Psalm 89:9 Kommentar

Many psalms that begin with complaint and prayer end with joy and praise, but this begins with joy and praise and ends with sad complaints and petitions; for the psalmist first recounts God's former favours, and then with the consideration of them aggravates the present grievances. It is uncertain when it was penned; only, in general, that it was at a time when the house of David was woefully eclipsed; some think it was at the time of the captivity of Babylon, when king Zedekiah was insulted over, and abused, by Nebuchadnezzar, and then they make the title to signify no more than that the psalm was set to the tune of a song of Ethan the son of Zerah, called Maschil; others suppose it to be penned by Ethan, who is mentioned in the story of Solomon, who, outliving that glorious prince, thus lamented the great disgrace done to the house of David in the next reign by the revolt of the ten tribes. I. The psalmist, in the joyful pleasant part of the psalm, gives glory to God, and takes comfort to himself and his friends. This he does more briefly, mentioning God's mercy and truth (Psa 89:1) and his covenant (Psa 89:2-4), but more largely in the following verses, wherein, 1. He adores the glory and perfection of God (Psa 89:5-14). 2. He pleases himself in the happiness of those that are admitted into communion with him (Psa 89:15-18). 3. He builds all his hope upon God's covenant with David, as a type of Christ (v. 19-37). II. In the melancholy part of the psalm he laments the present calamitous state of the prince and royal family (Psa 89:38-45), expostulates with God upon it (Psa 89:46-49), and then concludes with prayer for redress (Psa 89:50, Psa 89:51). In singing this psalm we must have high thoughts of God, a lively faith in his covenant with the Redeemer, and a sympathy with the afflicted parts of the church. Maschil of Ethan the Ezrahite.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 89 Maschil of Ethan the Ezrahite. Who this Ethan was is not certain. Kimchi takes him to be the same with Ethan the wise man, a grandson of Judah, Kg1 4:31. But seeing he lived some hundreds of years before the times of David, it is not likely that he should be the writer of this psalm; for David is made mention of in it, which could not be, unless it can be thought to be by a spirit of prophecy; which indeed is the opinion of Doctor Lightfoot (k), who takes this Ethan to be the penman of this psalm; and who "from the promise, Gen 15:1 sings joyfully the deliverance (of Israel); that the raging of the Red sea should be ruled, Psa 89:9, and Rahab, or Egypt, should be broken in pieces, Psa 89:10, and that the people should hear the joyful sound of the law, Psa 89:15, and as for the name of David in it, this, he says, might be done prophetically; as Samuel is thought to be named by Moses, Psa 99:6, which psalm is held to be made by him; or else might be put into it, in later times, by some divine penman, endued with the same gift of prophecy, who might improve the ground work of this psalm laid by Ethan, and set it to an higher key; namely, that whereas he treated only of bodily deliverance from Egypt, it is wound up so high as to reach the spiritual delivery by Christ; and therefore David is often named, from whence he should come.'' There was another Ethan, a singer, in David's time; and it is more probable that he is the person, who might live to the times of Rehoboam, and see the decline of David's family, and the revolt of the ten tribes from it; or perhaps it was one of this name who lived in the times of the Babylonish captivity, and saw the low estate that David's family were come into; to which agrees the latter part of this psalm; and, in order to comfort the people of God, he wrote this psalm, showing that the covenant and promises of God, made with David, nevertheless stood firm, and would be accomplished: the title of the Septuagint version calls him Etham the Israelite; and the Arabic version Nathan the Israelite: the Targum makes him to be Abraham, paraphrasing it "a good understanding, which was said by the hand of Abraham, that came from the east.'' But whoever was the penman of this psalm, it is "maschil", an instructive psalm, a psalm causing to understand; it treats concerning the covenant of grace, and the promises of it; and concerning the mercy and faithfulness of God, in making and keeping the same; and concerning the Messiah and his seed, his church and people; and the stability and duration of all these: many passages in it are applied to the Messiah by Jewish writers, ancient and modern; and Psa 89:20 is manifestly referred to in Act 13:22.

Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain,.... Or Egypt, as in Psa 87:4 or the Egyptians, and particularly Pharaoh their king; so the Targum explains it, "Rahab or the proud one, this is Pharaoh the wicked;'' who and his people were broken to pieces by the plagues that were brought upon them, especially when all their firstborn were slain; and he and his host were broke in pieces at the Red sea, and were seen by the Israelites on the shore, all dead men; and this was done as easily by the Lord, as one slain with the sword, as a dead carcass which has no life, power, and strength to defend itself, may be trampled upon, crushed, bruised, and broken to pieces, by a living man. All this may be an emblem of the Lord's breaking in pieces the proud and insolent one Satan, as Rahab signifies; of his breaking his head, destroying his works, and spoiling his principalities and powers; and indeed of his destruction of every proud and haughty sinner, that says, Pharaoh like, who is the Lord, that I should obey him? and of every vain boaster, and self-righteous person, that trusts in his own righteousness, and will not submit to the righteousness of Christ; and particularly of mystical Egypt, the proud beast of Rome, antichrist, who sits in the temple of God as if he was God, showing himself to be so, blaspheming God, his name, his tabernacle, and his saints; who will be broken to shivers as a potter's vessel, when the vials of God's wrath are poured out, and at and by the coming of Christ: thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm; as the Egyptians were in the Red sea, by the waves of it, and cast upon the shore by them; and as the Amorites were by Moses, and the Canaanites by Joshua; which instances may be here referred unto; see Num 10:35 these are further proofs of the power and strength of the Lord, Job 40:9.

