Ethan

Selected verses from Psalm 89.

I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, a Maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite.

I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord forever.

With my mouth will I make known your faithfulness to all generations.

Psalm eighty-nine.

A Maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite.

I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord forever.

With my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.

God gave Solomon very great wisdom, discernment, and breadth of understanding, as vast as the sand on the seashore, so that Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt.

He was wiser than anyone else, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite and Heman, Calcol, and Dada, children of Mehol.

His fame spread throughout all the surrounding nations.

He composed three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered a thousand and five.

It was a great humiliation for the king and for the kingdom of Judah.

1 Kings 4 says, tells us that Ethan the Ezraite, who is the author of this psalm, was known for his wisdom.

He was exceptionally wise.

In this psalm, he uses that wisdom to try and motivate God to intervene, to act, to restore the honor of the Davidic King, and also help the Jewish people.

It starts off, a Psalm of Ethan the Ezraite.

Ethan has become a common name in English.

In fact, we have a couple of Ethans here at Shema.

Ethan means firm, strong, enduring, which is fitting for the author of a psalm about the Lord's love and faithfulness that are firm and strong and endure forever.

First, let's pray.

Heavenly Father, please be with us as we read through this psalm and give us wisdom and insight into what you have to say through your servant, Ethan the Ezraite.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So the first thing is, this is talking about, it says it's a maskill of Ethan the Ezraite.

So who is Ethan the Ezraite? In the study Bible, it says Ethan may be another name for Jeduthun.

and he may also have been a descendant of Jeduthun.

So I did look this up, and it says that Bible scholars do think that they are one and the same.

This psalm's a little different.

It was written by a man named Ethan, and Ethan was a singer in the temple.

This type of song is called a mashal, which is like a song of wisdom, a song that's supposed to try to teach us something.

And this was written by Ethan, and it's just this beautiful psalm about, again, we're gonna see the mercy and love of God here.

So he's gonna start out, and he's gonna talk about that theme and what this is going to be, and then we're gonna see some really beautiful promises with it.

So starting in verse one, it says, "I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever.

With my mouth I will make known thy faithfulness to all generations." When I read that, it made me think, "Am I consistently thanking God for His mercy?" I think sometimes because I'm worried or nervous or careful about vain repetitions, I forget that there are certain things that I need to make my gratitude known every [laughs] single day, and one of those certainly is the mercy of the Lord.

I love how Ethan says here that he will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever.