Psalms89:8

Translation

YHVH, ELOHE

OF THE ARMIES,

who is like you? Mighty YH,

your steadfastness surrounds you like a circuit.

(See comment below.)

Paraphrase

Oh ETERNAL AND PERSONAL GOD, who is also THE CREATOR AND RULER OF ALL THINGS AS WELL AS THE GENERAL OVER AN UNCOUNTABLE ARMY, what other powerful entity can claim to be as powerful as you are? [There is none who can.] Oh all-powerful ETERNAL AND PERSONAL GOD, you are not only powerful, but your faithfulness to your own character is one of the qualities about you that we admire the most.

Footnotes

1: "ELOHE":

There are several different spellings of the name ELOHIM depending on the grammatical role it plays or what it is attached to. This is the possessive form which means “God of.”

2: "of the armies":

“God of the armies” (sometimes rendered “Lord of hosts”) implies an uncountable army of angels. It is a way to indicate the greatest power of any powerful entity, If He is the general over the most powerful army ever assembled, then He is the most powerful general ever; no one can stop Him.

3: "YH":

This is a shortened version of YHVH, thus it has the same meaning as YHVH.

4: "your steadfastness surrounds you":

God’s faithfulness to His own character sets Him apart from false gods and makes us want to be like Him. His character is just the right balance between holiness and compassion. Thus, it is not only the degree of power of supposed powerful entities that is being compared here, but also their character – how they act. None can compare to the God of the Bible in either part of that comparison.

THIS PSALM DOES NOT REFER TO NEPHILIM OR A COUNCIL OF GODS

This stanza of psalm 89 is used by some as support for the idea that there is not just one all-powerful God, but rather there is a council of gods, all of which have power, but one has more power than the others. Some say this council of gods includes Nephilim mentioned in Genesis 6:1-4. Michael Heiser has been the most prominent promoter of this theory.

Such an interpretation is unnecessary; these verses clearly refer to angels. Nothing in the Bible requires a change away from the traditional understanding of angels to a substitute theory of a council of gods which includes Nephilim. Not only so, but the passages that are used to support that theory, such as this one, must be twisted considerably in the process.

Moreover, there are many, many, many passages of Scripture which clearly articulate the doctrine that there is only one true God, the Creator of the universe who is sovereign in every way, He holds all power, all knowledge, and is present everywhere at the same time. He is the one who has made salvation from the guilt of our sins available to us at very high cost to Himself.