What is the meaning of Psalm 89:38? Now, however • The psalmist pivots from celebrating God’s covenant with David (Psalm 89:1-37) to lamenting present distress. • “Now” signals a shocking contrast: what was once secure now feels threatened (compare Psalm 44:1, 9). • This turn reminds us that life under God’s promises can include seasons that seem to contradict those very promises (see Habakkuk 1:2-4). • “However” underscores that the lament is offered within faith, not outside it—hope still rests on the earlier covenant (2 Samuel 7:12-16). You have spurned and rejected him • “Spurned” and “rejected” convey intense personal offense, as though God has cast aside the Davidic king. • Similar language appears in Psalm 74:1 (“Why have You rejected us forever, O God?”) and Lamentations 2:6, portraying judgment that feels final. • The psalmist does not accuse without grounds; exile and national defeat (2 Kings 25) looked like divine abandonment of the royal line. • Yet the covenant remains unbroken (Psalm 89:34). The tension invites trust that apparent rejection is disciplinary, not permanent (Hebrews 12:6). You are enraged by Your anointed one • “Anointed” (mashiach) refers to the king from David’s line (1 Samuel 16:13; Psalm 89:20). • God’s wrath against His own anointed seems paradoxical, echoing Psalm 2:2-5 where rebellious nations rage against the Lord’s Anointed, yet here God Himself appears angry. • Historically this fits the Babylonian conquest, when Judah’s kings were deposed (2 Kings 24-25). • Theologically it prefigures the cross, where the ultimate Anointed One, Christ, bore divine wrath (Acts 4:27-28; Isaiah 53:4-6), turning apparent rejection into redemptive victory. • The verse invites us to grapple with moments when God disciplines those He has chosen, emphasizing His holiness and the seriousness of covenant loyalty (2 Samuel 7:14-15). summary Psalm 89:38 voices the bewilderment of seeing God’s promises to David collide with present disaster. The psalmist feels that God has rejected the king and is furious with His own anointed, yet this lament sits inside a covenant framework that ultimately points to Christ. Seasons of divine discipline may look like abandonment, but they serve God’s larger, faithful plan—one that secures, not cancels, His everlasting covenant. |
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