Psalm 89/Notes/Verbal.vv. 3-5.446520

"יִבָּנֶה means not so much to be upheld in building, as to be in the course of continuous building (e.g., Job 22:23, Mal 3:15, of an increasingly prosperous condition). Loving-kindness is for ever (accusative of duration) in the course of continuous building." "It is surprising that the verbs to describe the building and establishing are yiqtol, but it is difficult to justify RSV’s having past tense in the first colon and present in the second or TNIV’s having the opposite; both seem unprincipled. The NRSV and NJPS translate both as present. I assume the yiqtols declare what Yhwh will carry on doing (which will indeed be in continuity with what Yhwh did in the past and keeps on doing in the present). Yhwh will continue to manifest commitment and truthfulness in the cosmos. In light of where the psalm will go, the yiqtols also draw attention to what is needed in the present, when Yhwh’s commitment and truthfulness have apparently collapsed."