Psalms  ◦   Chapter 89

1I will sing of your character of love forever;
I will proclaim your constancy and trustworthiness to all generations.

2For I have said, "Your everlasting love is what life is built upon;
your faithfulness is established in the skies above."

3The Lord said, "I have made an agreement with the man I have chosen;
I have promised my servant David:

4‘A descendant of yours will be king forever
and through him your dynasty will never end.’"

5Lord, the heavens reveal the wonders of your design;
your faithful sustaining of all reality
is also seen in the lives of all holy beings.

6For who in the universe can compare with the Lord?
Who among the heavenly beings is like our Creator God?

7God is supremely honored and revered in the assembly of heaven’s sinless beings,
more awesome than all who surround him.

8Lord God, Creator of all,
Who has the ability to create and sustain reality like you?
Your life-giving love and goodness constantly flow from you.

9You reign over the majestic sea;
when the waves rage, it is your presence that calms them.

10Your power of truth and love has crushed the self-exalted one — the proud sea serpent;
by the One who is your powerful right hand you defeat your enemies.

11The heavens are yours and the earth is also yours;
you built the world and everything in it.

12Dimensions like north and south — you created them.
Mount Tabor and Mount Hermon — teeming with life —
give song to your character of love.

13You have a mighty One at your right arm;
your Hand is powerful;
your right-hand Man is victorious in truth and love.

14Your government is founded upon design law — constants that are right and fair;
life is sustained by other-centered love and infinite truth that emanates from you.

15Happy and healthy are the people who celebrate your character of love;
O Lord, they live in harmony with you, radiating the light of your presence.

16They rejoice in your character and methods of love all day long
and are transformed and exalted by your righteousness.

17Your beautiful character of love is their remedy;
in your love you give us the victory.

18For the Lord is our protector,
the Holy One of Israel is our King.

19Long ago you spoke in a vision to your faithful spokesman
and said, "I have given help to a famous warrior;
I have chosen one from the common people to be king.

20I have found David — he worships and serves me;
with my holy oil I have anointed him king.

21I will always be near him to help him,
and my power will give him strength.

22No enemy will ever enslave him;
no wicked person will ever control him.

23I will defeat his enemies
and overthrow those who hate him.

24My unfailing truth and eternal love will be with him,
and through my character and methods of love he will prevail.

25I will establish him as sovereign over a sea of people;
he will govern over rivers of change.

26He will call out to me, ‘You are my Father,
my God, my rock-solid remedy — my Savior.’

27I will designate him as my firstborn — the head of the royal line,
the one whose heart has grown closest to mine of all the kings of the earth.

28I will maintain my loving plan for him forever,
and my promise to him will never fail.

29I will establish his descendant forever;
his throne will endure as long as the heavens last.

30But if his descendants reject my methods
and do not live in harmony with my design for life,

31if they refuse to follow my treatment plan
and do not obey the laws that I have created life to operate upon,

32I will intervene therapeutically with a shepherd’s rod
and diagnose them as stricken with sin and sick.

33I will never abort my loving plan for him
nor break my promise to him.

34I will not violate my pledge to him
or change what I said I would do.

35One oath I have sworn by my holiness
(and I will not lie to David):

36His descendant will reign forever,
his throne will be a radiant sun of righteousness in my presence —

37everlasting like the moon —
a perpetual evidence of goodness for all to see."

38But, you, O God, must have rejected him;
you must have turned away from your chosen king.

39You must have abandoned your pledge to him;
surely you are going to give his crown to another,

40for you have permitted his defenses to be overrun
and his strongholds to be demolished.

41All who come by rob him;
he is mocked by his neighbors.

42Surely you have strengthened his enemies
and his adversaries now celebrate their victory.

43You have made his sword useless,
for you have not stood beside him in battle.

44Because of all of this, you have brought to an end his majesty
and ground his royal reputation in the dirt.

45You have made him old before his time
and covered him with disgrace.

46How long, O Lord, will this go on? Will you remain hidden forever?
When we reject your methods and you let us go, it seems like the angriest fire.

47Remember how short human life is,
although you didn’t create human beings to die.

48Yet, what human can live and never die?
Who can overcome the power of death?

49Lord, where are you? Where are your interventions of love, like in times past —
the promises you told David you would faithfully fulfill?

50Lord, remember how your helpers are mocked;
how my heart is burdened by the insults of the selfish.

51Lord, remember how the enemies of love have ridiculed you
and how they have ridiculed your anointed king.

52Praise be to the Lord forever!
So let it always be.