Psalm 92

Psalms 92:1

“It is good to give praise to the Lord, and to sing to your name, O Most High. He did not say, it is good to sing, and afterwards to give praise; but see the order: It is good to give praise, and it is good to sing. First do penance and wipe away your sins with tears, and afterwards sing to the Lord. It is good to give praise to the Lord: not to men, but to God: confess your sins to him who is able to heal. And to sing to your name, O Most High.”

Psalms 92:1

“It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, or Jehovah. It is good ethically, for it is the Lord's right; it is good emotionally, for it is pleasant to the heart; it is good practically, for it leads others to render the same homage. When duty and pleasure combine, who will be backward? To give thanks to God is but a small return for the great benefits wherewith he daily loadeth us; yet as he by his Spirit calls it a good thing we must not despise it, or neglect it.”

Psalms 92:2

“To proclaim your mercy in the morning, and your truth throughout the night. Understand carefully what is said: To proclaim your mercy in the morning and your truth throughout the night. Each little verse refers to a corresponding one. It is good to give praise to the Lord — to proclaim your mercy in the morning. If you give praise to the Lord, you proclaim in the morning the mercies of the Lord. And to sing to your name, O Most High. Refer this verse to the one that follows: And your truth throughout the night.”

Psalms 92:2

“IT is a notion of the Rabbis that this Psalm was sung by Adam in Paradise. There are no reasons why we should believe it was so and there are a great many why we should be sure it was not. It is not possible that Adam could have sung concerning brutish men and fools, and the wicked springing as grass, while as yet he was the only man, and himself un-fallen.”

Psalms 92:2

“To shew forth thy loving kindness in the morning. The day should begin with praise: no hour is too early for holy song. Loving kindness is a most appropriate theme for those dewy hours when morn is sowing all the earth with orient pearl. Eagerly and promptly should we magnify the Lord; we leave unpleasant tasks as long as we can, but our hearts are so engrossed with the adoration of God that we would rise betimes to attend to it.”

Psalms 92:3

“On the ten-stringed psaltery, with a song upon the harp. I say it plainly: as often as we lift up our hands without wandering thoughts and disputings, we sing to the Lord on the ten-stringed instrument. On the ten-stringed psaltery, with a song upon the harp. Our harp is body and soul and spirit: they are composed of all the strings.”

Psalms 92:3

“Upon an instrument of ten strings; with the fullest range of music, uttering before God with the full compass of melody the richest emotions of his soul. And upon the psaltery; thus giving variety to praise: the Psalmist felt that every sweet-sounding instrument should be consecrated to God. George Herbert and Martin Luther aided their private devotions by instrumental music; and whatever may have been the differences of opinion in the Christian church, as to the performance of instrumental music in public, we have met with no objection to its personal and private use.”

Psalms 92:3

“In such a work all proper aid must be used. with a . . . sound--or, on Higgaion (see on Ps 9:16), perhaps an instrument of that name, from its sound resembling the muttered sound of meditation, as expressed also by the word. This is joined with the harp.”

Psalms 92:4

“For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work. It was natural for the psalmist to sing, because he was glad, and to sing unto the Lord, because his gladness was caused by a contemplation of the divine work. If we consider either creation or providence, we shall find overflowing reasons for joy; but when we come to review the work of redemption, gladness knows no bounds, but feels that she must praise the Lord with all her might.”

Psalms 92:4

“Let us then make his praises glorious. Has God made us glad through the works of his providence for us, and of his grace in us, and both through the great work of redemption? (1.) Let us thence fetch encouragement for our faith and hope; so the psalmist does: I will triumph in the works of thy hands.”

Psalms 92:5

“Your thoughts have been made exceedingly deep. Whatever I may think, I cannot find it out. "Your judgments are an abyss." "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God." I too will say with Ecclesiastes: "I said, I will become wise: and it was made far from me, much farther than it was; and it is deep — who can find it out?" What Ecclesiastes says is this: Before I put my thought to the work, I did not see the magnificence of God.”

