Christmas in the Minor Key

December 18th, 2024

Christmas in the Minor Key

Psalm 89:1-37

1 I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever;
with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness
to all generations.
2 For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever;
in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.”
3 You have said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one;
I have sworn to David my servant:
4 ‘I will establish your offspring forever,
and build your throne for all generations.’” Selah

5 Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Lord,
your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones!
6 For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord?
Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord,
7 a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones,
and awesome above all who are around him?
8 O Lord God of hosts,
who is mighty as you are, O Lord,
with your faithfulness all around you?
9 You rule the raging of the sea;
when its waves rise, you still them.
10 You crushed Rahab like a carcass;
you scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.
11 The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours;
the world and all that is in it, you have founded them.

12 The north and the south, you have created them;
Tabor and Hermon joyously praise your name.
13 You have a mighty arm;
strong is your hand, high your right hand.
14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;
steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.
15 Blessed are the people who know the festal shout,
who walk, O Lord, in the light of your face,
16 who exult in your name all the day
and in your righteousness are exalted.
17 For you are the glory of their strength;
by your favor our horn is exalted.
18 For our shield belongs to the Lord,
our king to the Holy One of Israel.

19 Of old you spoke in a vision to your godly one, and said:
“I have granted help to one who is mighty;
I have exalted one chosen from the people.
20 I have found David, my servant;
with my holy oil I have anointed him,
21 so that my hand shall be established with him;
my arm also shall strengthen him.
22 The enemy shall not outwit him;
the wicked shall not humble him.
23 I will crush his foes before him
and strike down those who hate him.
24 My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him,
and in my name shall his horn be exalted.
25 I will set his hand on the sea
and his right hand on the rivers.
26 He shall cry to me, ‘You are my Father,
my God, and the Rock of my salvation.’
27 And I will make him the firstborn,
the highest of the kings of the earth.
28 My steadfast love I will keep for him forever,
and my covenant will stand firm for him.
29 I will establish his offspring forever
and his throne as the days of the heavens.
30 If his children forsake my law
and do not walk according to my rules,
31 if they violate my statutes
and do not keep my commandments,
32 then I will punish their transgression with the rod
and their iniquity with stripes,
33 but I will not remove from him my steadfast love
or be false to my faithfulness.
34 I will not violate my covenant
or alter the word that went forth from my lips.
35 Once for all I have sworn by my holiness;
I will not lie to David.
36 His offspring shall endure forever,
his throne as long as the sun before me.
37 Like the moon it shall be established forever,
a faithful witness in the skies.” Selah

Advent Songs

I didn’t know why the man wanted me to come by at the end of December. I soon realized it wasn’t to give me homemade fudge. “You just led us in the worst Christmas in the history of our church,” he said. Now to put this in perspective, the church was 125 years old; that meant the misery index under me topped two world wars and the Great Depression. For the next two hours he informed me of many reasons why I wasn’t on his ‘nice’ list, but I’d mainly ruined Christmas by those songs I’d picked for us to sing: mournful, slow, minor-key Advent songs, like O Come O Come Emmanuel. Nobody comes to church at Christmas wanting to sing that!

Well, I meekly took my chewing that night. As I look back, I admit that as a 23-year-old pastor, my zeal often outran my wisdom. But I still stand by the value of those Advent songs. They build essential skills and instincts into God’s people. And a good dose of them is the only way we’ll understand why Christmas is so merry. Psalm 89 falls into that category. It’s not a rapturous Christmas carol; it’s the ultimate Advent psalm.

Ethan's Praise

You wouldn’t know it from the first half, though, which begins with all the euphoria of a pack of kids tearing into their presents. That’s how this Israelite named Ethan feels about the Davidic covenant. David himself has been dead for years, but this psalm revolves around that promise God made to give his descendants a kingdom that would rule all nations and last forever, and which would ultimately save and heal our broken world! Ethan is thinking about that promise in v1 when he bursts out, “I will sing of Yahweh’s steadfast love forever!” Then for the next 37 verses, he gushes praise over it!

A Praiseworthy Promise

He starts in vv5–18 by praising the God who made the promise. In 5–7 he praises Yahweh’s majesty: “who among the heavenly beings is like Yahweh…awesome above all who are around him?” In 8–13 he praises Yahweh’s might: “who is mighty as you are, Yahweh?” He made it all. Owns it all. Rules it all. He crushes foes like Egypt (Rahab). In 14–18, he praises Yahweh’s mercy: “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you. Blessed are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O Yahweh, in the light of your face.” He is saying that our God is not only great but good: fearful in his power but faithful to his people. THIS God made this epic David promise to us! And Ethan can’t get over it.

A Permanent Promise

So he moves in vv19–37 to study the promise itself. He marvels that this great God chose and anointed little David (19–21). He is moved in 26 to consider God’s personal commitment to be David’s Father, his God, his Rock. He ooh’s and aah’s at God’s pledge to make David invincible: no enemy would overpower or outwit him; God will crush all his foes (22–23)! He is stunned by God’s promise to expand David’s kingdom to the ends of the earth, the river to the sea (25–27). David will recover Adam’s purpose in the beginning! Finally, Ethan closes his praise by singing of the permanence of God’s promise. Re-read vv28–37 and pick out how many times he mentions the idea that this promise is “forever;” it’s the key to the rest of the psalm!

So these first 37 verses of Psalm 89 contain ecstatic praise for God’s promise to David. If we don’t understand that promise, we’ll miss Christmas. This was the great hope of Israel; it made them feel so confident and secure. But tomorrow, a minor key is coming.

FOR THE NEXT INSTALLMENT, SEE:

Broken Promises?