Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 92:8
But thou, LORD, [art most] high forevermore.
But thou, Lord, art most high for evermore – In the treatment of the righteous and the wicked, thou wilt maintain thine own exalted place as a sovereign. Whatever may occur to people, God will maintain this exalted position as supreme over all.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 92:8
But Thou, Lord, art most high for evermore.
The utmost [or the Highest
Mr. G. F. Watts, the spiritual seer amongst our modern masters of art, was asked by an enterprising editor to quote the motto which had been most influential in his artistic life. He replied, I have invented a motto for myself, The Utmost for the Highest. There is a matchless inspiration for life, as for art, in Mr. Watts characteristic message. The Divine election of youth is vision, and its grace is the passion for the highest. Longfellow recognizes it when he makes the typical climber a youth:
A youth, who bore, mid snow and ice,
A banner, with the strange device, Excelsior!
And one of the latest additions to the roll of climbers of the Matterhorn, the Alpine peak last to be conquered because most inaccessible, is a young French girl of seventeen, who, by a happy coincidence, rejoices in the name Felicite it is the youngest of the modern nations to enter the concert of great world powers whose citizens urge their growing race to hitch their wagon to a star. Economists have discussed of late the interesting phenomenon in business life that the most successful men are mostly young. The spectacle of millionaires under forty has perplexed them. The secret probably comes nearest to revealing itself in the suggestion that it is the ambition of youth for the highest, and the willingness, unfettered by maxims of prudence, to venture everything in its attainment that explains their success. Emerson penetrates the arcana of the same mystery with his saying, The hero is one who takes risks. The excelsior spirit is by nature a prerogative of the young. They are in a peculiar sense children of the highest. But the earliest of the grave perils that await the young is the danger and discouragement of disillusionment; the peril of seeing the highest and becoming content with less than the highest–of settling into inglorious ease with the best undone and the utmost untried. Less than the utmost is sacrilege in the sanctuary of the highest. She hath done what she could is the test of the service of duty as well as of the sacrifice of love. To do our best is the proof of talent in the ethical sphere, for the pursuit of the highest, and not its attainment alone, is the hallowing of work. This is the pursuit that Michael Angelo reverently expounds: Nothing makes the soul so pure, so religious, as the endeavour to create something perfect; for God is perfection, and whosoever strives for it strives for something that is godlike. It is the strife for the best that matures and enriches character, whether the joy of triumph is added or withheld. It is not the song alone, but the spirit of the singer, that perfects the utmost for the highest. It is said of Jenny Lind that in conversation one day with Mr. John Addington Symonds, she said of her life-work, I sing to God. There is a memorial brass in the chapel of Balliol College, Oxford, to the late Mr. Lewis Nettleship, who a few years ago was lost in an ascent of Mont Blanc, with an inscription that has been to many an abiding inspiration: He loved great things and thought little of himself; desiring neither fame nor influence, he won the devotion of men, and was a power in their lives; and, seeking no disciples, he taught to many the greatness of the world and of mans mind. Lifes greatness of privilege and of responsibility meets and mingles in the inscrutable sense that our utmost lives and moves in others. And lest we should imagine that the utmost for the highest is merely an artistic euphemism for the eager strife for fame and prestige, we need day by day to guard any noble ambition within us from depreciating into the pursuit of the paltry boons of self-seeking by holding it back from
The longing for ignoble things,
The strife for triumph more than truth.
To do this successfully we must watch also lest
We wind ourselves too high
For mortal man below the sky.
To remember the sanctity of common life, and that obedience to simple dues simply fulfilled are ladders on which we climb to our highest things, will be to most of us the way of enduring conquest over meaner modes of the soul. We cannot serve the lower within us and reach the higher beyond us. Weighted with self, the wings of the strongest weary. There is no gain except by loss. Perhaps a beautiful converse of Mr. Watts motto might be found in Michael Angelos suggestive saying, As the marble wastes, the image grows. Waste and growth, how they correlate themselves in all progress towards the highest; their very correspondence, indeed, is lifes law of progress. (F. Platt, B.D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 8. High for evermore.] They are brought down and destroyed; but the Lord is exalted eternally, both for his judgments and his mercies.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
So this verse is added by way of opposition to the former, 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. Or, for (as this Hebrew particle is not seldom used, whereof instances have been formerly given)
thou, Lord, art, & c. So this verse gives a reason of the former, as well the first branch of it, why God suffers the wicked to flourish so long, because he is not like man, of short and uncertain continuance here, to whom a little time is long and tedious, who therefore impatiently expects the time of vengeance, and fears lest the offender should escape it; whereas God is unchangeable and everlasting, and therefore long-suffering without any inconvenience, and the longest time of the prosperity of the wicked is but short and inconsiderable in his eyes, a thousand years being in his sight but as yesterday when it is past, Psa 90:4, and they can never escape out of his hands; as also of the latter branch of the verse, why the wicked shall be destroyed for ever, because God lives and reigns for ever to execute that just sentence of everlasting punishment which he hath pronounced against them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. This he does in part, bycontrasting their ruin with God’s exaltation and eternity.
most highas occupyingthe highest place in heaven (Psa 7:7;Psa 18:16).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But thou, Lord, art most high for evermore,…. God is “the most High”; that is one of his names; he is above all, is higher than the highest; and he dwells on high, and looks down upon the inhabitants of the earth, and sees what is doing among them; and to him they will be accountable another day for what they do; and when wicked, men perish, being destroyed, he will continue for ever in all his greatness, glory, and majesty; for there seems to be an antithesis in this verse to the former, or between wicked men and the Lord; and besides he endures for ever to inflict punishment upon them; and therefore it is that they shall be destroyed for ever.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Psa 92:8-9. But thou, Lord, &c. But thou, O Lord, dwellest on high for evermore; Psa 92:9. While, behold, thine enemies perish, and all the practisers of idolatry are scattered abroad. Green and Mudge. The phrase of God’s dwelling or sitting on high, is equivalent to God’s sitting in heaven, and there over-ruling all the designs of men to his own glory, and the good of his servants.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 92:8 But thou, LORD, [art most] high for evermore.
Ver. 8. But thou, Lord, art most high, &c. ] q.d. Flourish the wicked never so much, shoot they up never so high, thou art higher, and in the thing wherein they deal proudly thou art above them, Exo 18:11 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
art most high = [art enthroned] on high. Not as Psa 92:1.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
art most: Psa 56:2, Psa 83:18, Psa 102:26, Psa 102:27, Exo 18:11, Ecc 5:8, Dan 4:34, Dan 4:35, Act 12:1, Act 12:22-24
Reciprocal: Deu 32:8 – Most Psa 7:17 – most Psa 46:4 – most Psa 92:1 – most Dan 5:18 – the most Act 7:48 – the most High
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
92:8 But thou, LORD, [art {f} most] high for evermore.
(f) Your judgments are most constant against the wicked and pass our reach.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
2. Praise for God’s righteousness 92:8-15
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
In contrast to the wicked who will perish (Psa 92:7), the Lord will reign forever. He will cause His enemies to die.