A Sabbath Song of Thanksgiving: God’s Faithfulness and the Flourishing Righteous

Psalm 92 is a Sabbath song that calls God’s people to give thanks and to declare His lovingkindness in the morning and His faithfulness every night. It celebrates the Lord’s righteous character and His mighty works, while warning that the senseless may see God’s activity and still refuse to understand. The psalm contrasts the brief rise of the wicked—who may flourish like grass—with their sure downfall under God’s just rule. In contrast, the righteous are pictured as flourishing like the palm tree and growing like a cedar, planted in the house of the LORD and still bearing fruit in old age. The purpose is clear: to proclaim that the LORD is upright, our Rock, and that there is no unrighteousness in Him.

Psalms 92:1 – 92:15

  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:
  2 To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night,
  3 Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound.
  4 For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands.
  5 O Lord, how great are thy works! [and] thy thoughts are very deep.
  6 A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.
  7 When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; [it is] that they shall be destroyed for ever:
  8 But thou, Lord, [art most] high for evermore.
  9 For, lo, thine enemies, O Lord, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.
  10 But my horn shalt thou exalt like [the horn of] an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.
  11 Mine eye also shall see [my desire] on mine enemies, [and] mine ears shall hear [my desire] of the wicked that rise up against me.
  12 The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
  13 Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.
  14 They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;
  15 To shew that the Lord [is] upright: [he is] my rock, and [there is] no unrighteousness in him.