Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 93:3
The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves.
3. The floods ] Lit. the rivers, rising up and threatening to inundate the land and sweep everything before them, are emblems of the great world-powers threatening to overspread the world. Thus Assyria is compared by Isaiah to the Euphrates, ‘the River’ par excellence (Isa 8:7-8); Egypt by Jeremiah to the Nile (Jer 46:7-8). Similarly the sea with its mighty breakers thundering against the shore as though it would engulf the solid land is an emblem of the heathen world menacing the kingdom of God, but all in vain. For the sea as an emblem of hostile powers cp. Psa 46:3; Psa 89:9; Isa 17:12-13.
their waves ] A word occurring here only, probably meaning collision, clash, din.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
3, 4. The powers of earth menace Jehovah’s sovereignty in vain.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice – The word here rendered floods, means properly rivers, and then it may be applied to any waters. The word voice here refers to the noise of raging waters when they are agitated by the winds, or when they dash on the shore. See the notes at Psa 42:7.
The floods lift up their waves – As if they would sweep everything away. The allusion here is to some calamity or danger which might, in its strength and violence, be compared with the wild and raging waves of the ocean. Or if it refers literally to the ocean in a storm, then the psalm may have been the reflections of the author as he stood on the shore of the sea, and saw the waves beat and dash against the shore. To one thus looking upon the billows as they roll in toward the shore, it seems as if they were angry; as if they intended to sweep everything away; as if the rocks of the shore could not resist them. Yet they have their bounds. They spend their strength; they break, and retire as if to recover their force, and then they renew their attack with the same result. But their power is limited. The rocky shore is unmoved. The earth abides. God is over all. His throne is unshaken. No violence of the elements can affect that; and, under his dominion, all is secure.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 93:3
The floods . . . lift up their waves.
Thoughts for the seaside
I. What are the waves saying to us of human life? Even in its greatest tranquillity there is its deep throb and moan; the sea is really never at rest. Life is like the sea, in constant motion. However exempt some may seem to be from anxiety and care, every heart knows its own bitterness, every spirit its own sob and sigh. Especially to the Christian this is not a place of rest. Toil and care, temptation and sorrow, mingle in the woof and warp of life. The waves therefore speak to us of the restlessness of human life. They also speak to us of the changefulness of life. How ever-changing the ocean is! At one time its waves are lashed into frantic fury, and its huge billows leap mountain high; anon, it is hushed and reeked to a cradled calm; at one time it is all aglow, and flaming with phosphorescent fire; at another time it is dull and leaden, and looks like liquid blue. How changing, too, is human life! Seasons of sorrow succeed seasons of gladness. Life is made up of losses and crosses, as well as of prizes and crowns. Especially is the life of the Christian chequered with storm and calm, shadows and sunshine, smiles and tears. The waves speak to us also of the separations of life. How the sea separates continent from continent and shore from shore! How many farewells are uttered on its shores! Life is full of adieus, from the cradle to the grave. The waves also speak to us of the depravity of life. By sin, death came into our world; and the ocean is like a mighty grave.
II. What are the waves saying to us of Divine Providence.?
1. The history of Gods Providence has been as the ebb and flow of the tide. The rising tide has ever gained back what it seemed to lose, and it rises higher and higher; and the issue shall be that the knowledge of the Lord shall one day cover the earth as the waters cover the face of the mighty sea.
2. The sea cannot be controlled, but it can be made subservient to man, and a minister to his good. So we cannot command or control Divine Providence; but we can work with it, obey its laws, and make it subservient to our present and permanent good, and with its friendly aid we may sail to a better and a brighter shore.
3. The sea has an under-current. Although the waves may leap and roar, or the surface of the deep may be calm and still as a sheet of glass, yet the great deep, undisturbed, moves on! So, in the course and conduct of Divine Providence, around the shores of time, in the bays and creeks of human affairs, the waters may twist and twirl; but the great purposes of God move on, and His undisturbed affairs perpetually progress.
