Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 92:7
When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; [it is] that they shall be destroyed forever:
7, 8. The tenses in Psa 92:7 (cp. Psa 92:10-11) do not merely express a general truth, but point to some particular event.
When the wicked did flourish as the herbage,
And all the workers of iniquity did blossom,
It was that they might be destroyed for ever:
But thou art on high for evermore, Jehovah.
The simile suggests the rapid growth and equally rapid ruin of the wicked. See note on Psa 90:5. Their triumph is the preparation for their fall. Cp. Psa 37:35 ff.; Psa 73:18 ff.
The simple stately rhythm of Psa 92:8 a single line well expresses the contrast of the unchanging supremacy of Jehovah to the upstart pretentiousness of the wicked. They deify themselves, claiming all power in earth and heaven (Psa 73:8-9), only to vanish and leave Jehovah’s sovereignty more openly manifested (Psa 83:17-18).
There is an obvious reminiscence of this verse in 1Ma 9:23 , “And it came to pass after the death of Judas that the lawless flourished and all the workers of iniquity sprang up.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
When the wicked spring as the grass – When they grow up as plants do; when they seem to flourish and prosper. Compare Psa 90:5-6; Psa 37:2, Psa 37:35, Psa 37:38. The word grass here refers to the vegetable creation generally, embracing plants and flowers of all kinds.
And when all the workers of iniquity do flourish – As plants and flowers do. They are like vigorous plants; not like the stunted and dry shrubs of the desert.
It is that they shall be destroyed for ever – The meaning here is, not that the design of their being thus made to flourish is that they should be destroyed, or that they are made to flourish for that purpose, but that such will be the result. They will not be made happy in another world by their prosperous and prospered wickedness here, as if God approved of their course; but the end will be that they will be destroyed forever. The design of the psalmist seems to be to turn the mind from the idea that mere external prosperity is necessarily connected with happiness; or that one who is prospered in this life is on that account safe. There is another world, and there ample justice will be done to all. See Psa 73:16-20.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 7. When the wicked spring as the grass] This is a lesson which is frequently inculcated in the sacred writings. The favour of God towards man is not to be known by outward prosperity; nor is his disapprobation to be known by the adverse circumstances in which any person may be found. When, however, we see the wicked flourish, we may take for granted that their abuse of God’s mercies will cause him to cut them off as cumberers of the ground; and, dying in their sins, they are destroyed for ever.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Their present worldly prosperity is a presage and occasion of their utter and eternal ruin.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
When the wicked spring as the grass,…. Out of the earth, as they do, and are of the earth earthly, and become numerous as spires of grass, and look pleasant and beautiful for a while, as that does; but, like it, weak and unstable, and of a short continuance:
and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; in the health of their bodies; not being afflicted as other men, and their eyes standing out with fatness; while a Job, an upright man, is smitten with boils from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot: in wealth and riches, in which they increase often to such a degree, as to think of pulling down their barns, and building greater, to put their substance in; in their progeny and offspring, having a numerous issue; as well as in their cattle, and the standing of them, and in other stores; likewise in their power and authority, grandeur and glory, being set in high places of honour and profit, though slippery ones: these are the godly, who are “wicked” at heart, and show it by their wicked works; who are continually committing sin, it is the course of their conversation, and yet prosper in the world; which is sometimes a stumblingblock to God’s people, and a hardening of sinners, who consider not that
it is that they shall be destroyed for ever they are like brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, and as lambs and other creatures are nourished and fattened for the day of slaughter, 2Pe 2:12, and as land is manured and cultivated, and grass springs up and flourishes, that it may be, when grown, cut down, and become the fodder of beasts, or the fuel of fire; so the prosperity of the wicked issues in their ruin, and is an aggravation of their damnation; their destruction is of soul and body in hell, and is an everlasting one; the Targum is,
“and it shall be that God shall destroy them for ever,”
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Upon closer examination the prosperity of the ungodly is only a semblance that lasts for a time. The infinitive construction in Psa 92:8 is continued in the historic tense, and it may also be rendered as historical. (Saadia: Arab. fannh ) is to be supplied in thought before , as in Job 27:14. What is spoken of is an historical occurrence which, in its beginning, course, and end, has been frequently repeated even down to the present day, and ever confirmed afresh. And thus, too, in time to come and once finally shall the ungodly succumb to a peremptory, decisive ( ) judgment of destruction. Jahve is , by His nature and by His rule He is “a height for ever;” i.e., in relation to the creature and all that goes on here below He has a nature beyond and above all this ( Jenseitigkeit), ever the same and absolute; He is absolutely inaccessible to the God-opposed one here below who vaunts himself in stupid pride and rebelliously exalts himself as a titan, and only suffers it to last until the term of his barren blossoming is run out. Thus the present course of history will and must in fact end in a final victory of good over evil: for lo Thine enemies, Jahve – for lo Thine enemies…. points as it were with the finger to the inevitable end; and the emotional anadiplosis breathes forth a zealous love for the cause of God as if it were his own. God’s enemies shall perish, all the workers of evil shall be disjointed, scattered, (cf. Job 4:11). Now they form a compact mass, which shall however fall to pieces, when one day the intermingling of good and evil has an end.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Triumph of the Righteous; The Happiness of the Righteous. | |
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 show that the LORD is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
The psalmist had said (v. 4) that from the works of God he would take occasion to triumph; and here he does so.
