Ps. 89.2 (heaven through David)

For I have declared / that your loyal-love / is built to last forever
that you have fixed / your faithfulness / in the heavens. 

It may seem rather trite, but the question is this: what are these lines talking about? What, or how, did Yhwh ‘build his loyal-love’ to last forever? How did he ‘fix’ his faithfulness in the heavens? Both images indicate a type of action on Yhwh’s part of construction: building and fixing. In addition, the act seems to have taken place, or at least involved, ‘the heavens’ in some way. I think the (beginning of) answer is found in verses 9-12. There, the psalmist looks to eh heavenly assembly, those gathered around ‘King Yhwh’. It then tells a ‘story’, beginning with his ‘stilling of the raging sea’ and then his crushing of Rahab and the scattering of his enemies. This is followed by a recounting of his ‘founding of creation’ and the creation of ‘North and South’. What we see here is two-fold. On the one hand, this is a type of creation story, with Yhwh bringing order to the chaos waters (in a way similar to Genesis, though not identical). This ‘creation’ is, unlike Genesis, an act of kingly victory over an enemy. It is, in other words, the establishment of Yhwh’s throne over the forces of chaos. This story forms the basis of, and provides a type of ‘mirror’ to, the creation of the world, ‘North and South. I believe this is, in part, what our verse is now pointing toward: the establishment of Yhwh’s power over the forces of chaos. This is his ‘building’ and his ‘fixing’. Importantly, however, this verse is not limited to Yhwh’s reign. Rather, it begins to highlight how this ‘heavenly’ reign of Yhwh, that has been ‘fixed forever’ in heaven, is one that was imparted to David by and through the covenant. Again, the reference to ‘forever’ was in verse 1 and we will see again in verse 4, referring to Yhwh’s ‘establishing’ of David’s offspring ‘forever’. Note the resemblance here between ‘establishing’ David’s offspring and the ‘founding of the world’ in verse 11. Both point to this type of ‘building’ or ‘fixing’ of Yhwh of his ‘forever faithfulness’. Here is where we begin to move to the heart of the Davidic covenant: this almost mythical and astonishing power of Yhwh over the forces of chaos—that power that actually inaugurates and instatiates creation itself—is made present by, in and through  the Davidic covenant. In other words, the Davidic covenant itself is a type ‘second creation’, David a ‘second Adam’, and his realm a ‘new Eden’.  It is the making present on earth, that power that has been ‘built’ and ‘fixed’ in the heavens (and, thereby, uniting the heavenly liturgy to the earthly