Psalms 89

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