Psalm 89:1, 2, 5, 8 I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known your faithfulness to all generations.… Psalm 89:1, 2, 5, 8, etc. God's faithfulness. This is the keynote of the psalm, the beautiful strain which is heard over and over again in varied forms throughout. There are pieces of music in which some one sweet air recurs repeatedly, now as if amid the rush and roar of a tempest, anon, when the music has sunk down into quietness; you hear it now loud, now soft, now stirring in sonorous strains, now soothing in plaintive gentle tones; but it is the same air still. And the blessed thought of the faithfulness of God thus recurs throughout this psalm. In ver. 1 praise celebrates it. "With my mouth will I make known," etc. Does it not deserve this? Who is there can deny the faithfulness of God? He is ever true to his word. Let us, then, openly confess it, and in the very confession the conviction of it in our own souls shall be deepened. In ver. 2 faith stays itself upon it. The verse seems to be a sort of soliloquy. The speaker is encouraging his own trust by asserting his belief that mercy shall be built up forever; it shall not crumble away and come to nought, but, like some glorious fabric that may take a long time for its completion, it shall, nevertheless, be built up, and so built that it shall eternally abide. And as to God's faithfulness, it shall be as are the heavens themselves - the very type of all that is abiding, unchangeable, and the reverse of "the restless vicissitudes, the ever-shifting shores, of earth." So did the soul of the psalmist speak to itself of God's faithfulness, and thereby encourage itself to trust in him. Well will it be for us to talk to ourselves in a similar way. In ver. 5 the angels of God praise it. "Thy faithfulness also is praised in the assembly of the holy ones" (Perowne). That is, in the midst of the angels of heaven, in that Church of the Firstborn, God's faithfulness is the theme of their song. Compare the songs of the redeemed as given in the Apocalypse. Let us get ready to join in that blessed choir by our now beginning a like song. In ver. 8 no human faithfulness can be compared with it. "What faithfulness is like unto thy faithfulness?" - so a great scholar renders the last half of ver. 8. And may we not all of us ask the like question? Not but what human faithfulness is a blessed fact; there have been those who have been faithful unto death to God and to their fellow men. Paul, when ready to be offered up, could declare, "I have kept the faith." And there have been many such. But what is the fidelity even of the best of men, much more of the mass of men, as compared to that of God. Hence are we bidden, Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help." Would that we trusted God as we do men! In ver. 24 it is promised to his people. "My faithfulness shall be with him." What a rebuke is this to our wretched yet ever recurring misgivings and fears! It is one of the gifts of God that are "without repentance" (cf. Romans 3:3). In ver. 33 the sins of God's people do but change its form, not its substance. God was equally faithful in the sore distresses which he sent to Israel, as in the great benefits and blessings which, when they were obedient, he bestowed upon them. He will have all men to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4). Therefore, if gentle means will not serve, stern ones shall. In vers. 38-51 believing prayer pleads it as an all-prevailing plea. - S.C. Parallel Verses KJV: {Maschil of Ethan the Ezrahite.} I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. |
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