I. He triumphs over God’s enemies (Psa 92:7; Psa 92:9; Psa 92:11), triumphs in the foresight of their destruction, not as it would be the misery of his fellow-creatures, but as it would redound to the honour of God’s justice and holiness. He is confident of the ruin of sinners, 1. Though they are flourishing (v. 7): When the wicked spring as the grass in spring (so numerous, so thickly sown, so green, and growing so fast), and all the workers of iniquity do flourish in pomp, and power, and all the instances of outward prosperity, are easy and many, and succeed in their enterprises, one would think that all this was in order to their being happy, that it was a certain evidence of God’s favour and an earnest of something as good or better in reserve: but it is quite otherwise; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever. The very prosperity of fools shall slay them, Prov. i. 32. The sheep that are designed for the slaughter are put into the fattest pasture. 2. Though they are daring, v. 9. They are thy enemies, and impudently avow themselves to be so. They are contrary to God, and they fight against God. They are in rebellion against his crown and dignity, and therefore it is easy to foresee that they shall perish; for who ever hardened his heart against God and prospered? Note, All the impenitent workers of iniquity shall be deemed and taken as God’s enemies, and as such they shall perish and be scattered. Christ reckons those his enemies that will not have him to reign over them; and they shall be brought forth and slain before him. The workers of iniquity are now associated, and closely linked together, in a combination against God and religion; but they shall be scattered, and disabled to help one another against the just judgment of God. In the world to come they shall be separated from the congregation of the righteous; so the Chaldee, Ps. i. 5. 3. Though they had a particular malice against the psalmist, and, upon that account, he might be tempted to fear them, yet he triumphs over them (v. 11): “My eye shall see my desire on my enemies that rise up against me; I shall see them not only disabled from doing me any further mischief, but reckoned with for the mischief they have done me, and brought either to repentance or ruin:” and this was his desire concerning them. In the Hebrew it is no more than thus, My eye shall look on my enemies, and my ear shall hear of the wicked. He does not say what he shall see or what he shall hear, but he shall see and hear that in which God will be glorified and in which he will therefore be satisfied. This perhaps has reference to Christ, to his victory over Satan, death, and hell, the destruction of those that persecuted and crucified him, and opposed his gospel, and to the final ruin of the impenitent at the last day. Those that rise up against Christ will fall before him and be made his footstool.
II. He triumphs in God, and his glory and grace. 1. In the glory of God (v. 8): “But thou, O Lord! art most high for evermore. The workers of iniquity who fight against us may be high for a time, and think to carry all before them with a high hand, but thou art high, most high, for evermore. Their height will be humbled and brought down, but thine is everlasting.” Let us not therefore fear the pride and power of evil men, nor be discouraged by their impotent menaces, for the moth shall eat them up as a garment, but God’s righteousness shall be for ever,Isa 51:7; Isa 51:8. 2. In the grace of God, his favour and the fruits of it, (1.) To himself (v. 10): “Thou, O Lord! that art thyself most high, shalt exalt my horn.” The great God is the fountain of honour, and he, being high for evermore, himself will exalt his people for ever, for he is the praise of all his saints, Ps. cxlviii. 14. The wicked are forbidden to lift up the horn (Psa 75:4; Psa 75:5), but those that serve God and the interest of his kingdom with their honour or power, and commit it to him to keep it, to raise it, to use it, and to dispose of it, as he pleases, may hope that he will exalt their horn as the horn of a unicorn, to the greatest height, either in this world or the other: My horn shalt thou exalt, when thy enemies perish; for then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun, when the wicked shall be doomed to shame and everlasting contempt. He adds, I shall be anointed with fresh oil, which denotes a fresh confirmation in his office to which he had been anointed, or abundance of plenty, so that he should have fresh oil as often as he pleased, or renewed comforts to revive him when his spirits drooped. Grace is the anointing of the Spirit; when this is given to help in the time of need, and is received, as there is occasion, from the fulness that is in Christ Jesus, we are then anointed with fresh oil. Some read it, When I grow old thou shalt anoint me with fresh oil. My old age shalt thou exalt with rich mercy; so the LXX. Compare v. 14, They shall bring forth fruit in old age. The comforts of God’s Spirit, and the joys of his salvation, shall be a refreshing oil to the hoary heads that are found in the way of righteousness. (2.) To all the saints. They are here represented as trees of righteousness,Isa 61:3; Psa 1:3. Observe, [1.] The good place they are fixed in; they are planted in the house of the Lord, v. 13. The trees of righteousness do not grow of themselves; they are planted, not in common soil, but in paradise, in the house of the Lord. Trees are not usually planted in a house; but God’s trees are said to be planted in his house because it is from his grace, by his word and Spirit, that they receive all the sap and virtue that keep them alive and make them fruitful. They fix themselves to holy ordinances, take root in them, abide by them, put themselves under the divine protection, and bring forth all their fruits to God’s honour and glory. [2.] The good plight they shall be kept in. It is here promised, First, That they shall grow, v. 12. Where God gives true grace he will give more grace. God’s trees shall grow higher, like the cedars, the tall cedars in Lebanon; they shall grow nearer heaven, and with a holy ambition shall aspire towards the upper world; they shall grow stronger, like the cedars, and fitter for use. He that has clean hands shall be stronger and stronger. Secondly, That they shall flourish, both in the credit of their profession and in the comfort and joy of their own souls. They shall be cheerful themselves and respected by all about them. They shall flourish like the palm-tree, which has a stately body (Cant. vii. 7), and large boughs, Lev 23:40; Jdg 4:5. Dates, the fruit of it, are very pleasant, but it is especially alluded to here as being ever green. The wicked flourish as the grass (v. 7), which is soon withered, but the righteous as the palm-tree, which is long-lived and which the winter does not change. It has been said of the palm-tree, Sub pondere crescit–The more it is pressed down the more it grows; so the righteous flourish under their burdens; the more they are afflicted the more they multiply. Being planted in the house of the Lord (there their root is), they flourish in the courts of our God–there their branches spread. Their life is hid with Christ in God. But their light also shines before men. It is desirable that those who have a place should have a name in God’s house, and within his walls, Isa. lvi. 5. Let good Christians aim to excel, that they may be eminent and may flourish, and so may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour, as flourishing trees adorn the courts of a house. And let those who flourish in God’s courts give him the glory of it; it is by virtue of this promise, They shall be fat and flourishing. Their flourishing without is from a fatness within, from the root and fatness of the good olive, Rom. xi. 17. Without a living principle of grace in the heart the profession will not be long flourishing; but where that is the leaf also shall not wither, Ps. i. 3. The trees of the Lord are full of sap, Ps. civ. 16. See Hos 14:5; Hos 14:6. Thirdly, That they shall be fruitful. Were there nothing but leaves upon them, they would not be trees of any value; but they shall still bring forth fruit. The products of sanctification, all the instances of a lively devotion and a useful conversation, good works, by which God is glorified and others are edified, these are the fruits of righteousness, in which it is the privilege, as well as the duty, of the righteous to abound; and their abounding in them is the matter of a promise as well as of a command. It is promised that they shall bring forth fruit in old age. Other trees, when they are old, leave off bearing, but in God’s trees the strength of grace does not fail with the strength of nature. The last days of the saints are sometimes their best days, and their last work is their best work. This indeed shows that they are upright; perseverance is the surest evidence of sincerity. But it is here said to show that the Lord is upright (v. 15), that he is true to his promises and faithful to every word that he has spoken, and that he is constant to the work which he has begun. As it is by the promises that believers first partake of a divine nature, so it is by the promises that that divine nature is preserved and kept up; and therefore the power it exerts is an evidence that the Lord is upright, and so he will show himself with an upright man, Ps. xviii. 