III. What are the waves saying to us of Almighty God? They speak to us of His power, wisdom, goodness, immensity. The sea is the symbol of infinity and eternity. (F. W. Brown.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 3. The floods have lifted up] Multitudes of people have confederated against thy people; and troop succeeds troop as the waves of the sea succeed each other.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The floods; the enemies of thy kingdom, who are oft compared to floods for their numbers, force, rage, &c. See Isa 8:7,8; 17:12,13; Jer 46:7,8. They have both by their words and actions made opposition against it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice,…. The Targum adds,
“in a song,”
taking the words in a good sense; and so some of the ancients, as Jerome particularly, understood them of the apostles and their ministrations; who lifted up their voice like a trumpet, which went into all the world, and unto the ends of the earth; and who came with the fulness of the gifts and graces of the Spirit; and were attended with a force and power which bore down all before them: but rather by “the floods” are meant the enemies of Christ, his kingdom, and interest; and by their “lifting up their voice”, the opposition made by them thereunto; see Isa 8:7, this was fulfilled in the Jews and Gentiles, who raged, like foaming waves of the sea, against Christ, and lifted up their voices to have him crucified; in the Roman emperors, and in the ten persecutions under them; in those floods of errors and heresies, which the dragon has cast out of his mouth to devour the church of Christ, against which the Spirit of the Lord has lifted up a standard in all ages; in the antichristian kingdoms, compared to many waters, on which the whore of Rome is said to sit, Re 17:1 and especially in antichrist himself, who has opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, his tabernacle, and they that dwell therein; and will be further fulfilled in the last persecution and slaying of the witnesses, and in the Gog and Magog army, which shall encompass the beloved city and camp of the saints. Kimchi interprets it of Gog and Magog, and of the kings that shall be gathered together to fight against Jerusalem:
the floods lift up their waves; with great strength, making a great noise, and threatening with ruin and destruction, as before.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
All the raging of the world, therefore, will not be able to hinder the progress of the kingdom of God and its final breaking through to the glory of victory. The sea with its mighty mass of waters, with the constant unrest of its waves, with its ceaseless pressing against the solid land and foaming against the rocks, is an emblem of the Gentile world alienated from and at enmity with God; and the rivers (floods) are emblems of worldly kingdoms, as the Nile of the Egyptian (Jer 44:7.), the Euphrates of the Assyrian (Isa 8:7.), or more exactly, the Tigris, swift as an arrow, of the Assyrian, and the tortuous Euphrates of the Babylonian empire ( Isa 27:1). These rivers, as the poet says whilst he raises a plaintive but comforted look upwards to Jahve, have lifted up, have lifted up their murmur, the rivers lift up their roaring. The thought is unfolded in a so-called “parallelism with reservation.” The perfects affirm what has taken place, the future that which even now as yet is taking place. The . signifies a striking against ( collisio ), and a noise, a din. One now in Psa 93:4 looks for the thought that Jahve is exalted above this roaring of the waves. will therefore be the min of comparison, not of the cause: “by reason of the roar of great waters are the breakers of the sea glorious” (Starck, Geier), – which, to say nothing more, is a tautological sentence. But if is comparative, then it is impossible to get on with the accentuation of , whether it be with Mercha (Ben-Asher) or Dech (Ben-Naphtali). For to render: More than the roar of great waters are the breakers of the sea glorious (Mendelssohn), is impracticable, since are nothing less than (Isa 17:12.), and we are prohibited from taking as a parenthesis (Kster), by the fact that it is just this clause that is exceeded by . Consequently has to be looked upon as a second attributive to brought in afterwards, and (the waves of the sea breaking upon the rocks, or even only breaking upon one another) as a more minute designation of these great and magnificent waters ( , according to Exo 15:10),
(Note: A Talmudic enigmatical utterance of R. Azaria runs: , Let the glorious One (Jahve, Psa 93:4, cf. Isa 10:34; Isa 33:21) come and maintain the right of the glorious ones (Israel, Psa 16:3) against the glorious ones (the Egyptians, Exo 15:10 according to the construction of the Talmud) in the glorious ones (the waves of the sea, Psa 93:4).)),
and it should have been accented: | . Jahve’s celestial majesty towers far above all the noisy majesties here below, whose waves, though lashed never so high, can still never reach His throne. He is King of His people, Lord of His church, which preserves His revelation and worships in His temple. This revelation, by virtue of His unapproachable, all-overpowering kingship, is inviolable; His testimonies, which minister to the establishment of His kingdom and promise its future manifestation in glory, are , Rev 19:9; Rev 22:6. And holiness becometh His temple ( , 3rd praet. Pilel, or according to the better attested reading of Heidenheim and Baer, ;
(Note: The Masora on Ps 147 reckons four , one , and one eno d , and therefore our is one of the (cf. Frensdorf’s Ochla we-Ochla, p. 123), i.e., one of the seventeen words whose Aleph is audible, whilst it is otherwise always quiescent; e.g., , otherwise .)
