Welcome to Day 2727 of Wisdom-Trek. Thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Day 2727 – Wisdom Nuggets – Psalm 89:38-52 – Daily Wisdom

Wisdom-Trek Podcast Script - Day 2727 Welcome to Wisdom-Trek with Gramps! I am Guthrie Chamberlain, and we are on Day 2727 of our Trek. <#0.5#> The Purpose of Wisdom-Trek is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, and to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. <#1.0#> The titled of today’s Wisdom-Trek is: The Question of Abandonment – Why Did the Unbreakable Covenant Break? <#0.5#> Today, we confront the deepest theological crisis in Psalm Eighty-nine, covering its final, devastating verses: thirty-eight through fifty-two in the New Living Translation.<#0.5#> This psalm, a Maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite, is built entirely on the unconditional promise of the Davidic Covenant. In our previous treks, we celebrated the eternal assurance given to David: God promised His Unfailing Love, (ḥesed), would never be removed, and that even if David’s descendants sinned, God would punish them with a rod, "But I will never stop loving him, nor will I ever be untrue to my promise."  This was the bedrock: an unbreakable oath, secured by God's very holiness, with the moon as its "faithful witness in the sky." <#0.5#> Now, the psalmist transitions abruptly and violently from this glorious assurance to the horrifying reality of his present moment: the Davidic throne has fallen, the sanctuary is ruined, and the king is humiliated. This section is a profound communal lament, a desperate cry that asks: "If Your promise is eternal, why is our reality so utterly destroyed? Why did the unbreakable covenant break?" <#0.5#> This lament models how the righteous wrestle with the apparent contradiction between God’s revealed truth and their crushing suffering. <#0.5#> So, let’s immerse ourselves in this agonizing confrontation, acknowledging the pain of disappointment and the desperation of clinging to truth when all hope seems lost. <#0.5#> The first section is: The Divine Abandonment and the Ruin of the King <#0.5#> Psalm Eighty-nine: thirty-eight through forty-five <#0.5#> But now you have rejected him and cast him aside, and your anger burns against your anointed one. You have renounced your covenant with your servant and tossed his crown in the dust. You have broken down all the walls of his city and reduced his strongholds to ruins. Everyone who comes by has plundered him; he has become the scorn of his neighbors. You have strengthened the arms of his foes and filled all his enemies with joy. You have made his sword useless and refused to help him in battle. You have ended his glory and overthrown his throne. You have cut his youth in half and covered him with shame. <#0.5#> The shift is immediate and devastating, signaled by the contrastive "But now." The eternal promise is violently confronted by the current despair: "But now you have rejected him and cast him aside, and your anger burns against your anointed one." The "him" is the Davidic king, the heir to the eternal throne. The psalmist accuses God of doing the very thing He swore He would not do: rejecting (ma'as) the king and allowing His anger to burn against His own "anointed one" (Mashiach). This is the core tragedy: the king who was supposed to be invincible is overthrown. <#0.5#> The king’s humiliation is total and explicitly attributed to God’s action: "You have renounced your covenant with your servant and tossed his crown in the dust." To "renounce" (na'ar) the covenant is the ultimate act of betrayal against the eternal oath God swore by His holiness. The visible sign of this renunciation is the king's crown—the symbol of his sacred, eternal authority—being "tossed in the dust," completely dishonored and destroyed. <#0.5#> The ruin extends from the king to the city, making the nation vulnerable: "You have broken down all the walls of his city and reduced his strongholds to ruins. Everyone who comes by has plundered him; he has become the scorn of his neighbors." This describes the historical destruction of Jerusalem. The walls, which symbolize protection and national honor, are broken down, leaving the city defenseless. The king is plundered and becomes the "scorn of his neighbors," a humiliation often lamented in the Psalms (Psalm Forty-four, Psalm Seventy-nine). The defeat is not just military; it is a profound national and theological shame. <#0.5#> The psalmist emphasizes the tragic irony: God, the one who promised to make the king strong, has instead empowered his enemies: "You have strengthened the arms of his foes and filled all his enemies with joy. You have made his sword useless and refused to help him in battle." This is the ultimate lament. God, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, who promised I will crush his foes before him (Psalm Eighty-nine, verse twenty-three), is now viewed as the one strengthening the enemy's hands. The king's sword, which should have been a tool of victory, is "useless" because God has withheld His support. The ultimate sign of God’s abandonment is His refusal to help in battle. <#0.5#> The tragedy culminates in the king's premature downfall: "You have ended his glory and overthrown his throne. You have cut his youth in half and covered him with shame." The eternal dynasty is "overthrown," the king's glory is "ended," and his life is tragically cut short. The great promise of an everlasting throne is seemingly reduced to dust and shame. <#0.5#> The second section is: The Appeal to Eternity and Man’s Frailty <#0.5#> Psalm Eighty-nine: forty-six through forty-eight <#0.5#> O Lord, how long will you hide yourself? Will your anger burn like fire forever? Remember how short my life is; for what futility you have created all humanity! No one can live forever; all will certainly die. No one can escape the power of the grave. <#0.5#> After presenting the evidence of the covenant's apparent failure, the psalmist returns to the fundamental questions of lament: "O Lord, how long will you hide yourself? Will your anger burn like fire forever?" . This is the quintessential cry of the suffering righteous, echoing the anguish of previous psalms (Psalm Seventy-four, Psalm Seventy-nine). The anger that God promised would be temporary discipline (verses thirty-one through thirty-three) now feels like an eternal, consuming fire. <#0.5#> The psalmist then moves to a powerful appeal based on human mortality and divine purpose: "Remember how short my life is; for what futility you have created all humanity! No one can live forever; all will certainly die. No one can escape the power of the grave." This is a profound, almost Job-like question. The psalmist asks God to remember the frailty and brevity of human life (a theme we saw in Psalm Thirty-nine and Psalm Seventy-eight). He asks, "Why did you create humanity for such futility and such a short lifespan, only to destroy the eternal covenant in my generation?" If God's purpose for humanity is praise and glory in the land of the living, how can He allow the covenant that guarantees that purpose to fail? The appeal is to God’s mercy, asking Him to temper His anger by acknowledging the limitations of the mortal beings He created. <#0.5#> The third section is: The Final Covenant Plea and the Doxology <#0.5#> Psalm Eighty-nine: forty-nine through fifty-two <#0.5#> Lord, where is your unfailing love that you swore to David with a faithful oath? Ignore the insults of your enemies, O Lord. They are scoffing at your anointed king wherever he goes. Praise the Lord forever! Amen and amen! <#0.5#> The psalm reaches its climax with a direct, challenging, and desperate final plea, throwing God's own words back at Him: "Lord, where is your unfailing love that you swore to David with a faithful oath?" . This is the most painful question of all. The psalmist does not ask if God has the power; he asks where is the Unfailing Love (ḥesed) that God swore with an oath—the guarantee that the covenant would never be broken! He is demanding reconciliation between the eternal promise of God’s holiness and the temporary reality of the king’s humiliation. He pleads with God to act on behalf of His own honor: "Ignore the insults of your enemies, O Lord. They are scoffing at your anointed king wherever he goes." The enemies are mocking the fallen king, but their scorn is ultimately directed at the Anointing itself, at the divine source of the king's power. The Divine Council is watching. The nations are watching. They are asking, "Where is their God?" The psalmist begs God to silence the blasphemy and act to defend His own reputation by restoring His king. <#0.5#> The psalm, despite all the preceding anguish and unanswered questions, concludes with a surprising and powerful doxology—a formal expression of praise: "Praise the Lord forever! Amen and amen!" This doxology (which marks the end of Book Three of the Psalter) is placed here by the psalm's final editors, not as a resolution to the king's plight, but as a re-affirmation of faith in God's character despite the circumstances. The psalmist acknowledges the pain, but the Book of Psalms demands a final note of trust. Even when the king is overthrown and the covenant seems broken, God remains worthy of eternal praise. The two "Amens" seal this declaration of unwavering, committed worship, even from the midst of the rubble. <#0.5#> Psalm Eighty-nine is a masterpiece of lament, moving from the height of cosmic certainty to the depth of human disappointment. It leaves us with the agonizing tension of a seemingly failed covenant, forcing us to look beyond the immediate circumstances to the unchanging nature of God and the ultimate, future fulfillment of the promise in the ultimate Son of David, Jesus Christ. <#1.0#> If you found this podcast insightful, please subscribe and leave us a review, then encourage your friends and family to join us and come along tomorrow for another day of ‘Wisdom-Trek, <#0.5#> Creating a Legacy.’ <#0.5#> Thank you so much for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and, most importantly, I am your friend as I serve you through this Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal. As we take this Trek of life together, let us always: <#0.5#> Live Abundantly <#0.5#> Love Unconditionally <#0.5#> Listen Intentionally <#0.5#> Learn Continuously <#0.5#> Lend to others Generously <#0.5#> Lead with Integrity <#0.5#> Leave a Living Legacy Each Day <#0.5#> I am Guthrie Chamberlain, <#0.5#> reminding you to, <#0.5#> ‘Keep Moving Forward,’ <#0.5#> ‘Enjoy your Journey,’ <#0.5#> and, ‘Create a Great Day…Everyday! <#0.5#> See you next time for more daily wisdom!  

