Psalm 93:1

The psalm’s first two words in English carry everything that follows. The verb mâlak means to reign, and it can also mean to take the throne. Here it declares a kingship that is active and present. God holds the title of King and he is using its authority now, over creation and over history. The name the psalm uses is Yᵉhôvâh, the covenant name of Israel’s God, which speaks of him as the self-existent and eternal One. So the King of all the earth is the personal God who bound himself to his people.

Psalm 93 opens a group of psalms that celebrate the LORD as King (Psalms 93 and 95–99), often called the enthronement or kingship psalms. The same cry returns in that group: “The LORD reigneth; let the earth rejoice” (Psalm 97:1). It sounds again at the end of Scripture, when the great multitude in heaven praises the Lord God omnipotent who reigns (Revelation 19:6).

Among the nations around Israel, kings claimed the favour of their gods or claimed to be divine themselves, and their empires rose and fell. Israel confessed that the LORD alone is the true King, over his own people and over every nation. The psalm was very likely sung in Israel’s gathered worship, and it may have had a place at the Feast of Tabernacles or at a new year festival, when God’s kingship and his faithful care were celebrated.

“The world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved” is the result of the reign just described. The verb kûwn means to stand upright, and so to set up, fix and make sure. The habitable world stands firm because God set it in place and holds it there, and its security rests on his strength and not on its own.

Verse 2 gives the foundation under verse 1. The word for throne, kiççêʼ, means a seat or throne, the seat of a king, and here it stands for God’s rule over all things. “Established” is kûwn again, the same verb used for the world in verse 1. The world is firm because the throne above it is firm, and the throne is fixed “of old”, before there was any creation to rule.

“Thou art from everlasting” is the reason. The word ʻôwlâm reaches back beyond all time, to a past with no beginning. God’s throne has always stood because God has always been. The two halves of the verse say one truth from two sides, the first about his rule and the second about himself. Human kings receive a throne and lose it, while the LORD’s kingship is as old as he is.

Scripture says the same elsewhere. Moses confesses that God was God before the mountains and the world were made (Psalm 90:2), and Isaiah calls him the everlasting God (Isaiah 40:28). Because he is eternal, everything true of him is eternal too: his power, his wisdom, his love and his faithfulness. He does not change (Malachi 3:6), and so his promises rest on a character that stays the same.

After two verses of settled majesty the psalm lets us hear what rises against it. “The floods” are named in each of the three clauses of verse 3, and each time they lift something up. The word is nâhâr, which usually means a river and in poetry like this widens to mighty waters. The verb nâsâʼ, to lift or raise, returns with every clause, so the waters keep swelling as we read. The last clause changes from “have lifted up” to “lift up”, which leaves the waves still rising.

The floods have a “voice”, qôwl, the ordinary word for a sound or a voice. The psalm speaks of the waters as if they could roar a challenge, and then shows us the waves themselves, so we both hear and see them.

Notice the words “O LORD” in the first clause. The psalmist reports the flood to God. The rising water is set before the King who has just been praised, and that is where every such report belongs.

Verse 4 is the answer: “The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.” He is “on high”, mârôwm, the exalted place above every earthly power, where Isaiah saw him seated on a throne, high and lifted up (Isaiah 6:1).

The key word is ʼaddîyr, which means majestic, noble and mighty. It stands behind “mightier” and also behind “mighty” in “the mighty waves”. The psalm grants that the sea’s breakers are majestic and then gives the same word to the LORD above them, in a higher degree. His might is of a lordly kind, the might of One who rules.

The rest of the verse piles up the sea’s strength. “Noise” is qôwl, the same word as the “voice” the floods raised in verse 3, so their roar is answered directly. “Many” is rab, much or great, and “waters” is mayim. “Waves” is mishbâr, a breaker, the crashing wave that is the sea’s most violent form, and “sea” is yâm. The second line climbs from the wide roar of many waters to the breakers themselves, and the LORD is mightier than both.

