What Does Psalm 89:38 Mean in the King James?
But thou hast cast off and abhorred, thou hast been wroth with thine anointed.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Even in the accusation of rejection, the verse still calls the anointed one “thine”, belonging and abandonment stand together.
THE MEANING
The reader can speak the rupture directly to God: you have cast off and despised the one who is anointed. The verse names rejection, revulsion, and anger without softening them. “Thine anointed” keeps belonging in the same sentence as abandonment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being God’s own guarantees you will never experience rejection or anger.
THE ROOT
מְשִׁיחֶךָ
meshichekha
GROWS FROM
משח
To smear or spread on; to anoint.
מְשִׁיחֶךָ means “your anointed one,” joining the act of anointing to the one marked by it. The verse holds that belonging, “your”, alongside rejection and anger, without explaining the rupture away.
ALSO GROWS
mashiach: Anointed one.
מָשִׁיחַ
This noun names the person marked by the act of anointing, as does the verse’s “thine anointed.”
mishchah: Anointing; anointing oil.
מִשְׁחָה
This branch names the act or substance associated with anointing, giving the title a concrete root beneath it.
הִתְעַבַּרְתָּ
hit'abarta
GROWS FROM
עבר
To pass over or cross.
The verb rendered “wroth” is formed from עבר, whose ordinary range includes passing and crossing. English gives the anger as a fixed state; Hebrew keeps it as an active verb within that movement-root family.
ALSO GROWS
avar: To pass or cross over.
עָבַר
This common verb exposes the movement-root beneath the verse’s word for anger.
ever: The other side; beyond.
עֵבֶר
This related form carries the root’s across-or-beyond sense, showing the wider family behind hit’abarta.
וַתִּמְאָס
vattim'as
GROWS FROM
מאס
To reject, refuse, or disdain.
“abhorred” in this verse is vattim'as. The verse places rejection beside the stronger language of abhorrence, giving the rupture more than one edge. This root can describe both the act of refusing and the rejected condition that follows.
ALSO GROWS
ma'asu: They rejected.
מָאֲסוּ
Psalm 118:22 uses this form for the builders rejecting the stone, showing the same root as a direct act of refusal.
nim'as: Rejected; deemed worthless.
נִמְאָס
This form shows the rejected state produced by the root’s action, deepening the force of “abhorred.”
THE PATTERN
Scripture lets the experience of divine absence be spoken directly to God without disguising it.
I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me not.To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?THE THREAD
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,Psalm 2:2 uses the same Hebrew noun, מָשִׁיחַ (mashiach, anointed one), from משח (mashach, anoint). Here the rupture is sharper: the speaker addresses God as acting against the one still called “your anointed.”
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