Psalms 89:38

And THOU, thou hast cast off and rejected,

Hast been enraged with thine anointed.

The Psalmist has drawn out God's promise in the fullest detail, and now he confronts God with it: thou Who art omnipotent, faithful, and just; thou Who hast made this promise, and confirmed it with the most solemn oath; thou hast broken it! Some punishment might have been expected (Psalms 89:30 ff.), but not this total abandonment (Psalms 89:33 ff.). David's heir has the same fate as Saul (1 Samuel 15:23; 1 Samuel 15:26), in spite of the express promise that it should not be so (2 Samuel 7:15).

The audacity of the expostulation scandalised many ancient Jewish commentators, and the famous Aben-Ezra of Toledo (d. 1167) relates that there was a certain wise and pious man in Spain, who would neither read nor listen to this Psalm. But the boldness is that of faith, not of irreverence: it finds a parallel in Psalms 44:9 ff., and in Habakkuk's questionings (Habakkuk 1:2 ff., Habakkuk 1:13 ff.).