Psalm - 93:1-5



The King and His Throne

      1 Yahweh reigns! He is clothed with majesty! Yahweh is armed with strength. The world also is established. It can't be moved. 2 Your throne is established from long ago. You are from everlasting. 3 The floods have lifted up, Yahweh, the floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift up their waves. 4 Above the voices of many waters, the mighty breakers of the sea, Yahweh on high is mighty. 5 Your statutes stand firm. Holiness adorns your house, Yahweh, forevermore.


Chapter In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Psalm 93.

Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

The author of this psalm is unknown, and there is nothing by which we can determine this, or its date, or the occasion on which it was written. It seems, from Psalm 93:5, to have been composed with some reference to the sanctuary, and to the service there: "Holiness becometh thine "house," O Lord," and it may have been designed, with the last psalm, to have been used in the place of public worship on the sabbath-day. It would appear, also, from the structure of the psalm, that it was composed in view of some danger which may have threatened the nation from some hostile power Psalm 93:1-4, and that the design was to impart confidence in God, or to keep up the assurance in the mind of the people that God presided over all, and that his kingdom was safe. With this view, it is adapted to inspire confidence in God in all ages, and in all times of danger. In the Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate, the title is, "The praise of an ode by David, for the day preceding the sabbath, when the earth was founded." The origin of this title is unknown, and it has no authority. There is no evidence that it was composed by David, and the presumption from Psalm 93:5 is that it was composed after the temple was built, and consequently after the death of David.

The universal government of God, Psalm 93:1, Psalm 93:2; the opposition to that government, Psalm 93:3, Psalm 93:4; the truth of God's testimonies, Psalm 93:5.
This Psalm has no title either in the Hebrew or Chaldee. The Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic, state it to be "A song of praise of David for the day preceding the Sabbath, when the earth was founded;" but in such a title there is no information on which any man can rely. This Psalm is written as a part of the preceding in twelve of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. It was probably written at the close of the captivity by the Levites, descendants of Moses.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 93
This psalm is by some ascribed to Moses, by others to David, which latter is more probable; with which agree the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and all the Oriental versions; all which, excepting the Syriac and Arabic versions, say it is a psalm that was made to be sung the day before the sabbath; and it was a custom with the Jews (a) to sing it on the sixth day of the week; which it is likely the authors of the Septuagint version were acquainted with, and therefore inserted it in the title of the psalm, though it is not in the Hebrew text. The subject of the psalm is the kingdom of God; not of nature and providence, but of grace; the kingdom of the Messiah; of the certainty, firmness, and eternity of it, notwithstanding the opposition of mighty enemies; being established by the sure promises of God, which his faithfulness and holiness were engaged to make good. Kimchi says, that all these psalms, this and the following to Psalm 101, are concerning the Messiah; and so say Kabvenaki and Ben Melech.

The majesty, power, and holiness of Christ's kingdom.

The Royal Throne above the Sea of the Peoples
Side by side with those Psalm which behold in anticipation the Messianic future, whether it be prophetically or only typically, or typically and prophetically at the same time, as the kingship of Jahve's Anointed which overcomes and blesses the world, there are others in which the perfected theocracy as such is beheld beforehand, not, however, as an appearing (parusia) of a human king, but as the appearing of Jahve Himself, as the kingdom of God manifest in all its glory. These theocratic Psalm form, together with the christocratic, two series of prophecy referring to the last time which run parallel with one another. The one has for its goal the Anointed of Jahve, who rules out of Zion over all peoples; the other, Jahve sitting above the cherubim, to whom the whole world does homage. The two series, it is true, converge in the Old Testament, but do not meet; it is the history that fulfils these types and prophecies which first of all makes clear that which flashes forth in the Old Testament only in certain climaxes of prophecy and of lyric too (vid., on Psalm 45:1), viz., that the parusia of the Anointed One and the parusia of Jahve is one and the same.
Theocracy is an expression coined by Josephus. In contrast with the monarchical, oligarchical, and democratic form of government of other nations, he calls the Mosaic form θεοκρατία, but he does so somewhat timidly, ὡς ἂν τις εἴποι βιασάμενος τὸν λόγον [c. Apion. ii. 17]. The coining of the expression is thankworthy; only one has to free one's self from the false conception that the theocracy is a particular constitution. The alternating forms of government were only various modes of its adjustment. The theocracy itself is a reciprocal relationship between God and men, exalted above these intermediary forms, which had its first manifest beginning when Jahve became Israel's King (Deuteronomy 33:5, cf. Exodus 15:18), and which will be finally perfected by its breaking through this national self-limitation when the King of Israel becomes King of the whole world, that is overcome both outwardly and spiritually. Hence the theocracy is an object of prediction and of hope. And the word מלך is used with reference to Jahve not merely of the first beginning of His imperial dominion, and of the manifestation of the same in facts in the most prominent points of the redemptive history, but also of the commencement of the imperial dominion in its perfected glory. We find the word used in this lofty sense, and in relation to the last time, e.g., in Isaiah 24:23; Isaiah 52:7, and most unmistakeably in Revelation 11:17; Psalm 19:6. And in this sense יהוה מלך is the watchword of the theocratic Psalm. Thus it is used even in Psalm 47:9; but the first of the Psalm beginning with this watchword is Psalm 93:1-5. They are all post-exilic. The prominent point from which this eschatological perspective opens out is the time of the new-born freedom and of the newly restored state.
Hitzig pertinently says: "This Psalm is already contained in nuce in Psalm 92:9 of the preceding Psalm, which surely comes from the same author. This is at once manifest from the jerking start of the discourse in Psalm 93:3 (cf. Psalm 92:10), which resolves the thought into two members, of which the first subsides into the vocative יהוה." The lxx (Codd. Vat. and Sin.) inscribes it: Εἰς τὴν ἡμέρην τοῦ προσαββάτου, ὅτε κατῴκισται ἡ γῆ, αἶνος ᾠδῆς τῷ Δαυίδ. The third part of this inscription is worthless. The first part (for which Cod. Alex. erroneously has: τοῦ σαββάτου) is corroborated by the Talmudic tradition. Psalm 93:1-5 was really the Friday Psalm, and that, as is said in Rosh ha-shana 31a, ומלך עליהן (בשׁשׁי) על שׁם שׁגמר מלאכתו, because God then (on the sixth day) had completed His creative work and began to reign over them (His creatures); and that ὅτε κατῴκισται (al. κατῴκιστο) is to be explained in accordance therewith: when the earth had been peopled (with creatures, and more especially with men).

*More commentary available by clicking individual verses.


Discussion on Psalm Chapter 93

User discussion about the chapter.






*By clicking Submit, you agree to our Privacy Policy & Terms of Use.