Psalm 92

A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath.

1 It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises [psalm] to your name, O Most High;

2 to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night,

3 to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre [ten strings].

This is the only psalm that is identified as a song for the sabbath. This suggests that it was prayed weekly in the homes of the faithful and thus would have been very familiar to most people. It begins with a simple statement: “It is good to give thanks to YHWH and psalm to the name of the Most High.”. Expressing our thanks and adoration to God is just a good thing to do. You can’t go wrong, even if you do it less than perfectly. There are no qualifiers about singing on pitch or giving thanks with eloquence. It is something that everyone can do. The two qualities of God that get us started in the morning and wrap up our evenings are the steadfast love and faithfulness of God. “Love in the morning” because God has given us another day to live and serve Him, and “faithfulness at night” because God has brought us through another day, the sun has risen and set and now the moon and the stars are in their places. Our gratitude and adoration is further modified by the accompaniment of musical instructions. Three are mentioned: the ten stringed lyre, the lute and the harp. The lute was a flute that was suited for playing a single note melody. The harp and lyre were stringed instruments that could provide a chordal background to the melody. The significance of the ten-stringed lyre is that it may have been tuned to the intervals of the pentatonic scale, producing pleasing melodies. The word for “melody” or “harmonious sound” is rooted in the word for meditation, haga, which suggests murmuring, mumbling, or groaning. Whatever the sound, it must have been a pleasant one. Job spoke of having his harp tuned to the key of mourning, but certainly the song here is a happy one. This is a great psalm to begin the day. Listen to worship music in the morning and on your commute to worship. Start the day with this perspective, thankful for the love and faithfulness of God.  

4 For you, O LORD, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy.

5 How great are your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep!

Having declared a general principle, (It is good to give thanks to YHWH), the psalmist gets personal, addressing YHWH and saying, “You have made me glad at your works, and I see for joy because of them.” The psalmist is making a mental inventory of the works of God in general and in his own life. As he thinks of all the blessings he’s experienced his natural response is to be glad and sing. He exclaims the greatness of YHWH’s work and the depth of his thoughts. The word for “thoughts” is elsewhere translated as “plans” and “purposes”. This underscores the psalmist’s worldview that God is sovereign and active in the affairs of the world, even down to the details of my life. Yes, YHWH has great works -- consider the majesty and beauty of creation from the tiniest flower to the blazing sun. But he also has great plans. His greatest plan is his ingenious method for redeeming the world. He authored salvation for all of humanity. It was all out in the open for those who could see it, but to those who couldn’t, it was a mystery. The enemy couldn’t see it and fell for his trap. When we consider the chaos of world affairs or even the uncertainties of our own lives, it’s good to know that God’s plans and purposes are moving forward in each of them. The life of a believer is characterized by thanksgiving and singing from sun up to sun down. The theme of that song is “your love in the morning, your faithfulness at night, the greatness of your works, and the depths of your thoughts.” These four topics are just a starting place as the focus of our worship. Meditate on them today and regularly stop what you are doing in order to sing and make music. It never gets old.  

6 The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand this:

7 that though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever;

8 but you, O LORD, are on high forever.

Having noted the depth of God’s thoughts, the mystery of his purposes, the psalmist immediately contrasts this with the stupid person and the fool, particularly in their lack of understanding regarding their own mortality. The agricultural metaphor is appropriate. The wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers (seem to) flourish, but they are doomed to destruction forever and ever. Contrast this with YHWH who is on high forever, reigning as king of the universe. This is a timeless observation: human beings live as if they were never going to die. This has reached the level of religious belief in the west because we have the capacity to extend life through modern medicine. This creates the illusion that we are in charge. If we do all the right things, we eat right and exercise we can delay death indefinitely, or so we seem to believe. We live in the era of “safetyism” that tells us if we do all the right things, we will never have bad things happen to us. And if we do, it’s always someone else’s fault because we did all the things we were supposed to do. YHWH is eternal and the wicked are doomed to destruction forever. They do flourish for a season, but time and the heat of the sun take their toll. They complete their life cycle and then they wither. There is nothing that can be done. This is the same wisdom as Psalm 90: recognize your mortality and live humbly. Don’t envy the wicked who seem like they have it all figured out. They are brutish, animal-like in how they approach life. They are materialists who don’t consider the spiritual ramifications of their actions. It is all about today. But the Christian is oriented toward tomorrow. 

