Psalms 89

¹ I will celebrate your love for ever, Yahweh, age after age my words shall proclaim your faithfulness;

² for I claim that love is built to last for ever and your faithfulness founded firmly in the heavens.

³ ‘I have made a covenant with my Chosen, I have given my servant David my sworn word:

⁴ I have founded your dynasty to last for ever, I have built you a throne to outlast all time.’ (pause)

⁵ Yahweh, the assembly of holy ones in heaven applaud the marvel of your faithfulness.

⁶ Who in the skies can compare with Yahweh? Which of the heaven-born can rival him?

⁷ God, dreaded in the assembly of holy ones, great and terrible to all around him,

⁸ Yahweh, God of Sabaoth, who is like you?-mighty Yahweh, clothed in your faithfulness!

⁹ You control the pride of the ocean, when its waves ride high, you calm them;

¹⁰ you split Rahab[*a] in two like a carcase and scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.

¹¹ The heavens are yours and the earth is yours, you founded the world and all it holds,

¹² you created north and south; Tabor and Hermon hail your name with joy.

¹³ Yours was the arm, and yours the prowess, mighty and exalted your right hand;

¹⁴ Righteousness and Justice support your throne, Love and Faithfulness are your attendants.

¹⁵ Happy the people who learn to acclaim you! Yahweh, they will live in the light of your favour;

¹⁶ they will rejoice in your name all day and exult in your righteousness.

¹⁷ You are their glory and their strength, you, by your kindness, raise our fortunes,

¹⁸ since both our shield and our king belong to Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁹ Once you spoke in vision and said to your friends,[*b] I have conferred the crown on a hero, and promoted one chosen from my people.

²⁰ I have selected my servant David and anointed him with my holy oil;

²¹ my hand will be constantly with him, he will be able to rely on my arm.

²² ‘No enemy will be able to outwit him, no wicked man to worst him,

²³ I myself will crush his opponents, I will strike dead all who hate him.

²⁴ ‘With my faithfulness and love, his fortunes shall rise in my name.

²⁵ I will give him control of the sea, complete control of the rivers.

²⁶ ‘He will invoke me, “My father, my God and rock of my safety”,

²⁷ and I shall make him my first-born, the Most High for kings on earth.

²⁸ ‘I will keep my love for him always, my covenant with him shall stand,

²⁹ I have founded his dynasty to last for ever, his throne to be as lasting as the heavens.

³⁰ ‘Should his descendants desert my Law and disregard my rulings,

³¹ should they violate my statutes and not keep my commandments,

³² ‘I will punish their sins with the rod and their crimes with the whip,

³³ but never withdraw my love from him or fail in my faithfulness.

³⁴ ‘I will not break my covenant, I will not revoke my given word;

³⁵ I have sworn on my holiness, once for all, and cannot turn liar to David.

³⁶ ‘His dynasty shall last for ever, I see his throne like the sun,

³⁷ enduring for ever like the moon, that faithful witness in the sky.’ (pause)

³⁸ And yet you have rejected, disowned and raged at your anointed;

³⁹ you have repudiated the covenant with your servant and flung his crown dishonoured to the ground.

⁴⁰ You have pierced all his defences, and laid his forts in ruins;

⁴¹ anyone may go and loot him, his neighbours treat him with scorn.

⁴² You have let his opponents get the upper hand, and made all his enemies happy,

⁴³ you have snapped his sword on a rock and failed to support him in battle.

⁴⁴ You have stripped him of his glorious sceptre, and toppled his throne to the ground,

⁴⁵ you have aged him before his time and covered him in shame. (pause)

⁴⁶ Yahweh, how much longer will you hide? For ever? How much longer must your anger smoulder like a fire?

⁴⁷ Remember me, the short time I have left and the void to which you destine mankind.

⁴⁸ What man can cling to life and not see death? Who can evade the clutches of Sheol?

⁴⁹ Lord, where are those earlier signs of your love? You swore your oath to David on your faithfulness!

⁵⁰ Lord, do not forget how your servant was insulted, (pause) how I take these pagans’ taunts to heart,

⁵¹ insults, Yahweh, that your enemies have offered, insults to your anointed wherever he goes. Blessed be Yahweh for ever. Amen. Amen![*c]