Most of the psalms in the Bible were written by David, but there are quite a few that were not written by him. One of those is Psalm 89. There is abundant evidence that it was written by the Prophet Jeremiah.
Quite a few years ago a Bible scholar told me that Psalm 89 was written by Jeremiah. He didn’t say probably, he said it was written by him. If you study into this subject, you will see why he said that and why I think most people would agree with that if they really understand it.
Psalm 89 surely discusses one of Jeremiah’s worst faith crises. But it also reviews the wonderful rewards that God gives if we learn total, implicit trust in God. It’s not enough to trust God for 95 percent; we need to learn to have 100 percent trust in God’s Word and what He says! That is what this psalm is all about.
Judah’s Destruction
First, let’s look at a little background. Jeremiah wrote part of his book when Josiah ruled. Part of it he wrote during the reign of Jehoiakim, the father of Jehoiachin, who was the last ruler the Jews themselves appointed over Judah at that time (Jeremiah 1:1-3). The Jews don’t consider Zedekiah a king of Judah because Nebuchadnezzar personally appointed him to rule over Judah after he conquered it. This happened just a short while before Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple and Jerusalem. Verse 3 concludes: “the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.”
When Zedekiah ruled, Jeremiah was in prison. It was during this time that Zedekiah rebelled and Nebuchadnezzar returned and destroyed the temple in Jerusalem. You can see why Jeremiah was used so powerfully at this time.
A Prophet Unto the Nations
“Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations” (Jeremiah 1:4-5). Jeremiah was a great prophet of God—the only one besides John the Baptist and Jesus Christ to be chosen from the womb. Here it mentions that he actually was ordained a prophet to the nations, not just to Judah. That is important to notice.
In verse 9 God tells him: “I have put my words in thy mouth.”
Jeremiah was not just a prophet who warned Judah—which he did—but he had a commission from God to actually pull down and root out the throne of David: “See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant” (verse 10). That is quite a commission! He then went and built and planted it in another nation of Israel. Remember that he was appointed over the nations and over kingdoms, plural! If you don’t know who Israel is, you need our book The United States and Britain in Prophecy, and all this will be explained to you in detail. It is yours free for the asking.
Jeremiah was to warn, and after warning he was to take David’s throne to the nation of Ireland. That was his commission.
Luke 1:30-33 contain this amazing prophecy: “And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” Christ is going to rule forever on the throne that David sat on. That throne is here on Earth right now! Christ will not return to an invisible throne or a throne that doesn’t exist. He will return to a throne that is here on Earth today.
Jeremiah had to take, build and plant that throne because it had to be moved. But most people believe that when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple and Jerusalem, it was the end of David’s throne. They are wrong about that. They lack the faith to see where that throne is today. You need to prove the existence of that throne to yourself.
Jeremiah’s Faith Crisis
Psalm 89 begins: “I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens” (verses 1-2). Great men of God are always passionate about declaring God. We are able to do the same thing as we support God’s Work today.
Verses 3-4 quote God directly: “I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations.” In this psalm, Jeremiah is emphasizing the substance of God’s covenant with David (2 Samuel 7). This is the central theme of Psalm 89: God’s covenant with David. It is about that throne. Jeremiah was deeply wrapped up in that subject (e.g. Jeremiah 33:17). That would qualify Jeremiah to write the psalm.
Notice the covenant God made with David: “And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever” (2 Samuel 7:12-13). This was not just until Christ’s coming, but forever!
“And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever” (verse 16). God reiterated that His promise was for eternity.
God says, “Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations” (Psalm 89:4). There is the physical seed, or the people in the genealogy of David on this Earth—but here God is speaking mainly spiritually about the spiritual descendants of David. We are part of a building program that will go on forever!
This is spectacular when you think about what God is offering to His people today who remain loyal to David’s throne, just as Zadok the priest did. The spiritual sons of Zadok are God’s seed. They know how to be loyal to David’s throne, and God blesses them in special ways because of that. These people will reside at headquarters for eternity with Jesus Christ and, later, with God the Father. He is going to build a throne to all generations.
It is through that throne that “mercy shall be built up for ever,” and that God’s “faithfulness” will be established “in the very heavens” (Psalm 89:2). The world is totally unaware of what God is doing, yet that throne is already here on Earth—the very throne Christ is going to sit on. God gave us something that we can see and touch! It represents the very throne of God that is about to rule this world, and almost the whole world is oblivious to its significance.
If people really understood that throne—and those in the end-time nations of Israel should—what a difference it would make in their lives!
Jeremiah had the commission to uproot and deliver that throne to another nation. His involvement in this relocation was greater than that of anybody else. He had to go and build and plant. Yet something dramatic happened, and Jeremiah became possibly more discouraged than at any other time in his life. It certainly was one of his greatest crises.
Solomon sat on David’s throne and constructed a fabulous temple that was the greatest temple ever built—probably the most beautiful structure ever on Earth. There was never a building like it. But in Jeremiah’s day that temple was destroyed and the sons of the king were slaughtered! God promised David a perpetual throne. Yet all of a sudden it looked like God’s promise was broken. It appeared the kingly line had ceased.
