Bible Commentaries
Psalms 89

Verse 15

Psalms 89:15

The blessing is not in the sound, but in the soul. It is the soul that knows the sound. Eloquence, that moves all hearts, is utterly unimpressive if the soul, capable of thinking and feeling, is not there. The same evangelisation spoke to the Hebrews in the tones of the silver trumpets as in our Christian service; it spoke to them of a family relationship with God, of a Mediator, of a Sacrifice, of worship of Him, the one only true God. It was joyful. It said, "Ye are God's husbandry; ye are God's building."

I. It was a joyful sound. It proclaimed Divine ordinances; it said, "Sin and tyranny have not all dominion over you."

II. It was a joyful sound. It proclaimed the possibility of a deeper union with God. It is this joyful sound which thrills the spirit as with the trumpet-call to victory. This sound becomes a strong compulsion in the being, till the free nature exclaims, "The love of Christ constraineth us."

III. "They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance." They shall be blessed in the present enjoyment, knowing whom they have believed, doing all for the glory of God. And how blessed is the anticipation, stirring the heart with even a deeper tide of joy, for the light of God's countenance shall not only be a present blessedness, but the source of yet brighter expectations.

E. Paxton Hood, Sermons, p. 264.

References: Psalms 89:15 . Spurgeon, Old Testament Outlines, p. 126; A. Maclaren, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 252; Outline Sermons to Children, p. 61; A. Watson, Sermons for Sundays, Festivals, and Fasts, 2nd series, vol. i., p. 76. Psalms 89:16 . Ibid., 1st series, p. 92.Psalms 89:19 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. i., No. 11; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 23.Psalms 89:37 , Psalms 89:38 . E. H. Gifford, Voices of the Prophets, p. 215.

Verse 47

Psalms 89:47

I. The temptation to believe that man is made in vain. Everything rebukes vanity in man, since he himself, as well as the world, is vain. The idea that man is made in vain is made common property, not at all by sameness of experience, but by the universal feeling that, whatever the experience may be, it leaves man infinitely remote from his desires. This thought is painfully impressed upon us when we survey that large range of characters to which we may give the denomination of wasted lives.

II. Notice the structure of the question, "Wherefore hast Thou made all men in vain?" Is it possible to reconcile the vanity of man with the greatness of God? (1) I believe that Thou hast not a chief regard to Thine own power. Power is but one of Thine attributes. Canst Thou sport with Thy power? Canst Thou create beauty merely to mar it? (2) I believe Thou art not inattentive to Thy creatures' desires, though they seem to be mocked. It is an everlasting chase; we never realise. "Why hast Thou made all men in vain?" (3) I believe Thou art Thyself a pure Being. Thus Thou canst not be pleased only to contemplate evanescence and decay. "Wherefore hast Thou made all men in vain?" These are the soliloquies and cries of our nature; and the appropriate answer to all is, Man is not made in vain. There is something in him which God does not regard as vanity. The whole of our education here is to raise us to the assurance that "He who made us with such large discourse, looking before and after," could not have made us in vain.

III. "My times are in Thy hand." God's real way is made up of all the ways of our life. The hand of Jesus is the hand which rules our times. He regulates our life-clock. Christ is for and Christ in us. My life can be no more in vain than was my Saviour's life in vain.

IV. This truth rightly grasped and held, we shall never think it possible that any life can be unfulfilled which does not, by its own voluntary perversity, fling itself away.

E. Paxton Hood, Dark Sayings on a Harp, p. 21.

References: Psalms 89:47 . Homiletic Magazine, vol. ix, p. 321; J. Martineau, Hours of Thought, vol. i., p. 203; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 21.

Verse 49

Psalms 89:49

It was on the morrow of the profound humiliation of Jerusalem by Shishak, and amidst the political and religious ruins which it had brought with it, that the eighty-ninth Psalm was written. The writer was an old servant and friend of the royal house: Ethan the Ezrahite. He was one of those wise men whose names are recorded as having been exceeded in wisdom by King Solomon, and had long taken part with Heman and Asaph in the Temple's services; and thus at this sad crisis of his history he pours out his soul in the pathetic and majestic Psalm before us, and of this psalm the keynote is to be found in the words, "Lord, where are Thy former lovingkindnesses, which Thou swarest unto David in Thy truth?"

I. "Where are Thy former lovingkindnesses?" As he sings Ethan looks around him, and his eye rests on a scene of degradation and ruin. He suffers as a patriot; he suffers as a religious man; he suffers as the descendants of the old Roman families suffered when they beheld Alaric and his hosts sacking the Eternal City. What had become of the lovingkindness of God, what of His faithfulness, what of His power? Ethan, in his report of the promise, answered his own difficulty. The covenant with David was not an absolute covenant. It depended upon conditions. There is a difference between the gifts of the Creator in the region of unconscious nature and His gifts in the region of free, self-determining will. The former are absolute gifts; the latter depend for their value and their virtue on the use that is made of them. The race of David was raised from among the shepherds of Bethlehem to reign over a great people upon conditions conditions which were summed up in fidelity to Him who had done so much for it. Ethan himself states this supreme condition in the words of the Divine Author of the covenant: "If David's children forsake My law, and walk not in My judgments, ...then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their sin with scourges."

II. Ethan's cry has often been raised by pious men in the bad days of Christendom: "Lord, where are Thy former lovingkindnesses?" And the answer is, "They are where they were." "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance." Now, as always, the promises of God to His people are largely conditioned. If the gates of hell shall not prevail against His Church, much short of this may happen as a consequence of the unfaithfulness of her members or her ministers. Of this let us be sure, that if God's promises seem to any to have failed, the fault lies not with Him, but with ourselves; it is we who have changed, not He. The cloud which issues from our furnaces of passion and self-will has overclouded for the moment the face of the sun; but beyond the cloud of smoke the sun still shines.

H. P. Liddon, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 257 (see also Christian World, Pulpit, vol. xxvi., p. 120).

Reference: Psalms 89:49 . S. Cox, Expositions, 3rd series, p. 138.