Chapter 88

The understanding of Ethan the Ezrahite.

I will sing the mercies of the Lord in eternity. I will announce your truth with my mouth, from generation to generation.

For you have said: Mercy will be built in the heavens, unto eternity. Your truth will be prepared there.

I have set up a covenant with my elect. I have sworn to David my servant:

I will prepare your offspring, even in eternity. And I will build up your throne, from generation to generation.

The heavens will confess your miracles, Lord, and also your truth, in the Church of the saints.

For who among the clouds is equal to the Lord? Who among the sons of God is like God?

God is glorified by the counsel of the saints. He is great and terrible above all those who are around him.

O Lord, God of hosts, who is like you? You are powerful, Lord, and your truth is all around you.

You rule over the power of the sea, and you even mitigate the movement of its waves.

You have humbled the arrogant one, like one who has been wounded. You have scattered your enemies with the arm of your strength.

Yours are the heavens, and yours is the earth. You founded the whole world in all its fullness.

You created the north and the sea. Tabor and Hermon will exult in your name.

Your arm acts with power. Let your hand be strengthened, and let your right hand be exalted.

Justice and judgment are the preparation of your throne. Mercy and truth will precede your face.

Blessed is the people that knows jubilation. They will walk in the light of your countenance, O Lord,

and they will exult in your name all day long, and they will be exalted in your justice.

For you are the glory of their virtue, and in your goodness, our horn will be exalted.

For our assumption is of the Lord, and it is of our king, the holy one of Israel.

Then you spoke in a vision to your holy ones, and you said: I have stationed help with the powerful one, and I have exalted the elect one from my people.

I have found my servant David. I have anointed him with my holy oil.

For my hand will assist him, and my arm will fortify him.

The enemy will have no advantage over him, nor will the son of iniquity be positioned to harm him.

And I will cut down his enemies before his face. And those who hate him, I will turn to flight.

And my truth and my mercy will be with him. And his horn will be exalted in my name.

And I will place his hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers.

He will invoke me: “You are my father, my God, and the support of my salvation.”

And I will make him the first-born, preeminent before the kings of the earth.

I will preserve my mercy for him eternally, and my covenant for him faithfully.

And I will set his offspring from generation to generation, and his throne like the days of heaven.

But if his sons abandon my law, and if they do not walk in my judgments,

if they profane my justices, and if they do not keep my commandments:

I will visit their iniquities with a rod, and their sins with a beating.

But I will not scatter my mercy from him, and I will not do harm to my truth.

And I will not profane my covenant, and I will not make void that which proceeds from my lips.

I have sworn by my holiness one time: I will not lie to David,

his offspring will remain for eternity. And his throne will be like the sun in my sight,

and, like the moon, it is perfected in eternity, and it is a faithful witness in heaven.

Yet, truly, you have rejected and despised, you have pushed away, my Christ.

You have overthrown the covenant of your servant. You have profaned his sanctuary on earth.

You have destroyed all his fences. You have made his territory dreadful.

All who pass by the way have plundered him. He has become a disgrace to his neighbors.

You have exalted the right hand of those who oppress him. You have brought joy to all his enemies.

You have diverted the help of his sword, and you have not assisted him in battle.

You have torn him away from cleansing, and you have smashed his throne down to the ground.

You have reduced the days of his time. You have flooded him with confusion.

How long, O Lord? Will you turn away unto the end? Will your wrath flare up like a fire?

Remember what my substance is. For could you really have appointed all the sons of men in vain?

Who is the man that will live, and yet not see death? Who will rescue his own soul from the hand of the underworld?

O Lord, where are your mercies of antiquity, just as you swore to David in your truth?

Be mindful, O Lord, of the disgrace of your servants (which I have sustained in my sinews) among many nations.

With these, your enemies have reproached you, O Lord; with these, they have reproached the commutation of your Christ.

Blessed is the Lord for all eternity. Amen. Amen.