therefore the feminine of the adjective with a more loosened syllable next to the tone, like in Ps 40:18), that is to say, it is inviolable (sacrosanct), and when it is profaned, shall ever be vindicated again in its holiness. This clause, formulated after the manner of a prayer, is at the same time a petition that Jahve in all time to come would be pleased to thoroughly secure the place where His honour dwells here below against profanation.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
3 The floods have lifted up, O Jehovah! Various meanings have been attached to this verse. Some think there is an allusion to the violent assaults made upon the Church by her enemies, and the goodness of God seen in restraining them. (7) Others are of opinion that the words should be taken literally, and not figuratively, in this sense — Though the noise of many waters be terrible, and the waves of the sea more fearful still, God is more terrible than all. I would not be inclined to insist too nicely upon any comparison that may have been intended. I have no doubt the Psalmist sets forth the power of God by adducing one brief illustration out of many which might have been given, (8) Intimating that we need not go farther for a striking instance of Divine power — one that may impress us with an idea of his tremendous majesty — than to the floods of waters, and agitations of the ocean; as in Psa 29:4, the mighty voice of God is said to be in the thunder. God manifests his power in the sound of the floods, and in the tempestuous waves of the sea, in a way calculated to excite our reverential awe. Should it be thought that there is a comparison intended, then the latter clause of the verse must be understood as added, with this meaning, That all the terror of the objects mentioned is as nothing when we come to consider the majesty of God himself, such as he is in heaven. There is still another sense which may be extracted from the words, That though the world may to appearance be shaken with violent commotions, this argues no defect in the government of God, since he can control them at once by his dreadful power.
(7) Dr Morison, after stating the opinion of Mudge, who thinks that this psalm was composed on occasion of some violent inundation, which threatened a general confusion to the world, adds, “It is more probable, perhaps, that the floods spoken of are entirely figurative; and that they represent in Eastern phrase, those powerful enemies by whom the peace of David and the ancient Church was so often disturbed. But though the floods were lifted high, and threatened destruction to those who were within their reach, yet Jehovah was seen, as it were, riding on their most tempestuous billows, and amidst their mightiest tumult, his throne was unshaken and his kingdom unmoved.” In support of this view he refers to other passages of Scripture, as Isa 8:7; and Job 46:7, [ sic ] where the confederated enemies of God’s Church are compared to the tempestuous waves of the mighty ocean, which roll one after another with resistless fury upon the storm-tossed bark.
(8) “ Non dubito quin Propheta quasi per hypotyposin Dei potentiam hic nobis exprimat.” — Lat. “ Comme par une demonstration.” — Fr. Hypotyposis means strictly the first rough sketch of a picture.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(3) Waves.Better, for the parallelism, roaring: but literally, breaking of the waves on the shore.
Floods, here poetically for the sea, as in Psa. 24:2.
Lift up.The repetition of the verb the third time in a different tense adds to the force. In LXX. and Vulgate this clause is from the voices of many waters.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. Floods , ( neharoth,) rivers.
Lifted up their voice This could be done by rivers only in the rushing and roaring of cataracts. The cataracts of the Jordan were used as a figure of the civil commotions which drove David for a season from his capital. See on Psa 42:7. Probably the word rivers, here, refers to the Euphrates and the Tigris, as representing the mad power of Assyria.
Waves The word signifies “waves” that are broken by being dashed against the shore, or otherwise broken with violence breakers. The radical idea is, to dash in pieces to break. The common word for wave is different, and comes from the idea to heap together, to cast up a mound. In symbolic language, the sea, or any great body of water, represents a great collection of people; and a troubled, or tumultuous, sea signifies a nation or nations at war. See Psa 65:7; Dan 7:2; Jer 51:42. The figure here clearly points to such war and commotion as threatened the destruction of the nation, and is a strong indication of the date we have assigned to the psalm.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 93:3. The floods have lifted up, O Lord Instead of waves at the end of the verse, some translators read roar, which is equivalent to voice. The meaning of the verse is, “Multitudes of combined enemies threaten to break in upon us, like a flood.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
All the opposition made against Christ and his kingdom, and against Christ and his people, is alike vain and impotent as the striving of the waves which dash against the rocks. Like Noah in the ark, the people of Christ are safe in him, though tempests beat without. Sweet thought to the believer also! As no storms nor floods without, so no fears within, can lessen or abate the love of Jesus to his chosen. Many waters cannot quench his love, neither can all the floods drown it. Son 8:7 . Reader! think of this. Not all the floods of corruption, which as a deluge covered our nature; nor all the afflictions, agonies, and soul-travail of Jesus; nor the vials of God’s wrath; no, nor even the baseness and ingratitude of his people, quenched his love. Precious Jesus! was such thy love to me?
