Psalm 89: More than Royalist Propaganda

The first 37 verses of Psalm 89 are Hebrew royalist propaganda. They paint a rosy picture of how God chose David to be king of Israel and how his dynasty would always be upheld, even if their behavior was less than exemplary. “I will not lie to David,” verse 35 states authoritatively, and the next two verses continue in the same vein: “His line shall endure for ever *  and his throne as the sun before me/ It shall stand fast evermore like the moon, * the abiding witness in the sky.”

The subsequent verses, however, make it clear that everything preceding them has been a set-up. The psalmist has set the stage for a major lament, a recitation of the ways God has reneged on the divine promises.  “You have cast off and rejected your anointed,” says verse 38, and in the next verse “You have broken your covenant with your servant, * defiled his crown, and hurled it to the ground.”

Even so, God has not disappeared from the world. If God is not going to be manifested in the political successes of the Davidic kingdom, where else might such a manifestation occur? “How long will you hide yourself, O LORD?” asks the psalmist. For, as verse 2 asserts, “I am persuaded that your love is established for ever.”

If God’s presence and activity were truly confined to the fortunes of a short-lived dynasty in a minor kingdom in the ancient world, then there would be no reason to recite psalms, or read Bibles, or seek the presence of a hidden God. But the presence and activity of God are not so confined. The disappointments of ancient psalm-writers have expanded to embrace tragedies far more vast, and accomplishments far more significant. “Who can live, and not see death?” inquires the psalmist in verse 48. Who is it that, in verse 26, “will say to me, ‘You are my Father, * my God, and the rock of my salvation’?”

The psalms, like the gospels, are about more than what they say they are about. The same goes for our own clumsy efforts to discern the shape of the hidden God in the world. “Your love, O LORD, for ever will I sing”, proclaims verse one of Psalm 89. And we, in our fashion, take up the refrain: “from age to age [our mouths] will proclaim your faithfulness.”