Jeremiah learned of this, and it sent him into a deep depression because he feared God had broken His promise. Had God not fulfilled His word the way He said He would? Jeremiah only thought this way for a short time. He got his reasoning straightened out, but it nevertheless was a serious problem.
As he carried out his commission, Jeremiah experienced this great faith crisis. He needed to learn a deep lesson concerning faith, as we all do. That crisis and the lessons Jeremiah learned are recorded in Psalm 89. There is a lesson for all of us in this amazing psalm.
Perfect Your Faith!
God promises that those who are called out today and help proclaim God’s message to the world will be able to share that throne with Jesus Christ forever as His Bride. They’ll rule on that throne forever! God is speaking about the firstfruits, or those who are called out now and loyally help God get this message out to the world, proving their dedication in that way. There is a lot of faith that God’s people have to build up along the way, but what a tremendous promise that God makes.
“Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations” (Psalm 89:4). God starts talking about forever, and then He says, Look, it’s also going to be built up to all generations, from the time of David right on down to the Second Coming. “Forever will I keep My kindness for him, and My covenant shall be firm for him; And I will set his seed forever, and his throne as the days of heaven” (verses 28-29; International Critical Commentary).
Where is that throne? It is with us to this day, and you really need to prove that to yourself to understand this great promise that God made to David and to you and to me. God’s promise is to anybody who will submit to His Word today and help deliver that message and turn people to righteousness. The Prophet Daniel says if you do that, you’re going to shine like the stars forever and ever! (Daniel 12:3). Do you believe exactly what these scriptures are stating?
How could Jeremiah doubt God? How could you and I doubt, after God makes a stupendous promise like that? But we do at times. We doubt, because we need to perfect our faith, and the more we perfect it, the more God blesses and rewards us today and in the future. It is just phenomenal how God rewards us if we perfect this faith, not only today, but for all eternity.
Psalm 89:34 continues: “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.” God says, If I have said it, I will DO it! Nothing else needs to be said. If I say it, I’ll do it.
When All Seems Lost
About two thirds of the way through Psalm 89, you find one of the strangest and, in a way, most disappointing turns of any psalm. Scholars are confused and deceived about what it means. We need to look at this more closely.
Pay attention and see a dramatic change in Jeremiah’s words. Jeremiah records the shocking change in his attitude because he thought something terrible had happened, and he couldn’t understand it. Verse 38 reads: “But thou has cast off and abhorred, thou hast been wroth with thine anointed.” Jeremiah is addressing God and talking about His promise to King David, God’s anointed. “Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant: thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the ground. Thou hast broken down all his hedges; thou hast brought his strong holds to ruin. All that pass by the way spoil him: he is a reproach to his neighbours. Thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries; thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice. Thou hast also turned the edge of his sword, and hast not made him to stand in the battle. Thou hast made his glory to cease, and cast his throne down to the ground. The days of his youth hast thou shortened: thou hast covered him with shame” (verses 39-45).
Those are strong, strong words that Jeremiah is directing to God. Jeremiah had already been commissioned to take that throne to another nation, Ireland. (For detailed proof, request a free copy of The United States and Britain in Prophecy.) Still he thought God had broken His promise. He believed God had failed David. There is a lesson in faith here about total trust in God. God says, Look, if it comes out from my lips, I’ll DO it, and NOTHING will ever stop me from doing it, EVER! God had to teach His prophet an enormous lesson, and through Jeremiah, God is teaching all of us. You individually can build the kind of faith that God is talking about and receive enormous rewards for doing so, now and forever.
In 585 b.c., Nebuchadnezzar defeated King Jehoiachin and appointed his own king, Zedekiah, for a short time until he too rebelled. That’s when Nebuchadnezzar took Zedekiah’s sons, all of the heirs to the throne of David, and killed them before their father’s eyes. And then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, took him to Babylon and put him in prison, where he stayed until he died. Nebuchadnezzar had invaded Judah and destroyed the holy city and even he thought that was the end of David’s throne. Jeremiah himself thought it!
Many prestigious people in this world falsely believe that God broke His promise to David. It causes them to turn away from God, and to turn away from the Bible. But there’s something very profound here that they don’t understand, yet they can and should understand.
“Lord, where are thy former lovingkindnesses, which thou swarest unto David in thy truth? … Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O Lord; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed” (verses 49, 51). Jeremiah even asked God: What has happened to your former loving kindnesses, God? What have you done? God did this to teach Jeremiah a profound lesson. He needed to learn total trust in God. God knows we all need to develop it.
Why was Jeremiah so upset? The International Critical Commentary says this section “describes the humiliation of the king in such a realistic and graphic way that it may most naturally be referred to [as] a real historical experience, such as that of Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24:10-16) ….” This is referring to the time when Nebuchadnezzar finally destroyed Jerusalem in 585 b.c. Most of the commentaries agree it was written about the time Jehoiachin fell. He was the son of Jehoiakim, the last ruler that the Jews chose before Judah was conquered.
