Psalms Chapter 92 · Matthew Poole

Psalm 92:1 A Psalm or Song for the sabbath day. It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High: To be sung upon the weekly sabbath; to which the matter of this Psalm very well agrees. For it celebrates the works of God, both that first and great work of creation, and that succeeding and no less wonderful work of his providence, by which he upholds and governs all his creatures, and especially that by which he ruleth all sorts of men, both good and bad, and that by which he preserveth and manageth his church and people.

The prophet exhorteth to praise God,

Psalm 92:1-3, for his great works,

Psalm 92:4 ,5. His judgments on the wicked,

Psalm 92:6-9. Gracious promises to the righteous,

Psalm 92:10-12. They shall be fruitful,

Psalm 92:13-15.

It is a good work, and a just debt to God.

Psalm 92:2 To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night, To adore and celebrate thy goodness and truth continually, and especially at those two solemn times of morning and evening, which on every day, and especially upon the sabbath day, were devoted to the worship and service of God.

Psalm 92:3 Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound. No text from Poole on this verse.

Psalm 92:4 For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands. Which thou didst create by thine almighty power, and dost still govern with infinite wisdom; one instance whereof we have in the following verses.

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

thy counsels and methods in the government of the world and of thy church.

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

who cannot or doth not seriously consider things, whose mind is corrupted by his sensual and brutish appetites; who is led by sense, and not by reason and faith.

This;

the depth of God’s counsels and works mentioned

Psalm 92:5, or that particular work of God described

Psalm 92:7.

Psalm 92:7 When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever: Their present worldly prosperity is a presage and occasion of their utter and eternal ruin.

Psalm 92:8 But thou, LORD, art most high for evermore. So this verse is added by way of opposition to the former,

They shall perish, but thou shalt endure, as is said in a like comparison,

Psalm 102:26; they flourish for a season, but thou rulest for ever to judge and punish them. Or,

for

(as this Hebrew particle is not seldom used, whereof instances have been formerly given)

thou, Lord, art,

& c. So this verse gives a reason of the former, as well the first branch of it, why God suffers the wicked to flourish so long, because he is not like man, of short and uncertain continuance here, to whom a little time is long and tedious, who therefore impatiently expects the time of vengeance, and fears lest the offender should escape it; whereas God is unchangeable and everlasting, and therefore long-suffering without any inconvenience, and the longest time of the prosperity of the wicked is but short and inconsiderable in his eyes,

a thousand years being in his sight but as yesterday when it is past,

Psalm 90:4, and they can never escape out of his hands; as also of the latter branch of the verse, why the wicked shall be destroyed for ever, because God lives and reigns for ever to execute that just sentence of everlasting punishment which he hath pronounced against them.

Psalm 92:9 For, lo, thine enemies, O LORD, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered. He represents their destruction as present, and as certain, which the repetition of the words implies.

Psalm 92:10 But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil. But as for me and other righteous persons, (of whom he saith the same thing

Psalm 92:12) we shall be advanced to the height of honour, and true and lasting felicity.

Unicorn;

of which

See Poole " Deu 33:17 ".

I shall be anointed;

I shall have great cause of rejoicing and testifying my joy by anointing myself, as the manner was in feasts and all joyful solemnities.

Fresh oil;

sweet and uncorrupted.

Psalm 92:11 Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, and mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me. My desire,

to wit, in the ruin of thine and mine incorrigible enemies.

Shall hear;

what I do not see myself, I shall understand by the certain reports of others.

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

which is constantly green, and flourishing, and fruitful,

Song of Solomon 7:8, and growing even when it is pressed down; and so is a fit emblem of a just man’s person and condition. See

Revelation 7:9.

Like a cedar;

which spreads itself wide, and grows very high and strong, and is very durable, and in some sort incorruptible.

Psalm 92:13 Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. Those that be planted;

whom God by his gracious providence and Holy Spirit hath planted or fixed there.

In the house of the Lord,

i.e. in its courts, which are a part of the house, and oft come under that name in Scripture. And by this house he means the church of God, whereof all just persons are real and living members.

The courts;

which he mentions rather than the house, because he speaks not here of the priests, but of all just men, who were permitted to come no further than into the courts.

Psalm 92:14 They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; When their natural strength decayeth, it shall be renewed; their last days shall be their best days, wherein as they shall grow in grace, so they shall increase in comfort and blessedness.

Psalm 92:15 To shew that the LORD is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. This glorious work of God in compensating the short prosperity of the wicked with everlasting punishments, and of exchanging the momentary afflictions of the just with eternal glory and happiness, doth clearly demonstrate that God is just and blameless in all the dispensations of his providence in the world.