25. This the psalmist triumphs in: “He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in him. I have chosen him for my rock on which to build, in the clefts of which to take shelter, on the top of which to set my feet. I have found him a rock, strong and stedfast, and his word as firm as a rock. I have found” (and let every one speak as he finds) “that there is no unrighteousness in him.” He is as able, and will be as kind, as his word makes him to be. All that ever trusted in God found him faithful and all-sufficient, and none were ever made ashamed of their hope in him.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
7 When the wicked flourish as the grass. He points out, and exposes, by a striking and appropriate figure, the folly of imagining that the wicked obtain a triumph over God, when he does not, it may be, immediately bring them under restraint. He makes an admission so far — he grants that they spring up and flourish — but adds immediately, by way of qualification, that they flourish, like the grass, only for a moment, their prosperity being brief and evanescent. In this way he removes what has been almost a universal stumbling-block and ground of offense; for it would be ridiculous to envy the happiness of men who are doomed to be speedily destroyed, and of whom it may be said, that to-day they flourish, and to-morrow they are cut down and wither, (Psa 129:6.) It will be shown, when we come to consider the psalm now quoted, that the herbs to which the wicked are compared are such as grow on the roofs of houses, which want depth of soil, and die of themselves, for lack of nourishment. In the passage now before us, the Psalmist satisfies himself with using simply the figure, that the prosperity of the wicked draws after it the speedier destruction, as the grass when it is full grown is ready for the scythe. There is an antithesis drawn, too, between the shortness of their continuance and the everlasting destruction which awaits them; for they are not said to be cut down that they may flourish again, as withered plants will recover their vigor, but to be condemned to eternal perdition. (591) When he says of God, that he sits exalted for evermore, some understand him to mean, that God holds the power and office of governing the world, and that we may be certain nothing can happen by chance when such a righteous governor and judge administers the affairs of the world. Various other meanings have been suggested. But it seems to me that the Psalmist compares the stability of God’s throne with the fluctuating and changeable character of this world, reminding us that we must not judge of Him by what we see in the world, where there is nothing of a fixed and enduring nature. God looks down undisturbed from the altitude of heaven upon all the changes of this earthly scene, which neither affect nor have any relation to him. And this the Psalmist brings forward with another view than simply to teach us to distinguish God from his creatures, and put due honor upon his majesty; he would have us learn in our contemplations upon the wonderful and mysterious providence of God, to lift our conceptions above ourselves and this world, since it is only a dark and confused view which our earthly minds can take up. It is with the purpose of leading us into a proper discovery of the Divine judgments which are not seen in the world, that the Psalmist, in making mention of the majesty of God, would remind us, that he does not work according to our ideas, but in a manner corresponding to his own eternal being. We, short-lived creatures as we are, often thwarted in our attempts, embarrassed and interrupted by many intervening difficulties, and too glad to embrace the first opportunity which offers, are accustomed to advance with precipitation; but we are taught here to lift our eyes unto that eternal and unchangeable throne on which God sits, and in wisdom defers the execution of his judgments. The words accordingly convey more than a simple commendation of the glorious being of God; they are meant to help our faith, and tell us that, although his people may sigh under many an anxious apprehension, God himself, the guardian of their safety, reigns on high, and shields them with his everlasting power.
(591) “ Comme s’il disoit qu’ils ne sont point retranchez, afin que sur le prim-temps ils rejettent derechef, ainsi que les herbes mortes reprenent nouvelle vigueur, mais qu’ils sont condamnez a perdition eternelle. — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(7) This verse apparently introduces the statement of the truth which the sensualist does not understand, viz., that the prosperity of the wicked is only momentary, and will render their destruction all the more impressive. The Authorised Version is incorrect in introducing the second conjunction when. Literally, In the springing of the wicked like grass, flourish all the workers of iniquity to be destroyed for ever, i.e., the prosperity of an evil class or community gives an impulse to evil, and apparently for a time iniquity seems to have the upper hand, but it is only that the inevitable destruction may be more signal. For the emblematic use of vegetable life in the psalter see Note, Psa. 1:3-4.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7. Wicked spring as the grass Suddenly, and with greenness and freshness of hope.
