Salmo 89

Your promise to David, and the fallen crown

¹A maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite. ²Forever I will sing of the loyal love the LORD has shown; \q to one generation after another \q my mouth will tell how faithful you are. ³For I declare that loyal love is built to last forever; \q you have set your faithfulness firm in the heavens. ⁴“With the one I chose I have made a covenant; \q to David, my servant, I have given my oath: ⁵‘I will make your line secure forever \q and make your throne stand for every generation.’” Selah ⁶The heavens give thanks for your wonders, LORD, \q and for your faithfulness in the gathering of the holy ones. ⁷For who in the clouds above is the LORD’s equal? \q Which of the heavenly powers is like the LORD? ⁸God is held in great awe in the court of the holy ones, \q and feared above all who stand around him. ⁹LORD God of Armies, \q who is as strong as you, LORD? \q Your faithfulness surrounds you on every side. ¹⁰You are master of the proud sea; \q when its waves rear up, you hush them. ¹¹You crushed Rahab like one cut down in battle; \q your powerful arm sent your enemies running. ¹²The heavens are yours, and the earth is yours as well; \q you laid the foundations of the world and of everything in it. ¹³North and south are your creation; \q Tabor and Hermon ring with joy at your name. ¹⁴Yours is an arm full of might; \q your hand has strength, and your right hand is lifted high. ¹⁵Your throne rests on what is right and just; \q loyal love and faithfulness walk ahead of you. ¹⁶How blessed are the people who have learned to shout for joy in worship; \q LORD, they live in the light of your presence. ¹⁷They find joy in your name the whole day, \q and your righteousness raises them up. ¹⁸For you are the splendor of their strength, \q and by your goodwill our strength is raised high. ¹⁹For the shield that protects us is the LORD’s, \q and the king who rules us belongs to the Holy One of Israel.^{a 20}Long ago you spoke in a vision to your loyal ones \q and said, “I have laid help on a mighty man; \q I have lifted high a man I chose from the people. ²¹I found David, my servant; \q I have poured my holy oil on him to make him king, ²²and my hand will stay with him, \q and my arm will make him strong. ²³No enemy will outwit him, \q and no one who does wrong will bring him low. ²⁴I will shatter his foes before his eyes \q and cut down the people who hate him. ²⁵My faithfulness and my loyal love will stay beside him, \q and through my name his strength will rise. ²⁶I will put the sea under his hand \q and the rivers under his right hand. ²⁷He will call to me, ‘It is you who are my Father, \q my God, my rock where I am safe.’ ²⁸And I will give him the rank of firstborn, \q set high above every king on earth. ²⁹I will keep my loyal love for him forever, \q and my covenant with him will hold fast. ³⁰I will make his line last for all time, \q and his throne as long as the sky endures. ³¹If his descendants abandon my instruction \q and do not live by my rulings, ³²if they treat my decrees as nothing \q and do not keep my commands, ³³then I will call their rebellion to account with the rod \q and their guilt with beatings. ³⁴But my loyal love I will never cut off from him, \q and my faithfulness will not prove false. ³⁵I will never desecrate my covenant; \q what my lips have spoken I will not change. ³⁶I have sworn by my holiness, once and for all, \q that I will never lie to David: ³⁷his line will last forever, \q and his throne will stand before me like the sun, ³⁸it will be made firm forever like the moon, \q that faithful witness in the clouds.” Selah^{b 39}But now you have thrown him off and rejected him; \q you are enraged with your anointed king. ⁴⁰You have disowned the covenant with your servant; \q you have thrown his crown in the dirt and defiled it. ⁴¹You have torn gaps in all his walls \q and left his fortresses in rubble. ⁴²Everyone who comes along the road has robbed him; \q his neighbors treat him with scorn. ⁴³You have made his foes’ right hand strong \q and filled all his enemies with joy. ⁴⁴Yes, you have blunted his sword’s edge \q and left him unable to stand in the fight. ⁴⁵You have made his glory fade \q and thrown his throne down into the dust. ⁴⁶You have made his young days short \q and covered him with disgrace like a cloak. Selah ⁴⁷How long, LORD? Will you keep yourself hidden forever? \q Will your anger go on burning like fire? ⁴⁸Remember how brief my life is! \q Is it for nothing that you have created every human being? ⁴⁹Who can go on living and never see death? \q Who can save their own life from the grip of Sheol? Selah ⁵⁰Lord, where are the acts of loyal love you showed in the past, \q the ones you swore to David by your faithfulness? ⁵¹Lord, keep in mind the scorn heaped on your servants; \q I hold within me the insults of all the many peoples, ⁵²the insults your enemies have hurled, LORD, \q the taunts that have dogged every step of your anointed king. ⁵³May the LORD be blessed forever! \q Amen and amen.