“I will sing about the Lord’s faithful love forever; I will proclaim Your faithfulness to all generations with my mouth. For who in the skies can compare with the Lord? Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord? God is greatly feared in the council of the holy ones, more awe-inspiring than all who surround Him. Lord God of Hosts, who is strong like You, Lord? Your faithfulness surrounds You. You rule the raging sea; when its waves surge, You still them. The heavens are Yours; the earth also is Yours. The world and everything in it — You founded them. Happy are the people who know the joyful shout; Yahweh, they walk in the light of Your presence.”
Psalms 89:1, 6-9, 11,15
Psalm 89 was written well after David’s time by a man named Ethan who was called an Ezrahite. This means he was an offspring of Ezra from the book of Ezra who was part of the return if Israel from exhile in 538bc and the rebuilding of the Jerusalen temple. Ezra was a scribe and priest and Ethan, this Psalm’s author, was his close descendant. The psalm is all about the goodness of God and the greatness of His deeds. These are just a few verses from the psalm.
In vs 1, Ethan declares his intentions of singing about God’s faithful love forever and proclaiming this truth for all future generations. The Jewish Nation always prioritized introducing their families to God and passing their faith along to the next generation. This is Ethan’s concern.
In vs 6 Ethan’s asks, “who, in all the heavens, compares to You, God?” By implication, this includes all the angelic forces that serve God from the serephim and cheribim who surround His throne to the angelic messengers encountered by me to the warring angels who fight God’s wars to those we may not even know about, not withstanding those who fell with Lucifer and became demons, ALL of the heavenly host pale incomparison to God. He answers his question in our next vs, vs 7, “God is greatly feared in the council of the holy ones, more awe-inspiring than all who surround Him.” God outshines all in Heaven!
In vss 8-9, Ethan continues, “Lord God of Hosts, who is strong like You, Lord? Your faithfulness surrounds You. You rule the raging sea; when its waves surge, You still them.” He credits God with the ability to even calm a storm at sea. That’s why the people of their culture where absolutely awe-struck by Jesus’ ability to calm the waves in Matthew 8:23-27! They credited Jesus as being God based on tbe knowledge of these verses!
In vs 11, Ethan continues the theme of God’s greatness, “The heavens are Yours; the earth also is Yours. The world and everything in it — You founded them”. He gives God the absolute credit for creating everything we see in heaven and on earth.
Lastly, Ethan reccognizes the blessing and happiness of those of us who know and have experienced God in vs 15. He says “for they shall walk in the light of His presence”. As the world we live in continues to be darker and darker, its great to know that we can walk in the Light! Again, this is what Jesus’ claim in John 8:12 to be the “Light of the world”, was so moving. In their culture and undestanding of the Scriptures (the Old Testament writings), He was claiming to be God!
Who lights your world today? Allow the God Who created the universe and everything in it, including YOU, flood the Light of His Presence into your heart today!
Think about it!
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