Scripture Daily

Context No. 1788 of 4322 · Psalms

Context · Reflection

Psalms 89:33-52: in context

33But I will not completely take my loving kindness from him, nor allow my faithfulness to fail. 34I will not break my covenant, nor alter what my lips have uttered. 35Once I have sworn by my holiness, I will not lie to David. 36His offspring will endure forever, his throne like the sun before me. 37It will be established forever like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky.” Selah. 38But you have rejected and spurned. You have been angry with your anointed. 39You have renounced the covenant of your servant. You have defiled his crown in the dust. 40You have broken down all his hedges. You have brought his strongholds to ruin. 41All who pass by the way rob him. He has become a reproach to his neighbors. 42You have exalted the right hand of his adversaries. You have made all of his enemies rejoice. 43Yes, you turn back the edge of his sword, and haven’t supported him in battle. 44You have ended his splendor, and thrown his throne down to the ground. 45You have shortened the days of his youth. You have covered him with shame. Selah. 46How long, LORD? Will you hide yourself forever? Will your wrath burn like fire? 47Remember how short my time is, for what vanity you have created all the children of men! 48What man is he who shall live and not see death, who shall deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah. 49Lord, where are your former loving kindnesses, which you swore to David in your faithfulness? 50Remember, Lord, the reproach of your servants, how I bear in my heart the taunts of all the mighty peoples, 51With which your enemies have mocked, LORD, with which they have mocked the footsteps of your anointed one. 52Blessed be the LORD forever more. Amen, and Amen.

The psalm has recited God's sworn covenant with David: I will not take my loving kindness from him, nor break my covenant; his throne will endure like the sun. And then the psalm turns, sharply, to lament: but you have cast off and rejected; you have renounced the covenant, thrown the crown in the dust, broken down the walls, made him a reproach. How long, LORD? Will you hide yourself forever? The psalmist holds God's promise in one hand and a contradicting reality in the other, and cries out; yet he ends, Blessed be the LORD forever.

This psalm does a hard and honest thing: it holds God's promise up against a present reality that seems to contradict it, and refuses to let go of either. On one side stands the sworn covenant, God's own promise never to break faith with David; on the other stands a present of ruin and defeat that looks, to the psalmist's eyes, exactly like God breaking that promise. And rather than resolving the tension by denying one side, the psalmist voices it fully to God: you promised this, and yet this is happening; how long? He does not pretend the painful reality away in the name of faith, nor does he abandon the promise in the face of the reality. He brings the contradiction, unresolved, to God, and holds on. There is a model here for our own seasons when God's promises seem contradicted by our circumstances. We have God's word, his promises of faithfulness, of love, of a good purpose; and sometimes our experience seems to flatly contradict them, so that we are tempted either to deny what we are actually going through, forcing a false cheerfulness, or to let go of the promise, concluding God has failed. This psalm shows a third way: to hold both honestly, to bring the painful gap between promise and reality to God in frank lament, how long? where are your former mercies? and yet not to let go of God. And notice where it ends: Blessed be the LORD forever, Amen and Amen. The psalmist has not resolved the tension, has not received his answer; and still he blesses God. That is faith holding on in the dark, refusing to deny the pain and refusing to release the promise, bringing the contradiction to God and blessing him even before the resolution comes.

When God's promises seem contradicted by my circumstances, do I deny the pain with a false cheerfulness or let go of the promise in despair, or can I do what this psalm does, holding both honestly, bringing the unresolved gap to God in frank lament, and yet blessing him even before the resolution comes?

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