Psalms 92:5

“O Lord, how great are thy works!.... Of nature, providence, and grace, both for quantity and for quality, for number, excellency, and glory, as they are a display of God's wisdom, power, and goodness; see Psa 104:24, and thy thoughts are very deep; his counsels, purposes, and designs, they are unfathomable and unsearchable; see 1Co 2:10.”

Psalms 92:5

“O Lord, how great are thy works! He is lost in wonder. He utters an exclamation of amazement. How vast! How stupendous are the doings of Jehovah! Great for number, extent, and glory and design are all the creations of the Infinite One. And thy thoughts are very deep. The Lord's plans are as marvellous as his acts; his designs are as profound as his doings are vast. Creation is immeasurable, and the wisdom displayed in it unsearchable.”

Psalms 92:6

“The foolish man does not know, and the stupid man does not understand these things. Whoever is not a Christian, and in the works does not understand the creator, that man is foolish.”

Psalms 92:6

“A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this. In this and the following verses the effect of the psalm is heightened by contrast; the shadows are thrown in to bring out the lights more prominently. What a stoop from the preceding verse; from the saint to the brute, from the worshipper to the boor, from the psalmist to the fool! Yet, alas, the character described here is no uncommon one.”

Psalms 92:6

“A brutish man knoweth not--that is, God's works, so the Psalmist describes himself (Ps 73:22) when amazed by the prosperity of the wicked, now understood and explained.”

Psalms 92:7

“When sinners spring up like grass. You have seen emperors, you have seen prefects, you have seen armies, you have seen victories and triumphs. Yesterday it was, and today it is not. And all who work iniquity have appeared, that they may perish forever and ever. Yesterday it appeared like a flower, today the flower itself does not appear. Yesterday the grass was green, today it is dried up. Where is that beauty? Nothing is good except what is eternal: nothing is good except what is everlasting. Whatever has an end is not even to be counted among good things.”

Psalms 92:7

“When the wicked spring as the grass, in abundance, and apparent strength, hastening on their progress like verdant plants, which come to perfection in a day, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; flowering in their prime and pride, their pomp and their prosperity; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever. They grow to die, they blossom to be blasted. They flower for a short space to wither without end. Greatness and glory are to them but the prelude of their overthrow.”

Psalms 92:8-9

“But you, O Lord, are the Most High for evermore. For behold your enemies, O Lord, for behold your enemies shall perish, and all who work iniquity shall be scattered. If they perish, how shall they be scattered? For he who has once perished cannot be scattered. He ought to have said: Behold, they shall be scattered, and they shall perish.”

Psalms 92:8

“But thou, Lord, art most high for evermore. This is the middle verse of the Psalm, and the great fact which this Sabbath song is meant to illustrate. God is at once the highest and most enduring of all beings. Others rise to fall, but he is the Most High to eternity. Glory be to his name! How great a God we worship! Who would not fear thee, O thou High Eternal One! The ungodly are destroyed for ever, and God is most high for ever; evil is cast down, and the Holy One reigns supreme eternally.”

Psalms 92:9

“For, lo, thine enemies, O Lord. It is a wonder full of instruction and warning, observe it, O ye sons of men; for, lo, thine enemies shall parish; they shall cease from among men, they shall be known no more. In that the thing is spoken twice it is confirmed by the Lord, it shall surely be, and that speedily. All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered; their forces shall be dispersed, their hopes broken, and themselves driven hither and thither like chaff before the tempest.”

Psalms 92:9

“The workers of iniquity are now associated, and closely linked together, in a combination against God and religion; but they shall be scattered, and disabled to help one another against the just judgment of God. In the world to come they shall be separated from the congregation of the righteous; so the Chaldee, Ps. i.”

Psalms 92:10

“But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn. The believer rejoices that he shall not be suffered to perish, but shall be strengthened and enabled to triumph over his enemies, by the divine aid. The unicorn may have been some gigantic ox or buffalo now unknown, and perhaps extinct—among the ancients it was the favourite symbol of unconquerable power; the psalmist adopts it as his emblem. Faith takes delight in foreseeing the mercy of the Lord, and sings of what he will do as well as of what he has done.”

