Biblion Bible Commentary
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It Is Good to Give Thanks
Psalms 92:1-15
1 A Psalm. A song for the Sabbath day. It is a good thing to give thanks to Yahweh, to sing praises to your name, Most High, · WEB
The only psalm headed for the Sabbath, and it spends the day thinking about how long things last.
A Psalm. A song for the Sabbath day Psalms 92:1.
The only psalm in the collection with this heading, and its subject is worth noticing: given a day set apart, what the psalm does with it is take a long view.
To proclaim your loving kindness in the morning, and your faithfulness every night Psalms 92:2.
The two covenant words again, distributed across the day — one for each end of it.
How great are your works, Yahweh! Your thoughts are very deep Psalms 92:5.
A senseless man doesn't know, neither does a fool understand this: though the wicked spring up as the grass, and all the evildoers flourish, they will be destroyed forever Psalms 92:6–7.
The thing the fool cannot see is a timescale. He is not described as wrong about the present — the wicked really are flourishing — but as unable to hold the sentence to its end. It is the seventy-third psalm's problem, and the answer is the same: what is missing is not information about now but the latter part.
And grass is the image. The ninetieth psalm used it of human life generally; here it is used of prosperity that comes up fast.
But you, Yahweh, are on high forever more Psalms 92:8.
One line, in the exact middle of the psalm, and it is the shortest verse in it. Everything on either side is about things that rise and fall; the center is the one thing that does neither.
The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree. He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon Psalms 92:12.
Two trees set against the grass. The palm bears fruit for a century and survives in desert conditions; the cedar is the longest-lived and most valuable timber in the region. Neither grows quickly, which is the entire comparison.
They are planted in Yahweh's house. They will flourish in our God's courts Psalms 92:13.
Planted — as in the first psalm, someone put them there. And the location is the sanctuary, which is where the seventy-third psalm's crisis was also resolved.
They will still produce fruit in old age. They will be full of sap and green Psalms 92:14.
The promise is about the end of a life rather than its prime, and it is specific: still fruitful, still full of sap. The image is of a tree that has not become ornamental.
To show that Yahweh is upright. He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him Psalms 92:15.
The purpose clause. Old people still bearing fruit are evidence, and what they are evidence of is God's uprightness — which is precisely the thing the flourishing of the wicked had called into question at verse seven.
settled What this mark means