Ps. 89.29 (David forever)

I have ordained / that his offspring / last forever
his throne / as long as the heavens last. 

David was the ‘firstborn’. Here, we have ‘his offspring’. Just like David, these children (sons) are incorporated into the covenant with David, as they now enter into the ‘forever-covenant’ of Yhwh. They will enter into the ‘steadfast’, ‘loyal-love’ that Yhwh showed to David and, in their turn, will become the object of Yhwh’s attention. I think we need to be attuned to the fact that this ‘perpetuation’ of the Davidic line is a type of leavening resurrection-power—it grants a type of Davidic immortality-through-sons to Israel. What I mean is this. In verse 28 Yhwh says, “Forever I will keep my loyal-love for him.” Here, that ‘forever loyal love for David’ is the perpetuation of his offspring. In other words, each child of David is the real, enacted love of Yhwh for David. Each son-king is a type of ‘new-David’, a perpetuation of Yhwh’s forever covenant with him. Likewise, the second line says “his throne, as long as the heavens last”, not “their throne…”. The point, I believe, is that David is made perpetual through his children; he is made into the forever-of-Yhwh through them, and his throne, likewise, enters into this same divine, perpetual sphere. The final image captures this from a slightly different angle: the throne of David will last “as long as the heavens”. The throne will not ‘become heaven’, but this is ‘thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’. Through David, the gaze of Yhwh, that which the first portion of the psalm portrays as being the ‘council of heaven’, is made present on (or, to, or, in) earth. In other words, earth will now exist under the dominion of heaven, like a type of bride to her bridegroom. Not identified with, but wed to, the heavenly (forever, perpetual) realm of Yhwh’s council. 

In this we see a deeply significant aspect of (the Davidic) covenant: it is that which accomplishes the (re)uniting of two parties (heaven and earth), such that one party enters into the glorious power of the stronger one.


And one final note that ties into the above: Abraham, David and Peter all become ‘foundational’ fathers in Yhwh’s plan. And they become such, not because of who-they-are-in-themselves, but precisely because their ‘fruitfulness’ is a divine fruitfulness. In the words of today’s verse, it is one that is ‘ordained’ by Yhwh. These three men’s source of (perpetual, ‘forever’) unity, and fatherhood, is therefore one that is a divinely established (covenantal) unity. But again, we can’t ‘thing-ify’, this—as these verses (and entire psalm) make clear, the perpetual nature of their unity and fatherhood is the ‘steadfast love’ of Yhwh. They are made ‘perpetual’ because Yhwh is ‘perpetual’ toward them, established by his solemn covenantal oath (swearing by himself!) that he will be.