Psalm 92

Psalms 92:1-3

The Hebrew title, which this page's text does not show, reads A Psalm, a Song for the sabbath day, the only psalm in the whole Psalter titled for that day, and the bench reads the seventh day's rest behind a call to thanksgiving that spans morning and night alike. It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord opens with the word good, tying worship itself to the goodness pronounced over the sabbath at creation. To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night, upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery, upon the harp with a solemn sound names two attributes and three instruments, praise offered across the whole day with the whole range of the temple's music.

Psalms 92:4-6

For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work, I will triumph in the works of thy hands ties personal joy to the word work, used twice in one verse. O Lord, how great are thy works, and thy thoughts very deep sets two things side by side, what God does where it can be seen and what he thinks, described as deep rather than explained. A brutish man knoweth not, neither doth a fool understand this names the reason the wicked of the verses that follow spring up and are cut down without alarm, never grasping the deep thoughts behind the visible works.

Psalms 92:7-9

When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is that they shall be destroyed for ever answers the brutish man's confusion from the previous verse: the wicked's flourishing is not missed by God but is itself the road to their destruction. But thou, Lord, art most high for evermore stands alone as the one verse of pure praise between two about the wicked's end. For, lo, thine enemies, O Lord, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish, doubled in the Hebrew for emphasis, and all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered closes the thought where it began, the same phrase from verse 7 now stated as certain rather than merely observed.

Psalms 92:10-11

But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn, the King James word for a great wild ox, pictures strength lifted high the way such an animal lifts its horn to fight. I shall be anointed with fresh oil pairs that strength with the anointing oil poured over kings and priests, both images of a life renewed rather than worn down. Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, and mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me returns to the watching posture of verse 8, the singer again a witness to a judgment he does not carry out himself.

Psalms 92:12-15

The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree, he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon answers the wicked's grass of verse 7 with two trees instead, one prized for its fruit and one for its size and endurance, neither cut down quickly. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God locates the tree in the temple itself, growth tied to nearness rather than to soil. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age, they shall be fat and flourishing promises what grass never does, continued fruit late in life, and the psalm's last words, to shew that the Lord is upright, he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him, turn the whole song back to the deep thoughts of verse 5, now stated as a plain conclusion rather than the fool's puzzle.