The last verse turns from God’s power to his word and his character. His “testimonies”, ʿēdōt, are what he has made known: his laws, commands, promises and decrees. They are “very sure”, with mĕʾōd, “very”, pressing the point as far as it will go.

“Sure” comes from the verb ʾâman. In its simplest form it means to support or to foster, as a nurse carries a child, and in another form it means to be firm and established, which is the sense of “sure” here. Our word “Amen” comes from the same root. The floods of verse 3 rise and fall, and what God has spoken stands.

The psalm’s own order shows why this belongs here. A King whose throne is fixed from everlasting speaks words that are as fixed as his throne. Another psalm says that his word is settled in heaven for ever (Psalm 119:89), and Jesus says, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35).

“Holiness” is qôdesh, what is set apart from common use for God. In God himself it speaks of his purity and of how far he stands above all he has made. The “house”, bayit, is first the temple in Jerusalem, the place of his presence among his people, where the laws of purity, sacrifice and priesthood taught Israel that the holy God is to be approached with reverence.

“Becometh” is nâʼâh, a verb whose root sense is to be at home, and so to be suitable and beautiful. Holiness is at home in God’s house. It is the beauty that suits the place where he dwells, as well as the standard for it. The words “for ever” close the psalm, and they cover the whole verse: his word stays sure and his house stays holy through all generations.

The New Testament shows us the LORD of this psalm in Jesus Christ. He is the Word who was with God and was God in the beginning, through whom all things were made, and who was made flesh (John 1:1–14). He shared the Father’s glory before the world was (John 17:5), so the throne “of old” is his. He is the one who is, who was and who is to come, the Almighty (Revelation 1:8), and he is the same yesterday, today and for ever (Hebrews 13:8).

The world stands firm through him. All things were created by him, and in him all things hold together (Colossians 1:16–17). He is the brightness of God’s glory, and he upholds all things by his powerful word (Hebrews 1:3).

The clearest sight of verse 4 in the Gospels is on the lake. Jesus rebuked the wind and the sea, “and there was a great calm” (Mark 4:39). The disciples asked, “What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!” (Matthew 8:27). Psalm 93 gives the answer: the One whom the sea obeys is the LORD on high.

The deepest floods are sin, death and the powers of darkness, and he overcame them by his cross and resurrection. He told his disciples that in the world they would have tribulation, and that he has overcome the world (John 16:33). The risen Christ says, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18). He is seated at God’s right hand, far above all rule and authority (Ephesians 1:20–21), and he reigns until every enemy is under his feet (1 Corinthians 15:25). John heard his voice as the sound of many waters (Revelation 1:15) and heard him say that he lives and was dead and is alive for evermore (Revelation 1:18). His kingdom is everlasting (2 Peter 1:11), and the day is coming when the kingdoms of this world become his, and he reigns for ever and ever (Revelation 11:15).

The last verse is fulfilled in him too. All the promises of God are yes and Amen in him (2 Corinthians 1:20), so the sure testimonies have their confirmation in a person. He is also the true house of God. When he said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”, he was speaking of the temple of his body (John 2:19–21). Joined to him, we are built into God’s holy dwelling, counted holy through his righteousness and made holy by the Spirit who lives in us.

Psalm 93 gives us a King before it shows us a flood. By the time the waters rise in verse 3 we have already been told who reigns, how long his throne has stood and why the world holds together. The order is a kindness, because the floods in our own lives are loud, whether they come as a crisis at home, unrest in a nation or the steady noise of a troubled world. The psalm lets them be as loud as they are and then sets the LORD above them. Our peace rests on who is over the waters, whether they are high or low.

It also gives us a way to pray. The psalmist tells God about the flood, “O LORD”, and in the next breath confesses that God is mightier. Both sentences belong in the same prayer.

And it gives us firm ground to stand on. When opinions shift and what looked solid gives way, God’s testimonies are very sure, and a life can be built on them. The same verse shows us that the God who steadies us is holy, and that holiness is the beauty of the place where he lives. Since his people are now that place, the last line of the psalm describes what he is making of us, for ever.