Welcome to Day: 2727

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Day: 2727

dom-Trek Podcast Script - Day: 2727

hamberlain, and we are on Day: 2727

The titled of today’s Wisdom-Trek is: The Question of Abandonment – Why Did the Unbreakable Covenant Break?

Today, we confront the deepest theological crisis in Psalm Eighty-nine, covering its final, devastating verses: thirty-eight through fifty-two in the New Living Translation.

This psalm, a Maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite, is built entirely on the unconditional promise of the Davidic Covenant. In our previous treks, we celebrated the eternal assurance given to David: God promised His Unfailing Love, (ḥesed), would never be removed, and that even if David’s descendants sinned, God would punish them with a rod, "But I will never stop loving him, nor will I ever be untrue to my promise."  This was the bedrock: an unbreakable oath, secured by God's very holiness, with the moon as its "faithful witness in the sky."

Now, the psalmist transitions abruptly and violently from this glorious assurance to the horrifying reality of his present moment: the Davidic throne has fallen, the sanctuary is ruined, and the king is humiliated. This section is a profound communal lament, a desperate cry that asks: "If Your promise is eternal, why is our reality so utterly destroyed? Why did the unbreakable covenant break?" This lament models how the righteous wrestle with the apparent contradiction between God’s revealed truth and their crushing suffering.

So, let’s immerse ourselves in this agonizing confrontation, acknowledging the pain of disappointment and the desperation of clinging to truth when all hope seems lost.

The first section is: The Divine Abandonment and the Ruin of the King

Psalm Eighty-nine: thirty-eight through forty-five

But now you have rejected him and cast him aside, and your anger burns against your anointed one. You have renounced your covenant with your servant and tossed his crown in the dust. You have broken down all the walls of his city and reduced his strongholds to ruins. Everyone who comes by has plundered him; he has become the scorn of his neighbors. You have strengthened the arms of his foes and filled all his enemies with joy. You have made his sword useless and refused to help him in battle. You have ended his glory and overthrown his throne. You have cut his youth in half and covered him with shame.

The shift is immediate and devastating, signaled by the contrastive "But now." The eternal promise is violently confronted by the current despair: "But now you have rejected him and cast him aside, and your anger burns against your anointed one." The "him" is the Davidic king, the heir to the eternal throne. The psalmist accuses God of doing the very thing He swore He would not do: rejecting (ma'as) the king and allowing His anger to burn against His own "anointed one" (Mashiach). This is the core tragedy: the king who was supposed to be invincible is overthrown.

The king’s humiliation is total and explicitly attributed to God’s action: "You have renounced your covenant with your servant and tossed his crown in the dust." To "renounce" (na'ar) the covenant is the ultimate act of betrayal against the eternal oath God swore by His holiness. The visible sign of this renunciation is the king's crown—the symbol of his sacred, eternal authority—being "tossed in the dust," completely dishonored and destroyed.

The ruin extends from the king to the city, making the nation vulnerable: "You have broken down all the walls of his city and reduced his strongholds to ruins. Everyone who comes by has plundered him; he has become the scorn of his neighbors." This describes the historical destruction of Jerusalem. The walls, which symbolize protection and national honor, are broken down, leaving the city defenseless. The king is plundered and becomes the "scorn of his neighbors," a humiliation often lamented in the Psalms (Psalm Forty-four, Psalm Seventy-nine). The defeat is not just military; it is a profound national and theological shame.

The psalmist emphasizes the tragic irony: God, the one who promised to make the king strong, has instead empowered his enemies: "You have strengthened the arms of his foes and filled all his enemies with joy. You have made his sword useless and refused to help him in battle." This is the ultimate lament. God, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, who promised I will crush his foes before him (Psalm Eighty-nine, verse twenty-three), is now viewed as the one strengthening the enemy's hands. The king's sword, which should have been a tool of victory, is "useless" because God has withheld His support. The ultimate sign of God’s abandonment is His refusal to help in battle.