...For you have heard, like men accustomed to the watering of the clouds of God, "Your truth" then "is in the circuit of You." But when without persecutions, when without opposition, since it is said, that "He was born for a sign which shall be spoken against"? [Luke 2:34] Since then that nation, where You deigned to be born, and to dwell, was as a land separated from the waves of the heathen, so that it appeared dry and ready for watering with rain, while the rest of the nations were as a sea in the bitterness of their sterility; what do Your preachers who scatter Your truth in circuit of You, when the waves of that sea rage furiously? "Thou rulest the power of the sea" [Psalm 89:9]. For what was the result of the sea raging thus, but the day which we are now keeping holy? It slew Martyrs, scattered seeds of blood, the harvest of the Church sprang up. Safely then let the clouds go forth: let them diffuse Your truth in circuit of You, let them not fear the savage waves. "Thou rulest the power of the sea." The sea swells, buffets, and roars: but "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted beyond what you are able:" [1 Corinthians 10:13] and so, "Thou stillest the waves thereof when they rise."

Contrasting man's frailty with God's eternity, the writer mourns over it as the punishment of sin, and prays for a return of the divine favor. A Prayer [mainly such] of Moses the man of God-- (Deu 33:1; Jos 14:6); as such he wrote this (see on Psa 18:1, title, and Psa 36:1, title). (Psa. 90:1-17) dwelling-place--home (compare Eze 11:16), as a refuge (Deu 33:27).

At the time of the poet the nation of the house of David was threatened with assault from violent foes; and this fact gives occasion for this picture of God's power in the kingdom of nature. He who rules the raging of the sea, also rules the raging of the sea of the peoples, Psa 65:8. גּאוּת, a proud rising, here of the sea, like גּאוה in Psa 46:4. Instead of בּשׂוע, Hitzig pleasantly enough reads בּשׁוא = בּשׁאו from שׁאה; but שׂוא is also possible so far as language is concerned, either as an infinitive = נשׂוא, Psa 28:2; Isa 1:14 (instead of שׂאת), or as an infinitival noun, like שׂיא, loftiness, Job 20:6, with a likewise rejected Nun. The formation of the clause favours our taking it as a verb: when its waves rise, Thou stillest them. From the natural sea the poet comes to the sea of the peoples; and in the doings of God at the Red Sea a miraculous subjugation of both seas took place at one and the same time. It is clear from Psa 74:13-17; Isa 51:9, that Egypt is to be understood by Rahab in this passage as in Psa 87:4. The word signifies first of all impetuosity, violence, then a monster, like "the wild beast of the reed," Psa 68:31, i.e., the leviathan or the dragon. דּכּאת is conjugated after the manner of the Lamed He verbs, as in Psa 44:20. כּחלל is to be understood as describing the event or issue (vid., Psa 18:43): so that in its fall the proudly defiant kingdom is like one fatally smitten. Thereupon in Psa 89:12-15 again follows in the same co-ordination first the praise of God drawn from nature, then from history. Jahve's are the heavens and the earth. He is the Creator, and for that very reason the absolute owner, of both. The north and the right hand, i.e., the south, represent the earth in its entire compass from one region of the heavens to the other. Tabor on this side of the Jordan represents the west (cf. Hos 5:1), and Hermon opposite the east of the Holy Land. Both exult by reason of the name of God; by their fresh, cheerful look they give the impression of joy at the glorious revelation of the divine creative might manifest in themselves. In Psa 89:14 the praise again enters upon the province of history. "An arm with (עם) heroic strength," says the poet, inasmuch as he distinguishes between the attribute inherent in God and the medium of its manifestation in history. His throne has as its מכון, i.e., its immovable foundation (Pro 16:12; Pro 25:5), righteousness of action and right, by which all action is regulated, and which is unceasingly realized by means of the action. And mercy and truth wait upon Him. קדּם פּני is not; to go before any one (הלּך לפני, Ps 85:14), but anticipatingly to present one's self to any one, Psa 88:14; Psa 95:2; Mic 6:6. Mercy and truth, these two genii of sacred history (Psa 43:3), stand before His face like waiting servants watching upon His nod.