the Lord (used as a proper name of God only) · proper noun, a title
former
הָרִאשֹׁנִ֥יםha.ri.sho.Nim
H7223
first · definite article + ordinal number, masculine plural absolute
lovingkindnesses
חֲסָדֶ֖יךָcha.sa.Dei.kha
H2617
kindness · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
swarest
נִשְׁבַּ֥עְתָּnish.Ba'.ta
H7650
to seven oneself · verb, niphal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
David
לְ֝דָוִ֗דle.da.Vid
H1732
David · preposition + proper noun, a man's name
truth
בֶּאֱמוּנָתֶֽךָbe.'e.mu.na.Te.kha
H530
literally firmness · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
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
2 Samuel 7:15 But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee.
Isaiah 55:3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies…
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 3:9 So do God to Abner, and more also, except, as the LORD hath sworn to David, even so I do to him;
Psalms 54:5 He shall reward evil unto mine enemies: cut them off in thy truth.
Psalms 77:9-10 Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.
Psalms 89:3-4 I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant,
Psalms 89:35 Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 89:38–end
In these verses we have,
I. A very melancholy complaint of the present deplorable state of David's family, which the psalmist thinks hard to be reconciled to the covenant God made with David. "Thou saidst thou wouldst not take away thy lovingkindness, but thou hast cast off." Sometimes, it is no easy thing to reconcile God's providences with his promises, and yet we are sure they are reconcilable; for God's works fulfil his word and never contradict it. 1. David's house seemed to have lost its interest in God, which was the greatest strength and beauty of it. God had been pleased with his anointed, but now he was wroth with him (Psa 89:38), had entered into covenant with the family, but now,…
Lord, where are thy former lovingkindnesses,.... The spiritual blessings said to be in Christ; the grace said to be given to us in him; the sure mercies of David, such as redemption, justification, remission of sins, and eternal life; so called because they flow from the free favour and love of God, and, being many, are expressed in the plural number; and which were former or ancient ones, even promised and secured in Christ before the world began; springing from the love of God, which, both to Christ and his people, was from everlasting, and provided for in a covenant, which was as early:
which thou swarest unto David in thy truth? which were promised to Christ, the antitype of David, and…
Psalm 89:49-52
49. O Lord! where are thy former mercies? thou hast sworn to David in thy truth. 50. O Lord! Remember the reproach of thy servants: I have sustained in my bosom all the reproaches of mighty peoples; 51. With which thy enemies, O Jehovah! have reproached thee; with which they have reproached the footsteps of thy Messiah, [or thy Anointed.] 52. Blessed be Jehovah for ever! Amen, and Amen.
49. O Lord! where are thy former mercies? The prophet encourages himself, by calling to remembrance God's former benefits, as if his reasoning were, That God can never be unlike himself, and that therefore the goodness which he manifested in old time to the fathers cannot come to an end. This…
The Church Fathers
But in the very faith in Christ great difficulties occurred, and the heathen in their rage long said, "When shall he die, and his name perish?" On account of these then who have now long believed in Christ, but were destined to doubt for some time, these words follow, "Lord, where are Thy old loving-kindnesses?" (ver. 49). We have now acknowledged Christ our purifier, we now possess Him in whom Thy promises were to be fulfilled; show forth in Him what Thou hast promised. It is He Himself that shall live, and not see death: Himself who delivers His own soul from the hand of Hell: and yet we are still in suffering. Thus spoke the Martyrs, whose birthdays we are celebrating. He shall live, and not see death: He delivers His soul from the hands of Hell: yet "for Thy sake we are killed all the day long: and are counted as sheep appointed to be slain." "Lord, where are Thy old loving-kindnesses which Thou swarest unto David in Thy truth?"
But the rest of this psalm runs thus: "Where are Thine ancient compassions, Lord, which Thou swarest unto David in Thy truth? Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy servants, which I have borne in my bosom of many nations; wherewith Thine enemies have reproached, O Lord, wherewith they have reproached the change of Thy Christ." Now it may with very good reason be asked whether this is spoken in the person of those Israelites who desired that the promise made to David might be fulfilled to them; or rather of the Christians, who are Israelites not after the flesh but after the Spirit. This certainly was spoken or written in the time of Ethan, from whose name this psalm gets its title, and that was the same as the time of David's reign; and therefore it would not have been said, "Where are Thine ancient compassions, Lord, which Thou hast sworn unto David in Thy truth?" unless the prophet had assumed the person of those who should come long afterwards, to whom that time when these things were promised to David was ancient.
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
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,…
Loving-Kindness Of God, The · Former manifestations of, to be pleaded in prayer — Former manifestations of, to be pleaded in prayer
Truth Of God, The · We should: Plead, in prayer — We should: Plead, in prayer
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).
After this statement of the present condition of things the psalmist begins to pray for the removal of all that is thus contradictory to the promise. The plaintive question, Psa 89:47, with the exception of one word, is verbatim the same as Psa 79:5. The wrath to which quousque refers, makes itself to be felt, as the intensifying (vid., Psa 13:2) לנצח implies, in the intensity and duration of everlasting wrath. חלד is this temporal life which glides past secretly and unnoticed (Psa 17:14); and זכר־אני is not equivalent to זכרני (instead of which by way of emphasis only זכרני אני can be said), but אני מה־חלד stands for מה־חלד אני - according to the sense equivalent to אני מה־חדל, Psa 39:5, cf…
The psalmist wonders if he will live to see the end of the Lord’s anger. Our lifetimes are short, like a day in the Lord’s sight (90:4, 10).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 89:49
Lord, where are thy former lovingkindnesses, which thou swarest unto David in thy truth?
Lord, where are thy former loving kindnesses, which thou swarest unto David in thy truth? Here he comes to grand pleading, hand to hand work with the covenant angel. We may remind the Lord of his first deeds of love, his former love to his church, his former favour to ourselves. Then may we plead his oath, and beg him to remember that he has sworn to bless his chosen: and we may wrestle hard also, by urging upon him his own character, and laying hold upon his inviolable truth. When things look black we may bring forth our strong reasons, and debate the case with our condescending God, who has himself sa…