Zedekiah went into captivity, where he later died. It was a terrible time in Jerusalem. All the male heirs had been killed, and there wasn’t a single son to sit on David’s throne. Today people reject God’s Word because they don’t understand subsequent events. Even to this day, the Jews don’t understand what happened to David’s throne at that point! The Jews believed in God’s covenant with David, yet suddenly it looked like it had ended.
Jeremiah became very emotional about this disaster in Judah. He couldn’t understand it. He asked, What are you doing, God? You are letting everything that we’ve had hope and faith in be destroyed! The whole plan is lost! There’s no hope!
He viewed these events like most people view them to this very day! They see that God made that covenant with David, but they err in thinking that Nebuchadnezzar ended it all in 585 b.c..
But it didn’t end!
A Tender Twig
The truth is, Zedekiah had two daughters, and Ezekiel prophesied that God would use “a tender one,” or a female, to sit on David’s throne (Ezekiel 17:22). Her name was Tea-Tephi.
Tea-Tephi married an Irish prince who was visiting Jerusalem. She had a son with him. The three of them went to Ireland with Jeremiah, and this lady became the queen who sat on David’s throne when the throne was built and planted in another nation. Jeremiah had a successful time in Ireland, planting, building and establishing that throne.
Jeremiah also built a college where people could study the history of this throne, so everybody would know that God did not break His promise. He has never broken a promise. He will never break a promise. He will always keep His promise. That is one of the most tremendous lessons you could ever learn! Learn to totally trust God, even when it looks like there’s no reason to. If you do, you will never ever regret it, and you will always be enormously blessed.
That is the lesson Jeremiah had to learn, and what a wonderful lesson it is. Think about how precious that is.
Instead of digging in and understanding this more deeply, people try to reason around it. They try to explain this mystery away. It was a real historical experience! It was Jeremiah’s experience—he was there. He went through all of it. God had to teach him to grow in faith and build an implicit trust in the living God.
God didn’t postpone or break His promise. He did exactly what He told Jeremiah He would do.
A Prophecy for Today
What God didn’t tell Jeremiah was that He was going to put a woman on that throne instead of a man. And that deliberate omission really did cause Jeremiah problems for a while.
Jeremiah suffered a real faith crisis. He should have known better. God was building more faith in Jeremiah. He had warned Judah, but his work was far from over. God was about to send him into an entirely new phase. In addition to transporting David’s throne to another part of the world, Jeremiah would write a book of prophecy for end-time Israel! This man had to be prepared for such important work!
This lesson in faith Jeremiah learned has an application for us today. Psalm 89 is all about the fall of Judah, and that is a type of what is coming on America, Britain and the Jews again! Israel is ready to crumble! We don’t realize how fast or how all-encompassing the destruction of these nations will be. Jeremiah prophesied of a time of suffering that will surpass any tribulation in human history! (e.g. Jeremiah 30:4-7). Events right now are leading to the worst time of suffering ever on this planet. But who wants to listen to God?
People think their abominable sins are OK. Like Jeremiah anciently, God’s people today must tell them, No, they’re not OK. God is going to correct you! Unimaginable punishment is coming!
Like Jeremiah, we should know better than to doubt God, but at times we falter and God has to perfect our faith. We sin and God has to grant us repentance. He receives our repentance when we change our lives and don’t commit such sins anymore if we can possibly help it.
We face terrible race problems in the U.S. God has promised and teaches in the Bible the way to solve such serious problems. God speaks to individuals—not just to the collective nation, but to individuals. You can solve your race problems, any race bias or lack of love for your brother, no matter what color the skin. You can overcome and solve problems and be blessed mightily.
God promises, If you learn that, I’ll even protect you from those who don’t WANT to learn that lesson, and may even inflict violence or burn cars, buildings and other property. God says, I will protect you if you will totally trust me. Why is it so few people believe God?
“But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Jesus Christ said we have to live by His every word: That’s total trust! You ought to know what comprises the Bible: the Old and New Testaments. God tells us to live by every word of that. That is the lesson He taught Jeremiah, and that is what every single human being who has ever lived will have to learn if they are to enter the Kingdom of God!
Look at where that kind of trust led Jeremiah. After he left Judah, he established a successful career in Ireland, building a college where people could be taught to live by every word of God. Jeremiah had learned a vital lesson in faith.
Carefully consider what God records in Hebrews 13:5: “Let your [conduct] be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” God promises He will never leave you or forsake you, or forsake His Word! The original Greek used for the word never conveys emphasis as if God says it five times! If you obey me and trust me, I will never, never, never, never, never forsake you or my words. Never! That is perhaps the most beautiful promise in the Bible. God will never forsake you if you totally trust Him. He’s never going to do that, if you just walk by faith. He’s never going to forsake His word. He always fulfills it! That is the real lesson of Psalm 89.
We are in the final days of human history just before the Second Coming! We need to do all we can to prepare for that marvelous future. Christ asked, “[W]hen the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). He won’t find it in very many, but He can find it in you. Today, you can build a total, implicit trust in God and His Word, just like Jeremiah did. If you believe in that throne of David, and believe in the promise that is going to be there forever, you have the opportunity to share that throne with Christ!