"A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath.
It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
2 to declare your steadfast love in the morning,
and your faithfulness by night,
3 to the music of the lute and the harp,
to the melody of the lyre.
4 For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work;
at the works of your hands I sing for joy.
5 How great are your works, O Lord!
Your thoughts are very deep!
6 The stupid man cannot know;
the fool cannot understand this:
7 that though the wicked sprout like grass
and all evildoers flourish,
they are doomed to destruction for ever;
8 but you, O Lord, are on high for ever.
9 For behold, your enemies, O Lord,
for behold, your enemies shall perish;
all evildoers shall be scattered.
10 But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox;
you have poured over me fresh oil.
11 My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies;
my ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants.
12 The righteous flourish like the palm tree
and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13 They are planted in the house of the Lord;
they flourish in the courts of our God.
14 They still bear fruit in old age;
they are ever full of sap and green,
15 to declare that the Lord is upright;
he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him."
Psalm 92
We should note the order of the verses in 4-6. The central verse, 5, expresses the wonderment and reverent awe at the greatness and mystery of God's ways and purpos- es, while 4 and 6 give two differing interpretations and estimates of this, 4 giving the Psalmist's and 6 giving the ungodly's. This bears witness to the reality of there being two ways of viewing the mysteries of God - as, for example, predestination: either you regard this mystery with adoring wonder, and magnify the greatness of the Divine sovereignty, or you kick against it and let it become a stumbling block. It is so with many of life's mysteries, and faith must learn the meaning of the words of the hymn,
To one fixed ground my spirit clings, I know that God is good.
One thinks of the Apostle's words in Romans 8:28, 'We know that all things work together for good...', and his wonderful doxology in Romans 11:33ff, 'O the depth of the riches...how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out...'. By contrast, the 'brutish man' is insensitive to the truth, and his eyes are blinded to any understanding of the situation. The statement in 7 may be one of the things that he cannot understand or grasp, namely that the prosperity of the wicked is of short duration. He certainly lacks the spiritual dimension that would enable him to discern that material prosperity is transient and that the seeming immunity of the wicked to misfortune is only a temporary thing, like grass that withers very quickly. This is because God is on the throne (8) and it is this reality that calls the tune in the affairs of men. It is this assurance that gives the Psalmist his confidence and peace, and enables him to speak so triumphantly in 10ff. For if God is on high, He can raise us up on high too. We shall continue this thought in the next Note.