The tragedy culminates in the king's premature downfall: "You have ended his glory and overthrown his throne. You have cut his youth in half and covered him with shame." The eternal dynasty is "overthrown," the king's glory is "ended," and his life is tragically cut short. The great promise of an everlasting throne is seemingly reduced to dust and shame.

The second section is: The Appeal to Eternity and Man’s Frailty

Psalm Eighty-nine: forty-six through forty-eight

O Lord, how long will you hide yourself? Will your anger burn like fire forever? Remember how short my life is; for what futility you have created all humanity! No one can live forever; all will certainly die. No one can escape the power of the grave.

After presenting the evidence of the covenant's apparent failure, the psalmist returns to the fundamental questions of lament: "O Lord, how long will you hide yourself? Will your anger burn like fire forever?" . This is the quintessential cry of the suffering righteous, echoing the anguish of previous psalms (Psalm Seventy-four, Psalm Seventy-nine). The anger that God promised would be temporary discipline (verses thirty-one through thirty-three) now feels like an eternal, consuming fire.

The psalmist then moves to a powerful appeal based on human mortality and divine purpose: "Remember how short my life is; for what futility you have created all humanity! No one can live forever; all will certainly die. No one can escape the power of the grave." This is a profound, almost Job-like question. The psalmist asks God to remember the frailty and brevity of human life (a theme we saw in Psalm Thirty-nine and Psalm Seventy-eight). He asks, "Why did you create humanity for such futility and such a short lifespan, only to destroy the eternal covenant in my generation?" If God's purpose for humanity is praise and glory in the land of the living, how can He allow the covenant that guarantees that purpose to fail? The appeal is to God’s mercy, asking Him to temper His anger by acknowledging the limitations of the mortal beings He created.

The third section is: The Final Covenant Plea and the Doxology

Psalm Eighty-nine: forty-nine through fifty-two

Lord, where is your unfailing love that you swore to David with a faithful oath? Ignore the insults of your enemies, O Lord. They are scoffing at your anointed king wherever he goes. Praise the Lord forever! Amen and amen!

The psalm reaches its climax with a direct, challenging, and desperate final plea, throwing God's own words back at Him: "Lord, where is your unfailing love that you swore to David with a faithful oath?" . This is the most painful question of all. The psalmist does not ask if God has the power; he asks where is the Unfailing Love (ḥesed) that God swore with an oath—the guarantee that the covenant would never be broken! He is demanding reconciliation between the eternal promise of God’s holiness and the temporary reality of the king’s humiliation.

He pleads with God to act on behalf of His own honor: "Ignore the insults of your enemies, O Lord. They are scoffing at your anointed king wherever he goes." The enemies are mocking the fallen king, but their scorn is ultimately directed at the Anointing itself, at the divine source of the king's power. The Divine Council is watching. The nations are watching. They are asking, "Where is their God?" The psalmist begs God to silence the blasphemy and act to defend His own reputation by restoring His king.

The psalm, despite all the preceding anguish and unanswered questions, concludes with a surprising and powerful doxology—a formal expression of praise: "Praise the Lord forever! Amen and amen!" This doxology (which marks the end of Book Three of the Psalter) is placed here by the psalm's final editors, not as a resolution to the king's plight, but as a re-affirmation of faith in God's character despite the circumstances. The psalmist acknowledges the pain, but the Book of Psalms demands a final note of trust. Even when the king is overthrown and the covenant seems broken, God remains worthy of eternal praise. The two "Amens" seal this declaration of unwavering, committed worship, even from the midst of the rubble.

Psalm Eighty-nine is a masterpiece of lament, moving from the height of cosmic certainty to the depth of human disappointment. It leaves us with the agonizing tension of a seemingly failed covenant, forcing us to look beyond the immediate circumstances to the unchanging nature of God and the ultimate, future fulfillment of the promise in the ultimate Son of David, Jesus Christ.

If you found this podcast insightful, please subscribe and leave us a review, then encourage your friends and family to join us and come along tomorrow for another day of ‘Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.’

Thank you so much for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and, most importantly, I am your friend as I serve you through this Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal. As we take this Trek of life together, let us always:

Live Abundantly

Love Unconditionally

Listen Intentionally

Learn Continuously

Lend to others Generously

Lead with Integrity

Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

I am Guthrie Chamberlain, reminding you to, ‘Keep Moving Forward,’ ‘Enjoy your Journey,’ and, ‘Create a Great Day…Everyday! See you next time for more daily wisdom!