Destroyed for ever And at the moment when their hope springs forth like the fresh grass. The brutish man does not consider this.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 92:7 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:
Ver. 7. When the wicked spring as the grass, &c. ] This the fool admireth, calling the proud happy, &c., Mal 3:15 , and not considering that that proud grass shall be mown down, and that that flourish shall soon perish.
It is that they shall be destroyed for ever
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
wicked = lawless. Hebrew. rasha’. App-44.
iniquity. Hebrew. ‘aven. App-44. See note on Psa 92:14,
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 92:7-9
Psa 92:7-9
THE WICKED TO BE DESTROYED
“When the wicked spring as the grass, And when all the workers of iniquity do flourish;
It is that they shall be destroyed forever.
But thou, O Jehovah, art on high forevermore.
For, lo, thine enemies, O Jehovah,
For, lo, thine enemies shall perish;
All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.”
“When the wicked spring as the grass” (Psa 92:7). The Good News Bible reads this, “Grow like weeds.” We have encountered this adequate metaphor before. Nothing provides any better picture of wicked men than the grass which flourishes one day and is destroyed the next.
“They shall be destroyed forever” (Psa 92:7). “The prosperity of the wicked has posed a difficult problem for some. Job struggled with it (Job 21:7-21); and Asaph was troubled by it (Psa 73:2-15); but the psalmist here found no problem at all with it. He saw the prosperous condition of the wicked as nothing but a prelude to their destruction. No enemy of God has any future except that of eternal destruction from the presence of God and the glory of his power (2Th 1:9).
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 92:7. This verse denotes the deception in the strength of the wicked people of the earth. It is like grass that springs forth in the morning dew, but wilts as soon as the sun strikes it. This idea also is set forth in Jas 1:11. The show or display of the unrighteous people will not endure when the final test is made.
Psa 92:8. Many persons can be and have been in high position at certain times of special advantage. The great contrast between all other beings and the Lord is that He is high for evermore.
Psa 92:9. It is significant to observe how the Psalmist describes the enemies of the Lord who consist in the workers of Iniquity. The description and motive for it is praiseworthy; that it is not merely because men happen to be unlikable to God that he considers them his enemies, but it is because they are unrighteous in life.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
wicked: Psa 37:1, Psa 37:2, Psa 37:35, Psa 37:38, Psa 90:5, Psa 90:6, Psa 103:15, Psa 103:16, Isa 37:27, Isa 40:6, Isa 40:7, Jam 1:10, Jam 1:11, 1Pe 1:24
workers: Psa 73:12, Psa 73:18-20, Job 12:6, Job 21:7-12, Jer 12:1, Jer 12:2, Mal 3:15, Mal 4:1
it is that: Psa 37:35, Psa 37:36, Psa 37:38, Psa 73:18-20, 1Sa 25:36-38, Pro 1:32, Luk 16:19-25
Reciprocal: 2Ki 19:26 – they were Job 4:20 – they perish Job 5:3 – taking Job 8:18 – he Job 14:2 – like Job 15:21 – in prosperity Job 24:24 – are exalted Psa 49:10 – fool Psa 92:12 – righteous Psa 129:6 – as the grass Pro 10:29 – but Ecc 3:19 – that which Isa 51:12 – man which Jer 17:6 – like Eze 32:27 – but Mat 6:30 – clothe
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 92:7-8. When the wicked spring, &c. Many interpreters connect this with the preceding verse, thus: A brutish man knoweth not, &c., that 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: they are only nourishing themselves, like senseless cattle, in plentiful pastures, for the approaching day of slaughter. Their present worldly prosperity is a presage and occasion of their utter ruin. But thou, O Lord, art most high for evermore That is, they shall perish, but thou shalt endure, as is said in a like comparison, Psa 102:26. They flourish for a season, but thou rulest for ever, to judge and punish them. So this verse is added by way of opposition to the former.