Psalms 93:3

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] The word for waves hath its name from dashing or breaking (Anaphora); the enemies do but beat themselves into foam and froth against Christ the rock, qui instar rupis quae in mari vadoso, horridi Iovis, et irati, ut ita dicam, Neptuni fervidis assultibus undique verberata, non cedit aut minuitur, sed obtendit assuetum fluctibus latus; et firma duritie tumentis undae impetum sustinet ac frangit (Woverius).

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_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.)

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

3. (Psa 93:3) The floods have raised, Jehovah, the floods have raised their voice; the floods will raise their crash, or crashing noise. The last Hebrew word occurs only here, but its etymology is obvious and perfectly analogous to that of waves or breakers in the next verse. The idea here conveyed is that of the noise made by the dashing of waves against each other or upon the shore. The preterite and future forms include the present, but suggest the additional idea of what has been heretofore and may be expected to continue hereafter. The emphatic repetition of the verb is like that in ver. 1, and reappears in this whole series (Psalms 91—100.) as a characteristic feature.

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

93:3-4 God’s victory over natural chaos gives the psalmist confidence that the Lord will also defeat his present enemies (cp. Jer 46:8; 47:2).

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

God’s power appeareth in ruling the furious waters.

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

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.

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

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. 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, 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 Psalm 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.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(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.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.

3, 4. The powers of earth menace Jehovah’s sovereignty in vain.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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, Rev 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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

Ver. 3. The floods have lifted up, 0 LORD. Men have raged like angry waves of the sea, but vain has been their tumult. Observe that the psalmist turns to the Lord when he sees the billows foam, and hears the breakers roar; he does not waste his breath by talking to the waves, or to violent men; but like Hezekiah he spreads the blasphemies of the wicked before the Lord.

The floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. These repetitions are needed for the sake both of the poetry and the music, but they also suggest the frequency and the violence of wicked assaults upon the government of God, and the repeated defeats which they sustain. Sometimes men are furious in wordsthey lift up their voice, and at other times they rise to acts of violencethey lift up their waves; but the Lord has control over them in either case. The ungodly are all foam and fury, noise and bluster, during their little hour, and then the tide turns or the storm is hushed, and we hear no more of them; while the kingdom of the Eternal abides in the grandeur of its power.

Ver. 3. The floods have lifted up, etc. Advisedly in this place does he make mention of floods, in order better to depict the effects of war. For when rivers are raised and swollen with inundations, they burst the restraining banks, and sweep far and wide over the neighbouring plains, carrying everything in their course. Such is the manner of war; when armies are despatched into countries, they lay waste and fill all places with slaughter. Whence Virgil employs this simile (Aeneid 2) in describing the violence of the Grecian army breaking into the citadel of Priam, rendered by Dryden thus

"In rush the Greeks, and all the apartments fill;

Those few defendants whom they find, they kill.

Not with so fierce a rage the foaming flood

Roars, when he finds his rapid course withstood;

Bears down the dittos with unresisted sway,

And sweeps the cattle and the cots away." Mollerus.

Ver. 3. Their waves. The word k signifies a wave; because the water being dashed against a rock, or the shore, or another wave, is broken into spray. For the central idea of the word is breaking. And this aptly serves to picture the issue of those commotions and wars which are undertaken for the overthrow of empires and the church. For as mighty waves fill the beholders with horror, so great and powerful armies fill all things with fear and terror. But as the waves striking, in a moment are broken, and disappear, so the mighty power of kings and princes is often dissolved at one glance of God. The Church dwells in this life, as a rock in the waves, beaten by the waves of every tempest; but yet remains immutable, because the Son of God confirms and sustains her. Mollerus.

Ver. 3. The voice of the floods.

