Psalms 92King James Version
A psalm for the sabbath day. It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord. The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree. They that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age.
A Sabbath psalm. It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises morning and night. God's works are great and deep; the brutish man does not know it. The wicked spring as grass only to be destroyed. God is exalted forever; enemies perish. But the righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, grow like a cedar in Lebanon, still bearing fruit in old age, fat and flourishing. The psalm ends: the LORD is upright, my rock, no unrighteousness in him.
The Sabbath perspective allows the worshipper to see what the brutish man cannot: the temporary flourishing of the wicked versus the deep-rooted fruitfulness of the righteous.
verse: "The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon." The two trees chosen are the most enduring and deep-rooted in the ancient Near East.
Superscription: 'A Psalm or Song for the sabbath day.' The only day-designated psalm in the entire Psalter. Used in Jewish liturgy since ancient times for Shabbat morning. The deep works of God (vv4-5) are not merely creation but the providential arc that includes the wicked's temporary flourishing and final destruction.
The psalmist as the worshipper giving thanks; God as the deep and great worker; the brutish and foolish man who does not understand; the wicked who flourish and perish; the righteous who are planted in the house of the LORD.
Psalm 92 is the only psalm explicitly designated for the Sabbath day. Jewish tradition still uses it in Sabbath morning liturgy. Its movement from morning praise to Sabbath perspective to deep-rooted fruitfulness models the Sabbath's function: to place the week's events in a longer frame where God's depth can be perceived.
For when the week has been hard and you need to step back into a longer frame where what endures becomes visible again. The psalm is for the Sabbath precisely because it requires the pause.
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:
2To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night,
3Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound.
4For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands.
5O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.
6A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.
7When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever:
8But thou, LORD, art most high for evermore.
9For, lo, thine enemies, O LORD, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.
10But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.
11Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, and mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me.
12The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.
14They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;
15To shew that the LORD is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.