A PSALM TO SING FOR THE SHABBAT DAY
Psalm 92 1 A Psalm to Sing for the Shabbat day. 2 aFh It is good to give thanks to the Eternal, to praise Your name, God beyond all, 3 to tell of Your love in the morning and Your faithfulness every night. 4 With the ten–stringed lute, with the lyre, with the gentle sound of the harp. 5 For You made me rejoice in Your deeds, O God, at the works of Your hand I sing out. 6 God, how great are Your works, Your thoughts are so very deep. 7 The stupid do not know this, nor can the foolish understand, 8 that when the wicked flourish they are only like grass 9 Only You are exalted forever, Eternal. 10 For see Your enemies, God! see how Your enemies shall perish, all who do evil shall scatter. 11 But You exalted my strength like an ox, anointed me with fresh oil. 12 My eyes saw the fate of my enemies; and those who rose up to harm me, my ears have heard their end. 13 The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree, grow tall like a cedar in Lebanon. 14 Planted in the house of their Maker, they shall flourish in the courts of our God, 15 bearing new fruit in old age still full of sap and still green, 16 to declare that the Creator is faithful, my Rock in whom there is no wrong. and when all who do evil spring up their end is always destruction.
evening; the strength and constant renewal of those who stand within God’s presence. Between these outer ‘walls’ that give support to the psalmist, verses 5–7 and 9–11 point to the reality of destructive human forces that flourish (verse 8) in the world, seemingly as plentiful as grass. But in contrast to the righteous who flourish (verse 13) and endure, like a palm tree or cedar, grass soon withers and disappears. At the physical heart of Psalm 92 are four words, literally ‘but You, on high, forever, Eternal!’, locating God at the ‘highest’point in a verse that speaks of God’s ultimate power over those who do evil.
bv/av Psalm 92 and 93 Now firmly within the bounds of Shabbat itself, two Psalms mark the completion of our journey. Both belonged originally to the liturgy of the Temple. Both are composed so that their structure echoes their inner theme: Psalm 92 celebrates God’s power over human destructiveness; Psalm 93 God’s power over the forces of nature. av Psalm 92 The outer framework of the Psalm, verses 1–4 and 12–15, are located in the Temple itself: the music that accompanies the singing of God’s praises, morning and
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