Deeper Commentary

Psa 93:1

Yahweh reigns!-
The preceding Psalm 92 was a Psalm for the sabbath, and it seems Psalm 93 follows on from this. In some traditions it is recited at the end of the Sabbath. It was understood at the time that a god became enthroned eternally as king after he had defeated his enemies. This is why God's enemies are described in :3,4 as floods of waters that He has overcome. And so this proclamation implies an eternal Divine victory- although in fact He had always been king, from eternity (:2). It is why the Lord's crucifixion was in a sense His enthronement in glory. And yet in another sense, God has won every battle before it happens and was always king from the beginning. God's kingship is as firmly, eternally established as is the world: "The world also is established to stand firm, so that it can’t be moved. Your throne is established..." (:2). God's Kingdom, His Kingship over the earth, was established from the beginning; for now, the waters have arisen over the earth for a brief moment, especially during Israel's exile from their land. But His Kingdom is eternal and will soon be re-established visibly upon the earth. Hence the big theme that the Kingdom of God existed in the past but will be established again on earth at the Lord's return. For then the disciples' question will be answered: "Will you at this time restore the Kingdom?".

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. The language here is of a king clothed with all the insignia of active kingship. His "Majesty" and royal clothing are the terms used of how He was displayed at His victory at the Red Sea (Ex. 15:1,3,13). There it was stated that "Yahweh shall reign for ever and ever" (Ex. 15:18). The Jews in exile, like us at times, felt that God existed but was somehow not reigning any more. These Psalms insist that He is as active and gloriously reigning as He ever was. His people are the dominion over which He is King; we are His Kingdom, although at this point His visible Kingdom is not established on earth over men. It will be re-established at the Lord's return. We recall the disciples' question, "Will you at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel?". And the way at Zedekiah's time, the Kingdom was overturned until Messiah comes to reign upon Yahweh's throne which is also David's throne (Ez. 21:25-27). We have a king, a culture, a history, principles and laws under which to live. We are in a kingdom. We are not in this world. "My Kingdom is not of this world", the Lord said, having just told His Father that His people were "not of this world". God is King. He still reigns. And this is the great comfort in times of crisis, when it seems random forces and the winds of fortune blow hard against us. The earth is established, it will not be destroyed, Yahweh is King, your king, you are His, one of His people. He has not gone anywhere. In fact, He was king from before time. Always king. Always in perfect control.   

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 puts 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).

As discussed on :1, the surrounding culture was familiar with the idea of Mesopotamian and Canaanite deities fighting against the sea gods, winning, and then being enthroned. Psalm 93 deconstructs that by presenting Yahweh as the victor from the start, enthroned from infinity and to infinity; and so the lifting up of the waters in opposition to Him (:3) is utterly vain. He doesn't have to fight for His Kingship nor struggle to defend and retain it. It is this kind of kingship that we are to praise; it is why God's Kingship is the cause of praise (:1 "Yahweh reigns!"). Likewise in all our conflicts, victory is assured because it was there from the beginning. The lamb was slain from the foundation of the world.

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.

On one hand, the waters represent powerful natural forces that are beyond human control. In the context of the exile, they refer to the Gentile nations. Thus Is. 17:12,13 speak of "the uproar of many peoples, who roar like the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations, that rush like the rushing of mighty waters! The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters: but He will rebuke them, and they will flee far off". Assyria was likened to the Euphrates (Is. 8:7,8), Egypt to the Nile (Jer. 46:7,8). But throughout the Psalms, God orders them to praise (Ps. 98:8), to rejoice and clap their hands (Ps. 69:35; 98:8; 148:4) and even to roar in praise (Ps. 96:11; 98:7). It is God "who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar; Yahweh of Armies is His name" (Jer. 31:35). And He sets limits for the mighty waters of the seas (Job 26:10). "He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deeps in storehouses.... Yahweh brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the thoughts of the peoples to be of no power" (Ps. 33:7,10). God is in complete control. There is no radical evil out there which is outside of His control. And He is able to turn the roar of enemies into praise of Him. Thus the meaning of the symbolism is double- waters represent enemies or issues that seem to have crushing power, but their lifted up voices or noise can also represent praise.

 

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). Despite the loud and scary noise of the waters, the forces of apparent chaos around us, our lives are not chaotic. God is in control and mighty and high above all that background noise. The lives of believers in God's Kingdom differ starkly from those of unbelievers, whose lives are indeed chaotic, influenced by apparent chaos, as they stumble from one wave of crisis to another. Until they die.

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. In the context of the exiles, the words that stood firm were that God's house would eternally exist. They thought that promise applied solely to the physical temple; but God's holy house is now clearly redefined as His people, not any physical building.