Psalm 89:1-52 I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known your faithfulness to all generations. Ethan was the author of this psalm. It belongs to the early reign of Rehoboam, and to the invasion of Shishak. As Ethan recalled and weighed the clauses of the covenant, and compared them with the political facts of this distressful year, his mind was tossed into an agitation and distress from which he could find no relief, save in the large adventure and conclusion of faith, that the calamities which had fallen on David's kingdom and seed were, after all, only the loving corrections by which God was chastening them for their transgressions; and that, therefore, so far from breaking, God was fulfilling His covenant with them. Even God's covenants with men are but particular instances of His general ways, of His dealings with humanity at large; so that, in the very fullest sense which the words can be made to bear, it is true that His mercy endures for ever, that His faithfulness extends to all generations. There is a general impression abroad that a radical and vast difference obtains between what are called the covenanted and the un-covenanted mercies of God; that but for certain promises which He has made, and certain engagements into which He has entered, we should have little to hope for from Him. The doctrine of covenants plays, and must play, a large part in every system of theology. But every Divine promise is but a limited expression of a general principle. Every Divine covenant, even if it be made with a few, is nevertheless made for the benefit of the many, and can only be an instance of His ways, an illustration of a mercy as wide as the heavens, and of a faithfulness which extends to all generations of mankind. God can make no promise inconsistent with His character. Any momentary glimpse we can catch of God's attitude towards men reveals His constant and unchanging attitude. To every man who loves and trusts and serves Him He will be all that He was to David... Who can deny the mercy of that high Will which made the law of retribution the law — or rather, one of the laws — of human life? As for the inexorable severity with which this law of retribution is administered, how can we but acknowledge that it needs to be administered with an invariable and constant severity? Take all the facts of human experience, then, and you will feel that there is mercy even in that law of retribution which seems most opposed to the rule of an Infinite Compassion and Love. If you believe in a work of redemption as well as in a law of retribution, there is absolutely no reason why you should not sing, with Ethan, of a mercy which is being built up for ever, and of a faithfulness which is establishing itself in the all-embracing heavens. (Samuel Cox, D.D.) 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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