52 Praise be to the LORD forever!
Amen and Amen. (NIV)
With just five Hebrew words (lit. Praised (be) Yahweh forever amen & amen), the psalm ends with a blessing and double Amen. Dr. Brug hits the nail precisely on the head: “Psalm 89 is like a bookend closing the meditations on the trials and triumphs of King Messiah that began with Psalm 2” (A Commentary on Psalms 73-150, page 140).
The author doesn’t tell us how to praise God, or how he is blessed through what we do; he just states it as a fact. But God isn’t just praised in a single lifetime, he is praised olam, “forever.” God is praised by the angels, and they will keep on praising him into eternity, but the writer is not writing for the angels. He is writing for mankind. We will praise God with the angels for all eternity. So this verse testifies to the existence of heaven and to the resurrection of the dead as well. And our presence and praise in heaven is only possible through the atoning work of Jesus Christ. Therefore the whole message of the Gospel is implied, although it is condensed into five Hebrew words.
God’s holiness, righteousness and love are also present in his divine name Yahweh, the LORD. This is the name God uses when he makes covenants and promises; his Gospel name that assures us of his faithfulness, and that his mercy endures forever. Five words, yet the whole counsel of God is implied and tied together in these five.
The final two words are the same word twice: Amen & Amen (the Hebrew conjunction “and” is just a single letter, w, attached to the beginning of its word). Amen means “truth.” It occurs 35 times in the Old Testament, and it is only doubled like this at the ends of the first three “books” of the Psalms (41:13; 72:19 and 89:52). In the New Testament, Jesus uses “Amen” to call special attention to the truth of what he says (NIV “I tell you the truth,” KJV “Verily…”).
Another point to note about “amen” is that in the Old Testament, it’s always a worship word used at the end of a prayer, and always by a group or a community prayer. It isn’t until the time between the Testaments that “amen” is used after an individual’s prayer (Prayer of Manasseh, verse 15). Jesus is unique is using “Amen” before a statement. Whereas mankind waits until we’re done speaking to say “This is true,” Jesus can say it before he begins speaking, because what Jesus says is always true. A doubled “Amen” (throughout John’s Gospel and here in our Psalm) adds an emphasis like a superlative, and this is behind Luther’s classic translation, “This is most certainly true.”
Five Hebrew words, and an eternal, emphasized truth:
“Praise be to the LORD forever! Amen and Amen.”
Note: In Matthew, Jesus says “Amen” 30 or 31 times (there is a question about the text of Matthew 18:19 and whether the amen belongs there). In Mark Jesus says Amen 13 times, and in Luke just 6 times. Those are all single “amens.” In John’s Gospel, Jesus is always quoted using double amens, “Amen, amen…” and there are 25 of these.
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. His wife, Kathryn, attended Chapel from 1987-1990 while studying Secondary Education (Theater and Math) at UW-Madison. Kathryn’s father, John Meyer, was also the first man to serve as a Vicar at Chapel.
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