Psalm 89:20-28 (Lectionary Translation)

20 I have found David my servant; *
with my holy oil have I anointed him.
21 My hand will hold him fast *
and my arm will make him strong.
22 No enemy shall deceive him, *
nor any wicked man bring him down.
23 I will crush his foes before him *
and strike down those who hate him.
24 My faithfulness and love shall be with him, *
and he shall be victorious through my Name.
25 I shall make his dominion extend *
from the Great Sea to the River.
26 He will say to me, ‘You are my Father, *
my God, and the rock of my salvation.’
27 I will make him my firstborn *
and higher than the kings of the earth.
28 I will keep my love for him forever, *
and my covenant will stand firm for him.

Psalm 89: 21-29

(A New Rendering from the Hebrew)

THE PROMISE OF OUR LOVE

21 I found you, my lover, and held you in my thrall -

my fingers stroking you with fiery oil,

22 my arms thrown open, ready,

so ready to embrace and give you strength.

23 Now hostility can never more carry you away,

and injustice can never hurt you again.

24 For I’ve hammered open all your inner narrowness,

And closed down all your hidden hatefulness.

25 I believe in you, you see, and in the goodness of your soul.

So when your light shines, it shines as well through me.

26 Into your open hands, my love, I pour the sea,

and run with the rivers right home to your arms;

27 and you call out to me, to your life’s true source,

your flinty strength and your freedom’s door flung wide.

28 You are my first, my early-born,

my highest gift to all the Counselors of Earth:

29 your goodness, and mine, may yet preserve this world;

the promise of your love, and mine, may yet endure and hold.

NOTES ON THE TEXT:

Psalm 89: 21-29

N.B.: I follow the Masoretic Text verse numbers rather than the lectionary numbering.

A note on pronouns and “oblique address”:

In Hebrew texts, gender-inclusive ideas are often hidden behind gender-specific pronouns – mostly masculine (“he/him/his”). Third-person pronouns (“he/she, him/her”), can, however, often be exchanged with second-person (“you/your”) without betraying the meaning. I find that this “oblique address” reflects well the stylistic quirks of Hebrew, while opening us to more inclusive language. I use oblique address often in my renderings.

Vs. 21: “My lover”: References to David in Psalm 89 mark it as a “royal psalm.” However, the root meaning of the name “David” is in the Hebrew dod – “lover/beloved.” In the Song of Songs, dod is always translated with this connotation. Psalm 89 is certainly about David, and also, at the same time, its inner meaning points to a deep relationship of love and its potential.

“Fingers stroking…”: the act of anointing has intimacy that escapes us in most translations. “Fiery oil”: one of the essential meanings of “holy” from the ancient cognates is “cleansing fire.”

Vs. 22 – “Ready”: I render the Hebrew root kun as “prepare” rather than “establish/hold fast.”

“Embrace and give you strength”: The root ‘amtz (“make strong”) couples well with zro’a – which is an embracing arm.

Vs. 23-24: “Hostility… injustice… narrowness… hatefulness”: Most English versions translate the verbal nouns as referring to “hostile men (people)… unjust men… enemies… those who hate.” An essential grasp of these concepts calls us to internalize them, understanding that the force of evil derives from our own inner attitudes more than from troublesome adversaries.

Vs. 23: “Never hurt you again…” This rendering is close to the Septuagint translation and also to Jerome’s Latin – non apponet nocere ei.

Vs. 24: “Hammered open… closed down…” The Hebrew verbs are notable: khatoti has the sense of “beating,” as one would shape metal with a hammer. The verb ‘egoph is I think not from nagaph (“strike”) as most translators assume, but from the unusual root guph (“close”) as in Nehemiah 7:3: “close the doors.”

Vs. 25: “The goodness of your soul…” Scholars have struggled for centuries to translate hesed (“lovingkindness,” etc.) and some choose to leave it untranslated: “my hesed is with you.” I prefer to render hesed with more than one word or idea, reflecting its complex meanings.

“When your light shines…”: The Hebrew tarum karno is an ancient idiom deriving from the lifting up of a ram’s horn (keren) to celebrate or honor someone with a blast of sound (as is still done with the shofar in Judaism today). The double sense of keren as both “horn” and “ray of light” allows a more meaningful rendering for contemporary readers: “when your light shines…”

Vs. 27: “Call out to me… your life’s true source”: The Hebrew word ‘av is usually translated “father.” Like the word ‘em (“mother”), this means not only a parent but an origin, a beginning. My choice of “source” for ‘av is influenced by the water imagery in the previous verse.

Vs. 28: “You are my first…”: The root meaning of the Hebrew bkr is “to bear early fruit.” The cognates in Arabic and Ethiopic mean “a woman giving birth for the first time.” There is a clear melding of two themes in this psalm: divine love/tenderness and divine parent/origin.

“Counselors of Earth”: The Hebrew melekh means originally “counselor,” then “king.” In this song, the divine lover has the good of the whole planet at heart. I read “highest” (‘elion) together with the preceding “I give” (‘etnehu): this love is a “high gift” that may redeem the Earth.

Vs. 29: “Goodness… promise…”: Again, rendering the difficult concepts of hesed and berit (usually – “lovingkindness” and “covenant”) with words that express the same depth of committed love without repeating conventional religious language (sometimes called “biblese”) that may not inspire as it once did. The message of the psalm is contemporary: for our Earth to endure, the goodness and selflessness of love must prevail.

Rendered from the Hebrew by Henry Ralph Carse