1. The voice of Nature is the voice of God.

2. It is a voice from God.

3. It is a voice for God.

"God hath a voice that ever is heard,

In the peal of the thunder, the chirp of the bird:

It comes in the torrent, all rapid and strong,

In the streamlet's soft gush, as it ripples along;

In the waves of the ocean, the furrows of land,

In the mountain of granite, the atom of sand;

Turn where ye may, from the sky to the sod,

Where can ye gaze that ye see not a God?" G. R. Poetry by Eliza Cook.

Psalms 93:4*

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

3. Floods—נהרות, (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.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice. By "the floods" seem to be meant the world powers, God"s enemies; perhaps especially Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon. Invading hosts are constantly compared to "floods" or "rivers" in Scripture. (see Isa_8:7, 8 28:2 17:12, 13 59:19 Jer_46:8, etc.) The floods lift up their waves; or, "their din," "their roaring". (comp. Psa_65:7, "Which stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people

The irresistible power of floods.

Though we have experience of disastrous floods, the full force of the figure can only be felt in Eastern and in mountainous lands. The "spate" in Scotland, the wady floods of Palestine, and the gigantic overflow of such rivers as the Tigris and the Euphrates, or the awful desolations of Chinese rivers when the embankments give way, alone provide adequate illustration of such texts as this now before us. If we take Mosaic associations for this psalm, then desert wady floods will be in the poet"s mind. If we take the associations of the returned captives, then the awful floods of the Babylon rivers will be in his mind. In a previous homily the Jewish dread of the sea has been recalled. The Mosaic associations may include reference to God"s control of the waters of the Red Sea, and using them as agents of his judgment on Pharaoh. One forcible illustration of a wady flood will indicate the force of this poetic figure, and help us to realize what he must be who can mate and master even such floods. A traveller was at Nazareth when a sudden but violent storm arose. The rain fell in torrents; and in the course of an hour a river flowed past the convent door, along what lately was a dry and quiet street. In the darkness of the night were heard loud shrieks for help. The flood carried away baskets, logs of wood, tables, and fruit stands. At length, a general alarm was given. Two houses, built on the sand, were undermined by the water, and both fell together, while the people in them escaped with difficulty. Loosened waters have been for man, in every age, the type of the masterful, the uncontrolled. Man never feels his helplessness so much as in presence of loosened waters. He can fight with fire; he can do nothing with water, when it once gets free.

I THE POWER OF GOD IS SEEN IN HIS MASTERY OF WATERS. See especially the impression produced by the crossing of the Red Sea, and the destruction of the Egyptians. See same impression from crossing of Jordan. Great nations are likened to floods. And they too are fully within Divine control.

II THE POWER OF GOD MANIFEST IS SEEN IN HIS MASTERY OF WATERS. Two striking scenes: Walking on the waters. Quelling the storm on Galilee with a word of command. R.T.

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

Floods - The enemies of thy kingdom.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The sense of מלך (with ā beside Zinnor or Sarka as in Psa 97:1; Psa 99:1 beside Dech)

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

oceans ... oceans'

Some versions read "floods ... floods'." The word often refers to a river (See: "the River" in Psalms 72:8), but "oceans ... oceans'" has been chosen here because oceans, not rivers, have "waves" that "crash and roar."

have lifted up their voice; the oceans' waves crash and roar

The psalmist speaks of the ocean as if it were a person who could speak. AT: "have made a mighty noise because their waves crash and roar" (See: Personification)

roar

make a long, loud sound.

Above the crashing of many waves, the mighty breakers of the sea

The phrase "the mighty breakers of the sea" means basically the same thing as "many waves" and emphasizes how great these waves are. AT: "Above the crashing of all of the very great waves of the sea" (See: Doublet)

breakers

large waves coming to land

on high

The psalmist speaks of where God lives as if it were high above the earth. AT: "in heaven" (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

raise

voice

might

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

The rivers have raised, O Lord This is an expression of a cry and a plaint: Woe, O Lord, behold! Your enemies, who flood like rivers, have raised their voice and roar, and the lowness of the depths of their locks they will raise and lift on high constantly to be haughty against You. Every expression of דכא is an expression of depth and lowness.

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.