Bible Commentaries

Psalms 92:1. It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High:

It is good in itself; it is good for those who hear it; but it is especially good for our own hearts to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto the name of the Most High. Sometimes, when we are very heavy in spirit, if we would take care not to defraud the Lord of the revenue of praise that is due unto him, we should find that the readiest way to bring comfort to ourselves is to sing praises unto his holy name. Brother and sisters in Christ, it is not very notable work to praise God when all things go well with us; it is far grander work to praise him when everything seems to be against us. It is because the nightingale doth sing by night that he hath such excellence among the birds, and if you and I can praise God in the dark, then we shall find that it is a good thing for ourselves to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto the name of the Most High.

Psalms 92:2. To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithful every night,

Begin the day by setting forth the Lord’s lovingkindness. It was his lovingkindness that watched over you when you lay unconscious and defenseless, and could not therefore protect yourself; it was his lovingkindness that drew wide the curtain of the night, that touched your eyelids, and awoke you out of that sleep which was the image of death, and bade you look out upon the rising sun. Therefore take the key of the morning to open the day, and let it be the golden key of praise; show forth the Lord’s lovingkindness in the morning.

And when night comes again, let us then sing of God’s faithfulness. We have experienced it through another day, let us praise him for it. Now we see how he has borne with us, pardoned us, preserved us, supplied our needs, and continued to educate us throughout another day; let us therefore praise and bless his holy name, and so close the day, and commit ourselves to sleep again under his divine protection.

Psalms 92:3. Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound.

Under the old dispensation, instrumental music seemed more congruous than it does now with the spiritual worship into which we have been introduced. If we must ever have instrumental music in our worship, let it be the same the very same as David had; and then I for one, though I should still think it be going back to the old dispensation long since superseded, would put up with it. I could never get much further than that, I think, for what instrument is there that is equal to the human voice, what music can be compared with it? All other sound is but the poor attempt of man to rival the creation of his God; but the human voice is full of charming melodies and harmonies, and if it be controlled by a true heart, there is nothing like it even to our ears, while it seems to me that it must be far more acceptable to God than the product of mere mechanism.

Psalms 92:4. For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands.

There is a blessed verse to come from the heart and mind of a happy man who is praising God, and who looks on all the works of the Lord, in creation, providence, and redemption, and makes them all the subject of his joyous doing.

Psalms 92:5. O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.

There is little that we know of the thoughts of God except as we gather them from his works or learn them from his Word, “ for what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him ? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” It is by divine revelation that we must know the thoughts of God, and the more we know of them, the more shall we realize that they are very deep.

Psalms 92:6. A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.

He looks at nature, and as he sees its varied operations, he observes certain eternal law as he calls them, but he does not see the power at the back of those laws which makes the laws potent for the government of the world. Nay, he lives and walks where God has displayed his power to the full, yet he fails to see him. It would be a strange proceeding for anyone to go into an artist’s house, and look at his picture and his sculpture, and yet never to think of him, but this is what the brutish man does with regard to the works of God, and with regard to God himself.

Psalms 92:7. When the wicked spring as the grass, —

Numerous, fresh, vigorous, —

Psalms 92:7. And when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever:

That is the end to which they will surely come, no matter how much they boast, nor how they grow and flourish till they seem, like the grass in the meadow, to cover everything, that you can go nowhere without seeing them. Yet “they shall be destroyed for ever.”

Psalms 92:8. But thou, LORD, art most high for evermore.

The psalmist began by calling the Lord most high, and now he says that he is “most high for evermore.” Yes, this is our joy that God never passes away; he abides for ever. Myriads of the ungodly have come and gone, empires of wickedness have risen to great power, and in due time have passed away like dreams, but we can still say, with the psalmist “Thou, Lord, art most high for evermore.”

Psalms 92:9-10. For, lo, thine enemies, O LORD, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered. But my horn halt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.

The believer, though he is very weak in his own consciousness, and utterly insignificant in his own esteem, shall receive fresh power from God; and when the wicked melt away, he shall grow stronger and stronger.

Psalms 92:11. Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, and mine ear shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise by against me.

The translators put in the words my desire in both cases they are printed in italics to show that they are not in the original. No doubt the psalmist means that his eye should see the end of his enemies, and his ears should hear of their total overthrow.

Psalms 92:12. The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

The palm tree flourishes amidst the desert sunshine, growing straight upright towards heaven without a branch that deviates to the right or the left, and bearing its great masses of fruit as near heaven as ever it can. It is a fine type of Christian life and growth and fruitfulness A Christian should also be “like a cedar in Lebanon,” firmly rooted in his appointed place, and defying the winter’s snows which threaten to bury him out of sight.

Psalms 92:13. Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our Lord.

Like trees planted in the courtyard, screened and protected, such are true believer; God is their defense, and they are screened within the court of the Lord’s house.

Psalms 92:14. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;

When worldings decay, they shall still be fruitful. They shall not feel, as so many others do, that their age is a curse; it shall be to them a blessing, ripening them for eternity, and it shall be a blessing to all by whom they are surrounded.

Psalms 92:15. To shew that the LORD is upright: he is my rock,

Can each one of you say that concerning the Lord, “ He is my rock, my foundation, my refuge, my shelter “?

Psalms 92:15. And there is no unrightousness in him.

Say that when you have lost the dearest one you ever knew. Say that when your property has melted like the hoar frost in the morning. Say that when every bone in your body is aching, and some fell disease is hastening you to an early grave. . There is no unrighteousness in him.” How long have you known him? If it be seventy years or more than that, he has never been unfaithful to you, nor suffered a single promise of his to fail. Write this down as the testimony of the experience of all God’s people, “There is no unrighteousness is him.”