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 93:3 The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves.
Ver. 3. The floods have lifted up, O Lord ] Armies of enemies have attempted great matters, but thou hast soon quelled and quashed them. Immota manet may well be the Church’s motto.
Aura tonet, sonet unda marls, fremat orbis et orcus;
Tu tamen insertos nos tibi, Christe, tegis.
The floods lift up their waves
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 93:3-5
3The floods have lifted up, O Lord,
The floods have lifted up their voice,
The floods lift up their pounding waves.
4More than the sounds of many waters,
Than the mighty breakers of the sea,
The Lord on high is mighty.
5Your testimonies are fully confirmed;
Holiness befits Your house,
O Lord, forevermore.
Psa 93:3-4 The NASB divides this Psalm into two strophes, Psa 93:1-2 and Psa 93:3-5, but all the other English translations I use to compare strophe divisions (NKJV, NRSV, TEV, NJB), have Psa 93:5 as a separate concluding statement.
Psa 93:3-4 speaks of YHWH’s creation and control of watery chaos (cf. Psa 74:12-17; Psa 89:9-10; Isa 51:9). As Psa 93:1 had a contrast between perfects and imperfects denoting past and current/future acts of this age (cf. Zec 14:9), so too, Psa 93:3. There is no verb in Psa 93:4, but it also reflects YHWH as the eternal, victorious King of the universe!
Psa 93:3 The verb (BDB 669, KB 724) is used three times, once in each line of poetry. This verse may reflect a poetic line used of Ba’al found in the Ras Shamra texts (i.e., Ugaritic). The Hebrew language often took the religious imagery of their neighbors/captors and applied it to YHWH, the only true God!
Psa 93:4 mightier The adjective (BDB 12) is used to describe the raging of the waves (i.e., enemies of God at creation and through time, such as Egypt, Babylon) but YHWH is higher, greater, more powerful than all the enemies (initial, temporal, and eschatological)!
Psa 93:5 testimonies This term (BDB 730 III) reflects YHWH’s revelation. See SPECIAL TOPIC: TERMS FOR GOD’S REVELATION . YHWH
1. has established Himself as King forever
2. is victorious over watery chaos
3. has fully revealed Himself (see Special Topic: Characteristics of Israel’s God ) and His purposes (see Special Topic: YHWH’s Eternal Redemptive Plan )
Holiness befits Your house For holiness see SPECIAL TOPIC: GLORY (DOXA) . The AB, vol. 17, by Mitchell Dahood (also see NIDOTTE, vol. 3, #2, p. 2) takes holy as a title for the angels of the heavenly council (cf. Psa 29:1), thus making the line read
In your temple the holy ones will laud you (pp. 339, 343).
The verb befits can be analyzed in two ways.
1. a verb – BDB 610, KB 659, Pilel perfect (OT Parsing Guide by Beall, Banks and Smith, p. 449)
2. an adverb – BDB 610 (Analytical Key to the OT, by Owens, p. 425)
House refers to the Tabernacle of the wilderness and later the temple in Jerusalem.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
This is a study guide commentary which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.
These discussion questions are provided to help you think through the major issues of this section of the book. They are meant to be thought provoking, not definitive.
1. Does this Psalm refer to initial creation or the exodus?
2. How is the Psalm related to the ANE themes of
a. watery chaos
b. God as Divine Warrior
3. To what does testimonies refer?
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
The floods. Note the Figure of speech Anaphora (App-6), for emphasis, Generally applied to rivers.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 93:3-4
Psa 93:3-4
“The floods have lifted up, O Jehovah,
The floods have lifted up their voice;
The floods lift up their waves
Above the voice of many waters,
The mighty breakers of the sea,
Jehovah on high is mighty.”
“The floods … their voice … their waves … the mighty breakers of the sea” (Psa 93:3-4). God’s enemies among the pagan Gentile nations are often described in the Old Testament as “floods.” Isa 8:7-8 is an outstanding example. “The floods here seem to mean the world powers, God’s enemies.
