Reflections on Psalms 92

 Psalms 92(Contemporary English Version)

1. (A psalm and a song for the Sabbath.) It is wonderful to be grateful and to sing your praises, LORD Most High!
   
2. It is wonderful each morning to tell about your love and at night to announce how faithful you are.
   
3. I enjoy praising your name to the music of harps,
   
4. because everything you do makes me happy, and I sing joyful songs.
   
5. You do great things, LORD. Your thoughts are too deep
   
6. for an ignorant fool to know or understand.
   
7. Though the wicked sprout and spread like grass, they will be pulled up by their roots.
   
8. But you will rule over all of us forever,
   
9. and your hateful enemies will be scattered and then destroyed.
   
10. You have given me the strength of a wild ox, and you have chosen me to be your very own.
    
11. My eyes have seen, and my ears have heard the doom and destruction of my terrible enemies.
    
12. Good people will prosper like palm trees, and they will grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon.
    
13. They will take root in your house, LORD God, and they will do well.
    
14. They will be like trees that stay healthy and fruitful, even when they are old.
    
15. And they will say about you, "The LORD always does right! God is our mighty rock." 

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This "song for the Sabbath day" proclaims that "It is good to praise the Lord." (92:1) This is true in so many ways. Certainly it is good to praise your Maker and Provider. But it is also good for it gives the person a right perspective on life and and a right relationship with God. Regardless of a person's intelligence or standing in life, he acts as one who is "stupid" and a "fool" when he does not acknowledge God. He lacks understanding of life because he does not understand the workings of his Creator.

The psalmist says to the Lord, "You have made me rejoice, LORD, by what You have done; I will shout for joy because of the works of Your hands." (92:4) But the magnificent works of the Lord make no sense to the one who is fool enough not to acknowledge God. He also does not understand that his life is like grass that sprouts and flourishes and then is "eternally destroyed." (92:7) Such is an enemy of God and His enemies "will perish." (92:9)

By contrast, the righteous, those in right relationship with God, will "thrive like a palm tree and grow like a cedar tree in Lebanon." For they are "Planted in the house of the LORD." (92:12,13) Furthermore, even in old age they will continue to bear fruit and be "healthy and green." (92:14) So the righteous are called to declare: "The LORD is just; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him." (92:15)