of this Psalm.  With this it opens (verses 2 -4).  After praising the

faithfulness of the Lord in general (verses 5 -18) Ethan returns to his

theme, and deals with it more extensively (19 -37).  In the first part of

this section the covenant with David reaches out to the Messiah:

'I will make Him My Firstborn,

Higher than the kings of the earth' (Psa. 89:27).

The second part looks to the human links in the chain that bind the covenant

made with David to David's greater Son, and here provision is made for their

correction where necessary.

'If his children forsake My law,

And walk not in My judgments

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Then will I visit their transgression with the rod.

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Nevertheless My lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor

suffer my faithfulness to fail.

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Once have I sworn by My holiness

That I will not lie unto David' (Psa. 89:30 -35).

The word translated 'fail' here is the Hebrew shaqar which means to

deal falsely, to deceive, to lie.  Its bearing upon a covenant is seen in

Psalm 44:17:

'Neither have we dealt falsely in Thy covenant'.

When Samuel told Saul that the Lord had rejected him from being king,

Saul laid hold of Samuel's skirt and pleaded with him, but Samuel replied,

'The Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath

given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou.  And also

the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for He is not a man,

that He should repent' (1 Sam. 15:28,29).

Here is this word 'fail' translated 'lie', and shaqar (and its

derivative sheqer) is rendered 'lie' 31 times and 'lying' 22 times, beside

'false', 'deceit', etc.  We are reminded of the passage in Titus:

'In hope of eternal (aioniou) life, which God, that cannot lie,

promised before the world began (aionion) times' (Tit. 1:2),

and of the words of Balaam:

'God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He

should repent: hath He said, and shall He not do it?  Or hath He

spoken, and shall He not make it good?' (Num 23:19).

Or once more, we think of the passage in 2 Timothy 2.  There we have

something similar to the covenant made with David.  There is the

unconditional gift of life, and the subsequent award for endurance.  This may

be forfeited, but the gift of life can never be lost: