Deeper Commentary

Psa 93:1

Yahweh reigns!-
Literally, 'has become king'. Perhaps this Psalm is David's reflections at the time when he became king, realizing that Yahweh is the true king of Israel.

He is clothed with majesty! Yahweh is armed with strength. The world also is established to stand firm, so that it can’t be moved-
The solid kingship of Yahweh is contrasted later in the Psalm with the swelling of the waters against Him. David felt this to be appropriate to himself, for when he became king he was surrounded by surges of opposition.

Psa 93:2

Your throne is established from long ago; You are from everlasting-
David is humbly reflecting that his throne is in fact God's. And that throne has always been, and is certain. Any opposition to him was therefore ultimately going to fail, so long as he retained his perspective- that he was reigning on God's throne and not his own, as God's agent, and not as king himself purely in his own right and name.

The idea of a "throne" is of judgment. God is now enthroned as judge (Ps. 93:2; Mt. 5:34 “the heaven is God’s throne”). We are now inescapably in God’s presence (Ps. 139:2); and ‘God’s presence’ is a phrase used about the final judgment in 2 Thess. 1:9; Jude 24; Rev. 14:10. Hence “God is [now] the judge: he putteth down one and setteth up another” (Ps. 75:7) – all of which He will also due at the last day (Lk. 14:10). The essence of judgment is ongoing now; “we make the answer now”. God’s present judgment is often paralleled with His future judgment. Thus “The Lord shall judge the people... God judges [now] the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day... he will whet his sword; he has [right now] bent his bow, and made it ready” (Ps. 7:8,11-13). We are come now “to God the judge of all” (Heb. 12:23).

Psa 93:3

The floods have lifted up, Yahweh, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves-
As noted on :1, the floods and waves represent the opposition of peoples to God's rulership. David, as king on Yahweh's throne, faced huge opposition from the house of Saul to his kingship, as well as many later challenges to it. But he took comfort that all this swelling of peoples was as nothing against the eternal Kingship of God which he represented.

Psa 93:4

Above the voices of many waters, the mighty breakers of the sea, Yahweh on high is mighty-
As explained on :1,3, this refers to the "voice" of the opposition to David's kingship. He was particularly sensitive to words, as so many of his Psalms indicate. The allusion is to how the waters of the Red Sea were totally under God's control (Ex. 15:10).

Psa 93:5

Your words stand firm. Holiness adorns Your house, Yahweh, forever-
The words in view may be God's statements that David indeed was to be king. But David realized that if God's throne was David's throne, then David's house was to as Yahweh's house, adorned with holiness. Solomon interpreted this in physical terms, adorning the temple with symbols of holiness (the cherubim) and gold; but the real adornment was of personal holiness, which Solomon failed in ultimately because of his obsession with the external and material.