Psalms 89:38 - Meaning and Application

In these verses we see, first, a very sorrowful complaint about the sad condition of David’s family. The psalmist feels it is hard to fit what he sees with the covenant God made with David. “You said your love would never fail, but now you seem to have cast us off.” At times, it is not easy to match God’s providences, his dealings in our lives, with his promises. Yet we can be sure they can be matched, because God’s works always carry out his word and never contradict it.

David’s house seemed to have lost its place with God, and that was its greatest strength and beauty. God had been pleased with his anointed king, but now he seemed angry with him (Psalm 89:38). He had made a covenant with David’s family, but now, so far as the psalmist could tell, he had set that covenant aside, not merely broken one part of it, but canceled it (Psalm 89:39). We misunderstand God’s discipline if we think it cancels his covenant. When the great Anointed One, Christ himself, was on the cross, God seemed to have cast him off and was angry with him, yet he did not cancel his covenant with him, for it was established forever.

The honor of David’s house was also gone and laid in the dust. “You have profaned his crown,” that is, you have treated as common what was always seen as holy, by casting it to the ground so that others trample on it (Psalm 89:39). “You have made his glory cease,” and that shows how unsure all earthly glory is, and how quickly it fades. “You have thrown his throne down to the ground,” not only removing the king from power, but bringing the kingdom itself to an end (Psalm 89:44). If this was written in Rehoboam’s time, it was true of most of the kingdom, five parts out of six. If it was written in Zedekiah’s time, it was even more strikingly true of the small remnant left. Thrones and crowns are shaky things, and they often end in the dust. But Christ’s spiritual people have a crown of glory kept for them, and it never fades away.

The family was also open to attack from every side, and its neighbors mocked it. “You have broken down all his hedges,” all the things that protected them, especially that wall of protection they thought God’s covenant and promise had built around them. “You have made his strongholds ruins,” so that they became a shame rather than a shelter. Then “all who pass by the way plunder him” (Psalm 89:40-41), as in Psalm 80:12-13. The enemies speak proudly: “He is a reproach to his neighbors,” and they celebrate his fall from such high honor. More than that, everyone seems to help bring the disaster on (Psalm 89:42). “You have set up the right hand of his adversaries,” meaning God not only gave them power, but also turned them toward this work. If the enemies of the church raise their hand against it, we must see that God has allowed it. They would have no power at all unless it were given them from above. Yet when God permits them to harm his church, it pleases them. “You have made all his enemies rejoice,” and that is part of the shame, that those who hate God should enjoy seeing the tears and troubles of those who love him.

The house of David was also unable to defend itself (Psalm 89:43). “You have turned back the edge of his sword,” making it blunt so it can no longer do the work it once did. Worse still, “you have made him stand powerless in battle,” taking away his courage. The spirit in people is formed by God, the Father and Maker of spirits, and we cannot stand with strength or courage unless he keeps us up. If people’s hearts fail, it is God who weakens them. It is a sad thing for the church when those who should stand for it cannot stand.

Finally, the house of David seemed close to an unworthy end (Psalm 89:45). “You have shortened the days of his youth,” so it was about to be cut off like a young man in his prime. This may suggest that the psalm was written in Rehoboam’s time, when David’s house was still young but already growing old and beginning to decline. That made its shame greater, since a family that looked so strong in the first and second reigns now looked so small in the third. Or this may point to the Babylonian captivity, which, compared with what had been hoped for, was still the youth of that kingdom. In any case, the kings then truly had their days shortened, because Jehoiachin and Zedekiah were taken to Babylon when they were still young men, about thirty years old.

From this complaint, we learn two things. First, we see what sin does to families, even to noble royal families, even to families where religion once stood high. When later generations go bad, they fall into shame, and their wickedness stains their honor. Second, we see how quickly we place the promised honor and happiness of the church in outward things. Then, if we do not get those things, we think the promise has failed and the covenant is canceled. We are without excuse if we fall into that mistake, because our Master has plainly told us that his kingdom is not of this world.

Second, we hear a very moving appeal to God in the middle of this trouble. Four things are used as reasons for mercy. One is the length of the trouble (Psalm 89:46). “How long, Lord, will you hide yourself? Forever?” What hurt them most was that God himself did not appear to comfort them through his prophets, nor to rescue them through his providences. He had kept them in darkness so long that it felt like endless night. “You hide yourself forever.” More than that, God seemed to stand against them. “Will your wrath burn like fire? How long will it burn? Will it never go out?” Hell is nothing but God’s wrath burning forever, and they ask whether that is to be the lot of the Lord’s anointed.

Another plea is the shortness of life and the certainty of death. “Lord, let your anger stop, and return to us in mercy. Remember how short my time is and how sure my end is.” Since life passes so quickly and will soon be over, let it not be so miserable that a person would rather not exist at all than live under it. Job uses a similar plea (Job 10:20-21). The psalmist likely speaks here for David’s house, and especially for the present prince, whose days of youth had been shortened (Psalm 89:45).

He also pleads the shortness and emptiness of life (Psalm 89:47). “Remember how short my time is, how fleeting I am,” some say. That means I cannot bear the strength of your wrath, and therefore I am a fitting object for your pity. “Why have you made all men in vain? To what empty purpose have you created all the sons of Adam?” This can be taken as stating a great truth. If the ancient lovingkindnesses spoken of later are forgotten, those that belong to another life, then man really is made in vain.

If we think only about human life here, we might feel that man was made in vain. A person has noble powers of mind, reason, and desire, and yet may live a short, hard life. But God does not make anyone for nothing, so the psalmist says, “Lord, remember those lovingkindnesses.”

This also shows the psalmist’s strong temptation. Scripture says clearly that God has not made any person in vain (Isaiah 45:18). If we think people are made in vain because many have brief lives and long troubles, that is not true. Even those with few days and much pain may still honor God, do good, keep fellowship with him, and reach heaven. In that case, they are not made in vain.

If we think people are made in vain because most do not serve or enjoy God, the fault is not God’s. In one sense, such people have wasted the purpose for which they were made, and it would have been better for them never to have been born than to remain unchanged. But that is their own doing, not God’s. God made all things for himself, even the wicked for the day of trouble, and those who do not glorify him now will still glorify his justice in the end.

The next plea is the certainty of death: “What man lives and will not see death?” Even the king from David’s house is not exempt from this sentence. Since he must die, the psalmist asks that his whole life not be made miserable first. No one can deliver himself from the grave when death’s time comes. So we must remember that death is the end of every person, and we must be ready for the life beyond it.

That means we should make sure of happiness on the other side of death and the grave. When our strength fails, we need to be received into everlasting homes. The psalmist then pleads God’s kindness to David and the covenant God made with him. He asks, in effect, “Lord, where are your former acts of faithful love, the ones you swore to David in your truth?” God’s unchanging nature and faithfulness give hope that he will not abandon those he has chosen and bound to himself by covenant.

The last plea comes from the arrogance of the enemies and the shame done to God’s anointed one, the chosen king. The psalmist asks God to remember the reproach and turn it back on the enemies. The servants of God were being insulted, and that insult struck at their Master, especially since they were mocked for serving him. The burden of that shame was heavy on all who cared about God’s honor.

He says, “I bear in my heart the reproach of all the mighty peoples.” That is, he feels it deeply and can hardly bear the weight. These are God’s enemies, so he asks whether God will not rise against them. He also says they have reproached the footsteps of God’s anointed. They watched and criticized every step of the king’s rule, looking for something to attack in all he said and did.

This can also be taken of Christ, the Lord’s Messiah. In that case, the enemies mocked the delay of the Messiah’s coming. They called him the One who was to come, but because he had not yet come to deliver them as they expected, they said he would never come at all. In the same way, scoffers in later days reproach the footsteps of the Messiah when they ask, “Where is the promise of his coming?” (2 Peter 3:3-4). Some also understand this as the serpent bruising the heel of the seed of the woman, or as the sufferings of Christ’s followers, who walk in his steps and are reproached for his name.

The psalm ends with praise, even after this painful complaint: “Blessed be the Lord forever. Amen, and amen.” This is how faith answers insult. The more others speak against God, the more we should bless him. It also helps correct our own complaints, because praising God quiets our sinful habit of arguing with his providence and doubting his promises. Whatever happens, God is good, and we must not think badly of him. God is true, and we must not distrust him. Even if David’s house has lost its brightness, this comfort remains, God is blessed forever, and his glory cannot be dimmed.

If we want the comfort of God’s steady promises, we must give him the praise that belongs to them. In blessing God, we strengthen our own hearts. The double “Amen” fits the double sense, “It is so,” and “May it be so.” The psalm began with thanksgiving before the complaint (Psalm 89:1), and it ends the same way. Those who thank God for what he has done may also thank him for what he will do. God will keep showing mercy to those who rightly keep praising him.