to seven oneself · verb, niphal perfect, 1st person common singular
David
לְדָוִ֥דle.da.Vid
H1732
David · preposition + proper noun, a man's name
servant
עַבְדִּֽי'av.Di
H5650
a servant · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 132:11 The LORD hath sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.
2 Samuel 7:10-16 Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; ne…
1 Kings 8:16 Since the day that I brought forth my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build an house, that my…
Psalms 89:28 My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him.
Acts 2:30 Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he wo…
Hebrews 7:21 (For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art…
2 Samuel 23:5 Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my…
Psalms 89:34-35 My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 89:1-4
The psalmist has a very sad complaint to make of the deplorable condition of the family of David at this time, and yet he begins the psalm with songs of praise; for we must, in every thing, in every state, give thanks; thus we must glorify the Lord in the fire. We think, when we are in trouble, that we get ease by complaining; but we do more - we get joy, by praising. Let our complaints therefore be turned into thanksgivings; and in these verses we find that which will be matter of praise and thanksgiving for us in the worst of times, whether upon a personal or a public account, 1. However it be, the everlasting God is good and true, Psa 89:1. Though we may find it hard to reconcile present…
I have made a covenant with my chosen,.... Not with Abraham, as the Targum expresses it: but with David, as in the following clause; not David, literally understood, though he was chosen of the Lord to be his servant, and a covenant was made with him, and a promise made to him of the perpetuity of his throne and kingdom in his family, Psalm 78:70 but mystical David, the Messiah, David's son and antitype; after, on this account, called David in Scripture, Ezekiel 34:23 and who is the Lord's "chosen" One, foreordained to be the Redeemer of lost sinners, chosen to be the Mediator between God and them, to be the head of the church, and Saviour of the body; and his human nature was chosen to the…
Psalm 89:1-4
1. I will sing of the mercies of Jehovah for ever: with my mouth will I celebrate thy truth from generation to generation. 2. For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: thou shalt establish the heavens, thy truth is in them. [521] 3. I have made a covenant with my chosen: I have sworn to David my servant, 4. I will establish thy seed for ever, and will build up thy throne from age to age. Selah.
1 I will sing of the mercies of Jehovah for ever. It must be borne in mind, as I have just now observed, that the Psalmist opens with the praises of God, and with calling to mind the Divine covenant, to encourage the faithful to strengthen their faith against the formidable ass…
The Church Fathers
"You have said, I have made a covenant with My chosen" [Psalm 89:3]. What covenant, but the new, by which we are renewed to a fresh inheritance, in our longing desire and love of which we sing a new song. "I have made a covenant with My chosen," says the Psalmist: "I have sworn unto David My servant." How confidently does he speak, who understands, whose mouth serves truth! I speak without fear; since "You have said." If You make me fearless, because You have said, how much more so dost Thou make me, when You have sworn! For the oath of God is the assurance of a promise. Man is justly forbidden to swear: [Matthew 5:34] lest by the habit of swearing, since a man may be deceived, he fall into perjury. God alone swears securely, because He alone is infallible.
I have appointed a covenant to my chosen ones. Do you wish to know how to this day the Lord appoints his covenant? Let us act well, and we shall deserve to be sharers in the Lord's appointment of the chosen ones. I have sworn to David my servant. Let us see what it is that the Lord swore. This surely, which follows. Unto eternity I will prepare your seed. Come to our aid, O apostle, and interpret this little verse. For what does the apostle say? "He did not say 'in seeds,' but 'in the seed which is Christ.'" This is what is said in the Apocalypse of John: "He who has the key of David, who shuts and no one opens, opens and no one shuts." This key the scribes and Pharisees held in the law, to whom the Lord says in the Gospel: "Woe to you scribes, who hold the key of the kingdom of heaven," and the rest. O Pharisees, who hold the keys of the kingdom, and yet do not believe in Christ, who is the door and gate of the kingdom: to you indeed it is promised, but to us it is delivered: you have the flesh, but we have the spirit: nay rather, because you denied the spirit, you have lost the flesh too along with the spirit.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Covenant — A contract or agreement between two parties. In the Old Testament the Hebrew word berith is always thus translated. Berith is derived from a root which means “to cut,” and hence a covenant is a…
Ezrahite — A title given to Ethan (1 Kings 4:31; Ps. 89, title) and Heman (Ps. 88, title). They were both sons of Zerah (1 Chr. 2:6).
Hermon — A peak, the eastern prolongation of the Anti-Lebanon range, reaching to the height of about 9,200 feet above the Mediterranean. It marks the north boundary of Palestine (Deut. 3:8, 4:48; Josh. 11:3,…
Covenant, The · Made with: David — Made with: David
Promises Of God, The · Made to: David — Made to: David
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The poet, who, as one soon observes, is a חכם (for the very beginning of the Psalm is remarkable and ingenious), begins with the confession of the inviolability of the mercies promised to the house of David, i.e., of the הסדי דוד הנּאמנים, Isa 55:3.
(Note: The Vulgate renders: Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo. The second Sunday after Easter takes its name from this rendering.)
God's faithful love towards the house of David, a love faithful to His promises, will he sing without ceasing, and make it known with his mouth, i.e., audibly and publicly (cf. Job 19:16), to the distant posterity. Instead of חסדי, we find here, and also in Lam 3:22, חסדי with a not merely slightly closed sylla…
The psalmist restates God’s covenant with David (see also 89:19-37).
89:3 The Lord has sworn by his own holiness (89:35; see 110:4).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 89:3
I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant,
I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant. This was the ground of the Psalmist's confidence in God's mercy and truth, for he knew that the Lord had made a covenant of grace with David and his seed, and confirmed it by an oath. Here he quotes the very words of God, which were revealed to him by the Holy Spirit, and are a condensation of the original covenant in 2Sa 7:1-29. Well might he write in the former verse, "I have said", when he knew that Jehovah had said, "I have sworn." David was the Lord's elect, and with him a covenant was made, which ran along in the line of his seed until i…
