Psalms 89

Psalms CONTINUAL SUNSHINEPsalm 89:15 . The Psalmist has just been setting forth, in sublime language, the glories of the divine character-God’s strength, His universal sway, the justice and judgment which are the foundation of His Throne, the mercy and truth which go as heralds before His face. A heathen singing of any of his gods would have gone on to describe the form and features of the god or goddess who came behind the heralds, but the Psalmist remembers ‘Thou shalt not make unto thyself any . . . likeness of God.’ A sacred reverence checks his song. He veils his face in his mantle while He whom no man can see and live passes by. Then he breaks into rapturous exclamations which are very prosaically and poorly represented by our version. For the text is not a mere statement, as it is made to be by reading ‘Blessed is the people,’ but it is a burst of adoring wonder, and should be read, ‘Oh! the blessedness of the people that know the joyful sound.’ Now, the force of this exclamation is increased if we observe that the word that is rendered ‘joyful sound’ is the technical word for the trumpet blast at Jewish feasts. The purpose of these blasts, like those of the heralds at the coronation of a king, was to proclaim the presence of God, the King of Israel, in the festival, as well as to express the gladness of the worshippers.

Thus the Psalmist, when he says, ‘Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound,’ has no reference, as we ordinarily take him to have, to the preaching of the Gospel, but to the trumpet-blasts that proclaimed the present God and throbbed with the gladness of the waiting worshippers. So that this exclamation is equivalent to ‘Oh! how blessed are the people who are sure that they have God with them!’ and who, being sure, bow before Him in loving worship. It is to be further noticed that the subsequent words of the text state the first element which it indicates of that blessedness of a devout life, ‘They shall walk, O Lord! in the light of Thy countenance.’ I. We deal first with the meaning of this phrase. Of course, ‘the light of Thy countenance’ is a very obvious and natural symbol for favour, complacency, goodwill on the part of Him that is conceived of as looking on any one. We read, for instance, in reference to a much lower subject in the Book of Proverbs, ‘In the light of the king’s countenance is life, and his favour is as a cloud of the latter rain.’ Again we have, in the Levitical benediction, the phrase accompanied in the parallel clauses by what is really an explanation of it, ‘The Lord cause His face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee.’ So that the simple and obvious meaning of the words, ‘the light of Thy countenance,’ is the favour and lovingkindness of God manifested in that gracious Face which He turns to His servants.

Psalm 89:47 . Remember how short my time is — That is, our time, the time of our king and kingdom, in whose name the psalmist put up this petition, and about whom he was much more solicitous than about himself, as is evident, both from the following verses and from the whole body of the Psalm. The sense seems to be this: Our king and all his people, and I among the rest, are short-lived and perishing creatures, who of ourselves, and according to the course of nature, must shortly die, and therefore there is no need that thou shouldest add further afflictions to sweep us away before the time. Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain? — Wherefore hast thou made us and our king, and consequently all other men, (whose condition is in nothing better than ours,) in vain, or to so little purpose? Didst thou raise up us and him, establish us for thy people, settle the crown upon David and his seed by a solemn covenant, erect a magnificent and glorious temple, and vouchsafe so many and great promises and privileges, and all this but for a few years; that our crown and glory should be taken from us within a little time after it was put upon our heads? It is not strange that such considerations as these should fill the psalmist’s mind with amazement and sad perplexing thoughts. Nor doth he accuse or upbraid God here with, but only useth it as an argument to move him to repair and restore their decayed state, that they might live to praise, serve, and glorify him.

Psalm 89:48-50 . What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? — All men, at their best estate, are mortal and miserable; kings and people must unavoidably die by the condition of their natures. Lord, where are thy former loving-kindnesses? — Hast thou forgotten or repented of all that mercy and kindness which thou hast promised and sworn, and sometimes performed, unto David, and his family and kingdom? Remember, Lord, how I do bear — That is, we, thy servants, as he now said, our king and his people, of whom he speaks as of one person; the reproach of all the mighty people — Of the great potentates and princes of the world, who now reproached the house of David with their vain and confident boasting of the everlastingness of their kingdom, which was now in a desperate and lost condition. Or, all the reproaches of many people.