine in it. And when the world ends, they will be established as lights shining in the Father’s presence.