Psalm 93

Psalms 93:1-2

The psalm opens on a declaration rather than a petition: the Lord reigneth, clothed with majesty and girded with strength, the dress and posture of a king taking his seat. Because he reigns the world is stablished, that it cannot be moved, the earth's stability grounded in the throne rather than in itself. Thy throne is established of old, thou art from everlasting pushes the reign behind creation's own beginning, a rule that did not start when the world did.

Psalms 93:3-4

The floods lifted up, three times over, their voice, their waves, give the sea a will of its own, the King James rendering the same instability the ancient world felt in the uproar of great waters. The answer is placed immediately: the Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, the tumult named honestly and then outmatched rather than denied. Delitzsch and Barnes read the floods against the background of the deep of Genesis 1, the waters that were themselves brought under command at creation and remain under it now.

Psalms 93:5

The psalm turns from cosmic uproar to the reliability of God's own word, thy testimonies are very sure, the same steadfastness claimed for the throne now claimed for what he has spoken. Holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, for ever closes the psalm at the temple, the throne of verse 1 and the house of verse 5 forming one picture of a reign that is also a dwelling among his people. Henry reads the two halves of the verse together, sure testimonies and a holy house, as the fixed points a worshipper can stand on once the floods have been named and answered.