But thou hast cast off and abhorred, thou hast been wroth with thine anointed.
Parallel translations
- WEB But you have rejected and spurned. You have been angry with your anointed.
- BSB Now, however, You have spurned and rejected him; You are enraged by Your anointed one.
- NKJV But You have cast off and abhorred, You have been furious with Your anointed.
- NASB ¶But You have rejected and refused, You have been full of wrath against Your anointed.
- NLT But now you have rejected him and cast him off. You are angry with your anointed king.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The psalm turns to lament: it seems God has rejected and grown angry with His anointed king.
Overview
After rehearsing the glorious promises, the psalmist confronts present disaster, the apparent rejection of God's anointed. The sharp contrast frames the psalm's central crisis: how do the promises stand amid evident defeat? This honest lament models bringing covenant confusion before God, and finds its ultimate answer when God's true Anointed bears rejection yet is vindicated (Acts 2:36).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- 1 Chr 28:9And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.
- Deut 32:19And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters.
- Ps 106:40Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance.
- Ps 89:51Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O LORD; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.
- Zech 11:8Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul lothed them, and their soul also abhorred me.
- Ps 60:10Wilt not thou, O God, which hadst cast us off? and thou, O God, which didst not go out with our armies?
- Ps 78:59When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:
- Ps 84:9Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed.
- 2 Chr 12:1–12And it came to pass, when Rehoboam had established the kingdom, and had strengthened himself, he forsook the law of the LORD, and all Israel with him.
- Ps 77:7Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more?
- Lam 4:20The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen.
- Hos 9:17My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations.
- 2 Sam 15:26But if he thus say, I have no delight in thee; behold, here am I, let him do to me as seemeth good unto him.
- Lam 2:7The LORD hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctuary, he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast.
- Ps 44:9–26But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and goest not forth with our armies.
- Zech 13:7Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.
- Jer 12:1Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?
- Ps 60:1O God, thou hast cast us off, thou hast scattered us, thou hast been displeased; O turn thyself to us again.
- 2 Sam 1:21Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain, upon you, nor fields of offerings: for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil.
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 89:38 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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