Psalm 89:14

Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(14) Habitation.—Rather, foundation, or pillars. Righteousness and judgment support God’s throne, and mercy and truth (“those genii of sacred history”) precede (present tense, not future) Him as forerunners precede a king.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

89:5-14 The more God's works are known, the more they are admired. And to praise the Lord, is to acknowledge him to be such a one that there is none like him. Surely then we should feel and express reverence when we worship God. But how little of this appears in our congregations, and how much cause have we to humble ourselves on this account! That almighty power which smote Egypt, will scatter the enemies of the church, while all who trust in God's mercy will rejoice in his name; for mercy and truth direct all he does. His counsels from eternity, and their consequences to eternity, are all justice and judgment.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

justice and judgment are the habitation of the throne - Margin, "establishment." The Hebrew word - מכון mâkôn - means properly a place where one stands; then, a foundation or basis. The idea here is, that the throne of God is founded on justice and right judgment; it is this which supports it; his administration is maintained because it is right. This supposes that there is such a thing as right or justice in itself considered, or in the nature of things, and independently of the will of God; that the divine administration will be conformed to that, and will be firm because it is thus conformed to it. Even omnipotent power could not maintain permanently a throne founded on injustice and wrong. Such an administration would sooner or later make its own destruction sure.

Mercy, and truth shall go before thy face - literally, anticipate thy face; that is, thy goings. Wherever thou dost go, wherever thou dost manifest thyself, there will be mercy and faithfulness. Thy march through the world will be attended with kindness and fidelity. So certain is this, that his coming will, as it were, be anticipated by truth and goodness.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

12. rejoice in thy name—praise Thy perfections by their very existence.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Justice and judgment, i.e. just judgment, or justice in judging, as Jeremiah 9:24 22:3. A common figure, called hendiaduo. The habitation; or, the basis or foundation, as this word is used Ezra 2:68 3:3 Psalm 97:2 104:5; the groundwork of all his proceedings, and the stability of his throne and government. For God could not be the Judge and Ruler of the world if he did not right, Genesis 18:25: compare Proverbs 16:12. The sense and scope of this verse may be this, Though thy present dispensations, in breaking thy covenant with David, and in suffering his posterity and thine own people to be devoured by such as are much more wicked than they, be a great deep and secret, yet I rest satisfied that they are just. In like manner the prophet fortifies himself under the like thoughts, Jeremiah 12:1.

Shall go before thy face, as thy harbingers and companions, wheresoever thou goest. Thou art neither unmerciful nor unfaithful in any of thy dealings.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne,.... The seat and throne on which he sits; all the administrations of his kingly power in the government of the world, in the salvation of his people, and in the punishment of his enemies, being according to the strict rules of justice and judgment: or "the preparation of thy throne" (d); all that the Lord does according to the counsel of his will; and these counsels were of old, and were formed in strict justice and judgment, and were a preparation for his future government in providence and grace: or "the establishment of thy throne" (e); the throne of an earthly king is established by righteousness; and so the throne of God, and of Christ, is ordered and established with justice and judgment in the exercise of righteousness for evermore, Proverbs 16:12.

mercy and truth shall go before thy face; be and appear wherever he is; all his ways are mercy and truth, Psalm 25:10, "mercy" in pardoning and saving sinners that come unto him by Christ; and "truth" in performing all his purposes and promises; and these make the joyful sound next mentioned.

(d) "praeparatio sedis tuae". V. L. so the Sept. (e) Basis, "fulchrum et stabilimentum", Michaelis.

Geneva Study Bible

{l} Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.

(l) For by this he judges the world and shows himself to be a merciful father and faithful protector to his.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

14. Righteousness and judgement are the foundation of thy throne:

Lovingkindness and truth attend thy presence.

The first line recurs in Psalm 97:2. Cp. too Psalm 33:5. Righteousness, or the principle of justice, and judgement, or the application of it in act, are the basis of all true government, divine as well as human (Proverbs 16:12; Proverbs 25:5). Lovingkindness and truth are represented as angels attending in God’s Presence (Psalm 95:2), ready to do His bidding (Psalm 43:3), rather than as couriers preceding Him.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 14 - Justice and judgment; or, righteousness and justice (Cheyne). The psalmist here rises to a higher level - from that of might to that of right. God is not merely strong to do whatever he wills; but all that he wills is consonant with right and justice. Are the habitation of thy throne; rather, the basis, or "foundation." (So Kay, Cheyne, and the Revised Version.) Mercy and truth shall go before thy face; i.e. shall stand ever in front of thee; be thy inseparable companions. Whatever thou doest shall be done "in truth and equity." Psalm 89:14

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

At the time of the poet the nation of the house of David was threatened with assault from violent foes; and this fact gives occasion for this picture of God's power in the kingdom of nature. He who rules the raging of the sea, also rules the raging of the sea of the peoples, Psalm 65:8. גּאוּת, a proud rising, here of the sea, like גּאוה in Psalm 46:4. Instead of בּשׂוע, Hitzig pleasantly enough reads בּשׁוא equals בּשׁאו from שׁאה; but שׂוא is also possible so far as language is concerned, either as an infinitive equals נשׂוא, Psalm 28:2; Isaiah 1:14 (instead of שׂאת), or as an infinitival noun, like שׂיא, loftiness, Job 20:6, with a likewise rejected Nun. The formation of the clause favours our taking it as a verb: when its waves rise, Thou stillest them. From the natural sea the poet comes to the sea of the peoples; and in the doings of God at the Red Sea a miraculous subjugation of both seas took place at one and the same time. It is clear from Psalm 74:13-17; Isaiah 51:9, that Egypt is to be understood by Rahab in this passage as in Psalm 87:4. The word signifies first of all impetuosity, violence, then a monster, like "the wild beast of the reed," Psalm 68:31, i.e., the leviathan or the dragon. דּכּאת is conjugated after the manner of the Lamed He verbs, as in Psalm 44:20. כּחלל is to be understood as describing the event or issue (vid., Psalm 18:43): so that in its fall the proudly defiant kingdom is like one fatally smitten. Thereupon in Psalm 89:12-15 again follows in the same co-ordination first the praise of God drawn from nature, then from history. Jahve's are the heavens and the earth. He is the Creator, and for that very reason the absolute owner, of both. The north and the right hand, i.e., the south, represent the earth in its entire compass from one region of the heavens to the other. Tabor on this side of the Jordan represents the west (cf. Hosea 5:1), and Hermon opposite the east of the Holy Land. Both exult by reason of the name of God; by their fresh, cheerful look they give the impression of joy at the glorious revelation of the divine creative might manifest in themselves. In Psalm 89:14 the praise again enters upon the province of history. "An arm with (עם) heroic strength," says the poet, inasmuch as he distinguishes between the attribute inherent in God and the medium of its manifestation in history. His throne has as its מכון, i.e., its immovable foundation (Proverbs 16:12; Proverbs 25:5), righteousness of action and right, by which all action is regulated, and which is unceasingly realized by means of the action. And mercy and truth wait upon Him. קדּם פּני is not; to go before any one (הלּך לפני, Psalm 85:14), but anticipatingly to present one's self to any one, Psalm 88:14; Psalm 95:2; Micah 6:6. Mercy and truth, these two genii of sacred history (Psalm 43:3), stand before His face like waiting servants watching upon His nod.