Psalms 89:27

Also I will make him my firstborn,.... Or, "make him the firstborn"; make him great, as Jarchi interprets it; give him the blessing, the double portion of inheritance: so Christ is made most blessed

Then thou spakest in vision to thy holy one, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.

As he calls me Father, , so I will make him my son, yea, my first-born, who had divers privileges above other sons. This and the following passage in some sort agree to David, who may well be called God’ s first-born, as all the people of Israel are, ; and so is Ephraim, . Nor can I see fit wholly to exclude David here, of whom all the foregoing and following verses may, and some of them must be, understood. But this is more fully and properly accomplished in Christ, and seems to be ascribed to David here as a type of Christ, and that our minds might be led through David to him whom David represented, even to the Messias, to whom alone this doth strictly and literally belong. Higher than the kings of the earth: this also was in some sort accomplished in David, partly because he had a greater power and dominion than any of the neighbouring kings, yea, than any other kings of his age, and in those parts of the world, except the Assyrian monarch; nor is the expression here universal, but indefinite, and if it had been said higher than all the kings, yet even such universal expressions admit of some limitation or exception, as is manifest and confessed: and partly because David had many privileges, wherein he did excel all other kings of the earth of his age without exception; which probably he did in the honour and renown which he got by his military achievements, and by that wisdom and justice wherewith he managed all his dominions; but certainly he did in this, that he was a king chosen and advanced by the immediate order and appointment of God himself, that he was set over God’ s own peculiar and beloved people, that he was intrusted with the care and patronage of the true religion and the worship of God in the world, and especially that he was not only an eminent type, but also the progenitor of the Messias, who is King of kings and Lord of lords, and God blessed for ever.

Psalms 89:27 Also I will make him [my] firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth.Ver. 27. Also I will make him my firstborn] Christ is the firstborn of every creature, and in all things hath the pre-eminence. David also shall be the highest prince on earth, blessed aud accepted far beyond any of them: O nimimn dilecte Deo, &c. O excessively esteemed God.

(27) Firstborn.—Jesse’s youngest son became the firstborn, the favourite son of God. Here, of course, the epithet is extended to all the Davidic succession.

Verse 27. I will make him my first-born] I will deal with him as a father by his first-born son, to whom a double portion of possessions and honours belong. First-born is not always to be understood literally in Scripture. It often signifies simply a well-beloved, or best-beloved son; one preferred to all the rest, and distinguished by some eminent prerogative. Thus God calls Israel his son, his first-born, Exodus 4:22. See also Ecclus 36:12. And even Ephraim is called God's first-born, Jeremiah 31:9. In the same sense it is sometimes applied even to Jesus Christ himself, to signify his supereminent dignity; not the eternal Sonship of his Divine nature, as inveterate prejudice and superficial thinking have supposed.

27. I also corresponds to the emphatic He at the beginning of Psa 89:26. It is God’s answer to David’s cry of filial love. The titles son and first-born applied to Israel (Exodus 4:22; Jeremiah 31:9) are conferred upon the king who is Israel’s representative: and the promise made to Israel (Deuteronomy 26:19, cp. Psalms 28:1) is here transferred to David, I also will appoint him as firstborn, Most high above the kings of the earth. David’s posterity is included in his person: and the high promise, never fully realised in any of his successors, points forward to Him Whom St John styles in language borrowed from this verse and Psalms 89:37, “the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth.”

Also I will make him my first-born - He shall be regarded and treated by me as the first-born son is in a family; that is, with distinguished favor and honor.

27. Firstborn—Here, again, Christ must be understood, of whom David only becomes the feeble type. Comp. 2 Samuel 7:14; Psalms 2:7; Colossians 1:15; Colossians 1:18; Hebrews 1:5.