But now you have rejected him and cast him off. You are angry with your anointed king.
Parallel translations
- WEB But you have rejected and spurned. You have been angry with your anointed.
- KJV But thou hast cast off and abhorred, thou hast been wroth with thine 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.
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 28:9You, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind; for Yahweh searches all hearts, and understands all the imaginations of the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.
- Deut 32:19Yahweh saw and abhorred, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.
- Ps 106:40Therefore Yahweh burned with anger against his people. He abhorred his inheritance.
- Ps 89:51With which your enemies have mocked, Yahweh, with which they have mocked the footsteps of your anointed one.
- Zech 11:8I cut off the three shepherds in one month; for my soul was weary of them, and their soul also loathed me.
- Ps 60:10Haven’t you, God, rejected us? You don’t go out with our armies, God.
- Ps 78:59When God heard this, he was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel;
- Ps 84:9Behold, God our shield, look at the face of your anointed.
- 2 Chr 12:1–12When the kingdom of Rehoboam was established and he was strong, he abandoned Yahweh’s law, and all Israel with him.
- Ps 77:7“Will the Lord reject us forever? Will he be favorable no more?
- Lam 4:20The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Yahweh, was taken in their pits; Of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.
- Hos 9:17My God will cast them away, because they did not listen to him; and they will be wanderers among the nations.
- 2 Sam 15:26but if he says, ‘I have no delight in you;’ behold, here am I. Let him do to me as seems good to him.”
- Lam 2:7The Lord has cast off his altar, he has abhorred his sanctuary; He has given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces: They have made a noise in Yahweh’s house, as in the day of a solemn assembly.
- Ps 44:9–26But now you rejected us, and brought us to dishonor, and don’t go out with our armies.
- Zech 13:7“Awake, sword, against my shepherd, and against the man who is close to me,” says Yahweh of Armies. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; and I will turn my hand against the little ones.
- Jer 12:1You are righteous, Yahweh, when I contend with you; yet I would reason the cause with you: why does the way of the wicked prosper? why are all they at ease who deal very treacherously?
- Ps 60:1For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “The Lily of the Covenant.” A teaching poem by David, when he fought with Aram Naharaim and with Aram Zobah, and Joab returned, and killed twelve thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt. God, you have rejected us. You have broken us down. You have been angry. Restore us, again.
- 2 Sam 1:21You mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew or rain on you, and no fields of offerings; For there the shield of the mighty was defiled and cast away, The shield of Saul was not 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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