Psalms 92:8

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.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. (Psa 92:8) And thou (art) Most High to eternity, Jehovah! This brief but pregnant proposition is the centre of the psalm, and at the same time a summary of its contents. The superlative expression Most High is here used to translate a single Hebrew word which strictly means a height or high place, but here denotes that which holds the highest place in the scale of being. For other applications of the same word, see above, on Psa 7:7; Psa 10:5; Psa 18:16.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

92:8-10 The glory of the Lord provides the reason for the poet’s renewed strength and glory, and for the imminent defeat of the enemy.

92:8 The transcendent Lord stays above the world of human experience. From this exalted place, he rules and judges (7:7), celebrates his victories (68:18; see Ps 47), comes to rescue the needy (102:19), brings an end to the wicked (92:7-8), and receives praise (148:1).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Thy judgments are most constant against the wicked and pass our reach.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 8. High for evermore.] They are brought down and destroyed; but the Lord is exalted eternally, both for his judgments and his mercies.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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.

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.

Psalms 92:9

psa 92:9

psa 92:9

psa 92:9For, lo, thine enemies, O Lord,.... The particle "lo", or "behold", is not used for the sake of God, but for the sake of men; to excite their attention, and to observe unto them that those who are everlastingly destroyed are the enemies of the Lord; who are enemies in their minds by wicked works, yea, enmity itself against God; and therefore their perdition is just as well as certain; sooner or later these shall be brought forth and slain before him; and for the certainty of it is repeated,

for, lo, thine enemies shall perish; the Targum adds, in the world to come: "all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered"; one from another, and not be able to unite and combine together against the saints, as they have done; or they shall be separated from them at the last day, being placed at Christ's left hand; and shall not stand in judgment, nor in the congregation of the righteous; and so the Targum,

"and all the workers of iniquity shall be separated from the congregation of the righteous;''

see Psa 1:5.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 8. But thou, Lord, art most high for evermore. This is the middle verse of the Psalm, and the great fact which this Sabbath song is meant to illustrate. God is at once the highest and most enduring of all beings. Others rise to fall, but he is the Most High to eternity. Glory be to his name! How great a God we worship! Who would not fear thee, O thou High Eternal One! The ungodly are destroyed for ever, and God is most high for ever; evil is cast down, and the Holy One reigns supreme eternally.

Ver. 8. Here is the central pivot of the Psalm. But thou, Lord, art most high for evermore, lit. "art height", & c., the abstract used for the concrete, to imply that the essence of all that is high is concentrated in Jehovah. When God and the cause of holiness seem low, God is really never higher than then; for out of seeming weakness he perfects the greatest strength. When the wicked seem high, they are then on the verge of being cast down for ever. The believer who can realize this will not despair at the time of his own depression, and of the seeming exaltation of the wicked. If we can feel "Jehovah most high for evermore", we can well be unruffled, however low we lie. A.R. Fausset.

Psalms 92:9*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

But thou, Lord, art most high forevermore; rather, art on high; i.e. remainest seated upon thy throne, unaffected either by their efforts or by their fall.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Indeed, look at your enemies, Yahweh

Many texts do not have these words.

They will perish

"They will die" or "You will kill them"

All those who do evil will be scattered

This can be stated in active form. AT: "you will scatter all those who do evil" (See: Active or Passive)

will be scattered

Many texts read, "have been scattered."

be scattered

"driven away"

translationWords

reign

eternity

adversary

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

When the wicked flourish like grass they do not know that their flourishing is only to destroy them to eternity, for He recompenses His enemies to their face to destroy them.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.