89:26 He will call out to me,
‘You are my father, 1 my God, and the protector who delivers me.’ 2
89:27 I will appoint him to be my firstborn son, 3
the most exalted of the earth’s kings.
89:28 I will always extend my loyal love to him,
and my covenant with him is secure. 4
89:29 I will give him an eternal dynasty, 5
and make his throne as enduring as the skies above. 6
1 sn You are my father. The Davidic king was viewed as God’s “son” (see 2 Sam 7:14; Ps 2:7). The idiom reflects ancient Near Eastern adoption language associated with covenants of grant, by which a lord would reward a faithful subject by elevating him to special status, referred to as “sonship.” Like a son, the faithful subject received an “inheritance,” viewed as an unconditional, eternal gift. Such gifts usually took the form of land and/or an enduring dynasty. See M. Weinfeld, “The Covenant of Grant in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East,” JAOS 90 (1970): 184-203, for general discussion and some striking extra-biblical parallels.
2 tn Heb “the rocky summit of my deliverance.”
3 sn The firstborn son typically had special status and received special privileges.
4 tn Heb “forever I will keep for him my loyal love and will make my covenant secure for him.”
5 tn Heb “and I will set in place forever his offspring.”
6 tn Heb “and his throne like the days of the heavens.”