9 For behold, your enemies, O LORD, for behold, your enemies shall perish; all evildoers shall be scattered.

10 But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox; you have poured over me [Compare Syriac; the meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain] fresh oil.

The rhythmic pattern of the poem is broken here by the repetition of the phrase “for behold your enemies”, emphasizing the certainty of the mortality of YHWH’s enemies. Like the stupid amn and the fool, the enemies of God will find themselves in a short-lived season of power. They will perish and be scattered just like that. As the book of Revelation tells us, “he will destroy them with the breath of his mouth” and as Luther wrote, “The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him, his rage we can endure, for lo his doom is sure, One little word shall fell him. In contrast to the grass-like existence of those who do not make God ultimate, the psalmist’s horn is exalted like that of a wild ox. The horn represents the strength of an animal, and until they were domesticated, the wild ox was as deadly as any predator. This is why they were often worshiped in the ancient world. The psalmist experiences superpower strength from God’s presence and the blessing of anointing with fresh oil. The application of oil in the ancient world had multiple purposes. It was used to set apart kings and priests. It was fragrant and was used in the way that perfume might be used today. It also had the effect of moisturizing the skin and causing it to shine in a healthy way. It was a manufactured product, so one didn’t come by it easily, making it special. The text says that YHWH has poured oil over the psalmist generously. The meaning of the Hebrew word translated “poured over” is unclear here because this is the only use of it in this context. Typically it means “to mix” as in mixing flour and oil in baking. The promises in this psalm echo the familiar verses from Psalm 23:5, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anointed my head with oil.” 

11 My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies; my ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants.

12 The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

To this point the psalmist has spoken about the future catastrophe that will befall the wicked (they will perish, they will be scattered), but here the perspective switches and the psalmist speaks of the downfall of his enemies as if it had already happened sometime  in the past. This could be an expression of the certainty of his faith. In other words, it is so certain that it is as if it has already happened. He is realizing the future in the present. He is living as if the victory has already been accomplished. That certainly is Christian theology. Because we have seen the downfall of our enemies (sin and death), we live in confidence about the future (even as sin and death continue to be enemies in the present). The dominant metaphor of this psalm is introduced in verse 12. The righteous person is like a tree. There are echoes of Psalm 1:3 (a tree planted by streams of water) and Psalm 52:8 (an olive tree flourishing in the house of God). The first type of tree in this psalm is the palm tree, native to warmer climates, bearing fruit and leaves under sometimes brutal heat conditions. The second type of tree is a cedar of Lebanon, towering evergreens to the north of Israel, surviving brutal conditions in the cold and show. These two trees show that the faithful can flourish in any circumstance. They actually grow through challenging seasons and become a source of shade, beauty, and nourishment for others. How are you growing through the environmental challenges you are facing? Are you putting your roots down deep in the soil of his word? Are you extending yourself for the sake of others? Who are you shading, feeding, and providing beauty for? 

13 They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God.

14 They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green,

15 to declare that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

The palm tree person and the cedar character gain their longevity from their location. They are planted in the house of God and flourish in his courts. It is the ever-presence of God that makes them what they are. They are “planted” which suggests permanence and intentionality. They still bear fruit even in old age, evergreens that are coursing with the fluid of life. Such people are marked by their worship, bringing us back to the first verses of the psalm. They publicly proclaim that YHWH is their rock and he is right. This “rightness” of God is a hallmark of the Jewish faith. In the ancient world where gods were as crooked as the human beings who invented them, YHWH stands apart as righteous, just, and holy. He is the standard that does not change with the shifting cultural sands. YHWH himself is like a tree that points upward, a rock that doesn’t change EVER. He is the certainty that we can root ourselves in. Attached to his permanence, our lives have permanence, our influence grows, and we flourish as we were designed. I want to be that tree -- consistent, deeply rooted, a source of shade and life to others, full of vitality to the very end, upright and true, pointing heavenward like a cedar, flourishing in the desert like a palm tree in an oasis. These tree people are described as “the righteous”, meaning that their essence is the same as that of God -- upright with no unrighteousness in them. Another word for this is integrity. They are consistent, true both inside and out. You cut into them and you will only find the same thing all the way through. We have a tree in our backyard whose insides are rotting out. From all other appearances it looks healthy, but its days are numbered. The rot continues to grow and at some point the trunk itself will snap under the pressure of wind or the weight of ice. A person who lacks integrity will experience that same catastrophic failure inevitably. Don’t allow sin to rot you from the inside while you maintain the appearance of life on the outside. Be the tree you were meant to be.