Delitzsch also agreed with this.
“The sea with its mighty mass of waters, with the constant unrest of its waves, with its ceaseless pressing against the land and foaming against the rocks, is an emblem of the Gentile world alienated from God and at enmity against Him. The rivers (floods) are emblems of worldly kingdoms; the Nile stands for Egypt, the Tigris for Assyria, and the Euphrates for Babylon.
“The mighty breakers of the sea” (Psa 93:4), This writer was stationed once on the USS Midway (CVB-41), a mighty aircraft carrier, and we encountered a storm in the Arctic Ocean. The waves of the ocean reached a height of something like a hundred feet, and the terrible power of such mighty waves strikes fear into the hearts of all who ever witnessed them. Through the courtesy of Gene Hazen of the Washington D.C. television pool of reporters, we procured moving pictures of those mighty waves breaking over the bow of the Midway. These may still be viewed in the A.C.U. Library, in the documentary film released by the U.S. Navy, entitled “Exercise Mainbrace” (1952).
Those mighty waves crashed in the hanger door of our great ship and destroyed a couple of aircraft.
The sea metaphor of the evil populations of mankind appears also in the New Testament in Revelation 13, which depicts the great Scarlet Beast with seven heads and ten horns coming up out of the restless populations of the earth.
Before leaving these verses, we should note the fashion among some schools of commentators to find all kinds of Babylonian mythology in a passage like this. Our conviction is that they are finding what is definitely not in it. We do not believe that the Israelites were overly conscious of the mythology of their Babylonian captors. “In its theology, Israel was not half as much influenced by Babylonian mythology as many commentators are inclined to believe.
“Jehovah on high is mighty” (Psa 93:4). The adverb `above’ which stands at the head of Psa 93:4 applies to this clause. Jehovah is on high above the thundering breakers of the mighty ocean. This is a beautiful way of saying that Jehovah reigns supremely above the roaring passions of earth’s wicked nations foaming out their hatred of God and their opposition to his kingdom.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 93:3. This verse may be taken both literally and figuratively. The mighty oceans are subject to the control of God. It is true also that floods of distress have frequently swelled up to threaten the servants of the Lord.
Psa 93:4. This verse should be considered in the light of the preceding one. It declares that God’s supremacy over all imposing objects and conditions is evident, whether the seas of the earth or the billows of afflictions rolling up to threaten the security of the righteous.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
The floods: Psa 18:4, Psa 69:1, Psa 69:2, Psa 69:14-16, Isa 17:12, Isa 17:13, Jer 46:7, Jer 46:8, Jon 2:3, Rev 12:15, Rev 17:15
lifted: Psa 96:11, Psa 98:8, Isa 55:12
the floods lift: Psa 2:1-3, Psa 107:25, Psa 107:26, Psa 124:3-5, Act 4:25-27
Reciprocal: Gen 6:17 – bring Num 24:7 – many waters 2Sa 22:5 – the floods 2Sa 22:17 – he drew 2Ki 19:28 – thy rage Job 9:8 – treadeth Job 26:12 – divideth Job 38:11 – Hitherto Psa 29:3 – many waters Psa 46:3 – the waters Psa 65:7 – noise Psa 83:2 – lifted Psa 89:9 – General Psa 124:5 – the proud Psa 144:7 – deliver me Isa 5:30 – like Isa 37:29 – rage Jer 5:22 – placed Jer 31:35 – when Jer 51:42 – General Jer 51:55 – her waves Eze 26:3 – as the sea Eze 27:26 – great Hos 5:10 – like Amo 9:5 – shall rise Jon 1:15 – and the Hab 3:10 – the deep Mat 8:26 – and rebuked Mat 14:25 – walking Mar 4:39 – he arose Mar 6:51 – and the Luk 6:48 – the flood Luk 8:23 – came Luk 21:25 – the sea Rom 8:39 – height
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
93:3 {c} The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves.
(c) God’s power appears in ruling the furious waters.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
2. The power of Yahweh 93:3-4
God’s power is greater than that of the tumultuous seas that move with irresistible force and great noise. The Canaanites believed Baal overcame the sea, which they called Prince Yamm. Here the psalmist pictured Yahweh as much mightier than the sea. The early readers of this psalm would have understood it as a polemic against Baalism. Yahweh has true authority over the sea that to ancient Near Easterners typified everything uncontrollably powerful and hostile.