Psalms 93: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This short psalm declares that the LORD reigns as king, dressed in majesty and strength, and that the world he set in place stands firm. His throne was established long ago, and he himself has no beginning. Rivers and seas raise their roar and their waves, but the LORD on high is mightier than they are. The psalm closes by saying his declared decrees are fully trustworthy, and that holiness fits his house forever.

Claim by Claim

1. 93:1
   • The LORD reigns as king.
   • The LORD is clothed with majesty.
   • The LORD is clothed with strength.
   • The LORD has girded himself with strength.
   • The world is firmly established.
   • The world cannot be moved.
2. 93:2
   • Your throne is established from of old.
   • You exist from everlasting.
3. 93:3
   • The rivers have lifted up, O LORD.
   • The rivers have lifted up their voice.
   • The rivers lift up their crashing waves.
4. 93:4
   • The LORD on high is mightier than the sounds of many waters.
   • The LORD on high is mightier than the mighty breakers of the sea.
5. 93:5
   • Your testimonies are very trustworthy.
   • Holiness befits your house, O LORD.
   • Holiness befits your house for the length of days.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

93:1

"The LORD is king" (or "the LORD reigns") was the shout used when a new king took the throne (the same words the messengers cry in 2 Samuel 15:10 and 2 Kings 9:13. The Hebrew can be heard either as announcing an event, "he has become king," or as stating a permanent fact, "he is king," and the psalm does not settle which. Where the King James prints LORD in capitals it stands for the personal name of Israel's God, which the Hebrew text spells out but which readers of it did not pronounce aloud. To "gird" oneself was to gather the loose folds of a long robe and tie them at the waist with a belt or sash) what a person did before fighting, running, or hard work. Here strength is both the robe and the belt: the picture is of someone dressed for action rather than at rest.

93:2

"From everlasting" translates a Hebrew phrase meaning "from the remote past", time stretching back beyond any reckoning. The verse sets two things side by side: the throne, which was set up at some point however distant, and the king himself, who was not.

93:3

The word rendered "floodwaters" is the ordinary Hebrew word for rivers or streams in flood. In the poetry of Israel and its neighbors, roaring water (river torrents, storm surge, the open sea) was the standard image for the forces that a king or a god has to master. "Lifted up their voice" is the same phrase used elsewhere of a person raising their voice to shout or weep. The line is repeated three times with a small change each time, a normal Hebrew way of building intensity, so that the water gets louder as the verse goes on.

93:4

The Hebrew of this verse is compressed and can be read two ways. It may be a comparison (the LORD on high is mightier than the roar of the waters, as the King James takes it) or a statement standing on its own: above the roar of the waters, the LORD on high is majestic. Translations divide, and the wording supports both.

93:5

"Testimonies" translates a Hebrew word for formal declarations laid down by a ruler and treated as binding witnesses against anyone who breaks them, the terms of an agreement, put on record. "Sure" here means confirmed and reliable, not merely likely. "Holiness becometh thine house" uses "becometh" in its older sense of befits or suits, the way we still say a color becomes someone; the idea is that holiness is the fitting adornment of the place, as robes befit a king. "Thine house" means the temple in Jerusalem, God's residence in the language of the psalms. The closing phrase is literally "for length of days," meaning for all the time to come.