Psalm 89 (88)
Your love and your fidelity. God is faithful: he directs history and he guides our lives according to his promises which never fail.
2 I will sing forever, O Lord, of your love and proclaim your faithfulness from age to age.
3 I will declare how steadfast is your love, how firm your faithfulness.
4 You said, “I have made a cove nant with David, my chosen one; I have made a pledge to my servant.
5 I estab lish his descendants forever; I build his throne for all generations.”
6 The heavens proclaim your won ders, O Lord; the assembly of the holy ones recalls your faithfulness.
7 Who in the skies can compare with the Lord; who of the heaven-born is like him?
8 A God feared in the council of the holy ones, awesome to those who approach him.
9 O Lord God of hosts, who is like you, clothed in might and faithfulness?
10 You reign over the surging sea; you calm its raging waves.
11 You split Rahab like a carcass; with your strong arm you routed your foes.
12 Yours are the heavens and the earth; you founded the world and everything in it.
13 You created the north and the south – Tabor and Hermon rejoice at your name.
14 You have a powerful arm, migh ty and exalted is your right hand!
15 Justice and righteousness are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you.
16 Blessed is the people who know your praise. They walk in the light of your face.
17 They celebrate all day your name and your protection lifts them up.
18 You give us glory and power; and your favor gives us victory.
19 Our king is in the hands of the Lord; the God of Israel is our shield.
20 In the past you spoke in a vision; you said of your faithful servant:
“I have set the crown upon a mighty one; on one chosen from the people.
21 I have found David my servant, and with my holy oil I have anointed him.
22 My hand will be ever with him and my arm will sustain him,
23 no enemy shall outwit him nor the wicked oppress him.
24 I will crush his foes before him and strike down his adversaries.
25 My faithfulness and love will be with him, and by my help he will be strong.
26 I will set his hand over the sea, his right hand over the rivers.
27 He will call on me, ‘You are my Father, my God, my Rock, my Savior.’
28 I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.
29 I will keep my covenant firm for ever, and my love for him will endure.
30 His dynasty will last forever, and his throne as long as the heavens.
31 If his sons forsake my law and fail to follow my decrees,
32 if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments,
33 I will punish their crime with the rod and their offenses with the scourge;
34 yet I will not withdraw my love from him, nor will I withdraw my faithfulness.
35 I will be true to my promises and not break my covenant.
36 Did I not swear by my holiness? I will not lie to David.
37 His dynasty will last forever, and his throne endure as the sun before me.
38 It will shine forever like the moon, the unfailing watch of heavens.”
39 But now you have rejected, disowned and raged at your anoint ed.
40 You have disregarded your covenant and cast off the crown of your servant.
41 You have destroyed his walls and reduced his strongholds to rubble.
42 The victim of despoilers, he has become the scorn of his neighbors.
43 You have exalted the right hand of his foes; you have made his enemies rejoice.
44 You have turned the edge of his sword, and have not stood by him in battle.
45 You have wrenched the scepter from his hand and flung his throne to the ground.
46 You have shortened the time of his splendor and covered him with shame.
47 How long, O Lord, will you hide? How long will anger burn like a fire?
48 Consider how short my life is, how shadowy the human destiny.
49 What mortal can live and never see death? Who will escape from the netherworld?
50 O Lord, where is your former great love, the faithfulness you pledged to David?
51 Remember, O Lord, how your servant is despised, how I suffer the scorn of the peoples,
52 the taunts with which your enemies have mock ed every step of your anoint ed.
53 Blessed be the Lord forever! Amen, Amen.