Psalms 92:10

“DAVID IS very positive. He does not say, "I hope I shall be anointed with fresh oil and I have a pleasing expectation that it may be so." But he speaks of his future as absolutely certain—"I shall be anointed with fresh oil." Nor will it appear at all wonderful that he should be so positive if you read the Psalm, for his subject there is the ever-living and all-sufficient God. And when we get near to God we get into the region of positive certainty.”

Psalms 92:10

“Grace is the anointing of the Spirit; when this is given to help in the time of need, and is received, as there is occasion, from the fulness that is in Christ Jesus, we are then anointed with fresh oil. Some read it, When I grow old thou shalt anoint me with fresh oil. My old age shalt thou exalt with rich mercy; so the LXX.”

Psalms 92:11

“Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies. The words, "my desire", inserted by the translators, had far better have been left out. He does not say what he should see concerning his enemies, he leaves that blank, and we have no right to fill in the vacant space with words which look vindictive. He would see that which would be for God's glory, and that which would be eminently right and just. And mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me.”

Psalms 92:11

“This perhaps has reference to Christ, to his victory over Satan, death, and hell, the destruction of those that persecuted and crucified him, and opposed his gospel, and to the final ruin of the impenitent at the last day. Those that rise up against Christ will fall before him and be made his footstool. He triumphs in God, and his glory and grace.”

Psalms 92:12

“The song now contrasts the condition of the righteous with that of the graceless. The wicked "spring as the grass", but The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, whose growth may not be so rapid, but whose endurance for centuries is in fine contrast with the transitory verdure of the meadow.”

Psalms 92:12

“Where God gives true grace he will give more grace. God's trees shall grow higher, like the cedars, the tall cedars in Lebanon; they shall grow nearer heaven, and with a holy ambition shall aspire towards the upper world; they shall grow stronger, like the cedars, and fitter for use.”

Psalms 92:12-15

“The proper work of the sabbath is praising God; every sabbath day must be a thanksgiving-day; and the other services of the day must be in order to this, and therefore must by no means thrust this into a corner. One of the Jewish writers refers it to the kingdom of the Messiah, and calls it, A psalm or song for the age to come, which shall be all sabbath.”

Psalms 92:13

Planted in the house of the Lord, in the courts of our God they shall flourish. In one place we are planted, in another we flourish: here we are planted, in the kingdom of heaven we shall flourish. "I," he says, "planted, Apollos watered, but the Lord gave the increase."

Psalms 92:13

“Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. In the courtyards of Oriental houses trees were planted, and being thoroughly screened, they would be likely to bring forth their fruit to perfection in trying seasons; even so, those who by grace are brought into communion with the Lord, shall be likened to trees planted in the Lord's house, and shall find it good to their souls. No heart has so much joy as that which abides in the Lord Jesus. Fellowship with the stem begets fertility in the branches.”

Psalms 92:13

“The trees of righteousness do not grow of themselves; they are planted, not in common soil, but in paradise, in the house of the Lord. Trees are not usually planted in a house; but God's trees are said to be planted in his house because it is from his grace, by his word and Spirit, that they receive all the sap and virtue that keep them alive and make them fruitful.”

Psalms 92:14

“They shall still bring forth fruit in old age. Nature decays but grace thrives. Fruit, as far as nature is concerned, belongs to days of vigour; but in the garden of grace, when plants are weak in themselves, they become strong in the Lord, and abound in fruit acceptable with God.”

Psalms 92:14

“The comforts of God's Spirit, and the joys of his salvation, shall be a refreshing oil to the hoary heads that are found in the way of righteousness. They are here represented as trees of righteousness, Isa. lxi. Observe, [1.] The good place they are fixed in; they are planted in the house of the Lord,”

Psalms 92:15

“This mercy to the aged proves the faithfulness of their God, and leads them to shew that the Lord is upright, by their cheerful testimony to his ceaseless goodness. We do not serve a Master who will run back from his promise. Whoever else may defraud us, he never will. Every aged Christian is a letter of commendation to the immutable fidelity of Jehovah. He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.”