Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Psalms 93:4

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Psalms 93:4. The Lord - is mightier than the noise of many waters — Greater in strength than all the peoples and nations that can rise up against him.

Mighty waves of the sea. — Even the most powerful empires can prevail nothing against him; therefore those who trust in him have nothing to fear.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Psalms 92-93 God’s rule in an evil world

According to the title, Psalms 92:0 was for use on the Sabbath. God is pleased when people cease their ordinary work for a day in order to engage in worshipping him and proclaiming his love (92:1-4). As they meditate upon the nature of God, their thinking will be changed. They will see from God’s point of view and will understand things that are misunderstood by the ordinary person. They will see, for instance, that they need not puzzle over why the wicked prosper. God is the supreme ruler and judge, and he is always in control. In the end the wicked will be destroyed and their prosperity lost for ever (5-9).

By contrast, those who remain true to God will prosper. As a wild ox grows powerful, so the righteous will be strengthened. As privileged people are anointed with oil, so the righteous will be blessed (10-11). As magnificent trees flourish, so the righteous will be strong and fruitful. As a house built on a rocky hill is safe, so the righteous will be secure (12-15).
God is the sovereign Lord and he reigns in majesty. He existed before the universe and he rules over it (93:1-2). The opposition of the ungodly world is like a raging flood that tries to overturn his throne, but it is powerless to move him (3-4). His glory is displayed not only in his power but also in his holiness. People should therefore obey and worship him (5).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

“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” God’s enemies among the pagan Gentile nations are often described in the Old Testament as “floods.” Isaiah 8:7-8 is an outstanding example. “The floods here seem to mean the world powers, God’s enemies.”The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 8-B, p. 294.

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.”F. Delitzsch, p. 75.

“The mighty breakers of the sea” 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.”H. C. Leupold, p. 664.

“Jehovah on high is mighty” The adverb `above’ which stands at the head of Psalms 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.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters - That is, he is more powerful than those waters; he is able to control them. See Psalms 65:7, note; Job 38:11, note. The original here is more rapid in the course of the thought; more emphatic and forcible: “More than the voice of waters - many - mighty - the breakers of the sea - in the high place is Jehovah.” He is over all those billows and breakers; more mighty than they all. They can proceed no further than he permits; they will be stayed when and where he commands. We can conceive of few things which more illustrate the power and the majesty of God than the fact that he thus presides over, and controls, the waves of the ocean.

Yea, than the mighty waves of the sea - The original word here corresponds precisely with our word “breakers” - the mighty waves that “break” on the beach.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Psalms 93:1-5

The LORD reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the LORD is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved. Thy throne is established of old: thou art from everlasting ( Psalms 93:1-2 ).

From everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God. Here, "Thou art from everlasting." The prophecy of Micah concerning the birth of Jesus, and Bethlehem the birthplace, "And thou, Bethlehem, though thou be little among the provinces of Judea, yet out of thee shall come he who is to rule my people Israel; whose going forth is from everlasting" ( Micah 5:2 ). Lord, Thou art from the vanishing point.

The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea. Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh thine house, O LORD, for ever ( Psalms 93:3-5 ). "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Psalms 93

The psalmist rejoiced in the Lord’s reign in this psalm. This is one of the "enthronement" or "theocratic" psalms that depict the righteous rule of God on earth (cf. Psalms 47, 95-99). They focus on God’s sovereignty over His people Israel, but they also point prophetically to the future reign of David’s greatest Son during the Millennium. Psalms 47, 93-100 all affirm Yahweh’s rule over the earth.

Dr. Constable's Expository 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.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters,.... Christ is the most High; he is God over all, higher than the highest; he is, as King, higher than the kings of the earth; he is in the highest heavens, and higher than they; he is highly exalted, as Mediator, at the right hand of God: he is the mighty God, and mighty Saviour; yea, he is Almighty, and therefore mightier than all his enemies, and the noise they make, and the force they use; he is stronger than the strong man armed; than Satan, and all his principalities and powers; than all the persecuting princes and potentates of this world; than antichrist, and all the antichristian states: yea, than "the mighty waves of the sea"; the same are intended as before c.

c Vide Homer. Iliad. 21. v. 190, ]91. where the same is said of Jove, almost in the same words, and repeated as here.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      1 The LORD reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the LORD is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved.   2 Thy throne is established of old: thou art from everlasting.   3 The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves.   4 The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.   5 Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh thine house, O LORD, for ever.

      Next to the being of God there is nothing that we are more concerned to believe and consider than God's dominion, that Jehovah is God, and that this God reigns (Psalms 93:1; Psalms 93:1), not only that he is King of right, and is the owner and proprietor of all persons and things, but that he is King in fact, and does direct and dispose of all the creatures and all their actions according to the counsel of his own will. This is celebrated here, and in many other psalms: The Lord reigns. It is the song of the gospel church, of the glorified church (Revelation 19:6), Hallelujah; the Lord God omnipotent reigns. Here we are told how he reigns.

      I. The Lord reigns gloriously: He is clothed with majesty. The majesty of earthly princes, compared with God's terrible majesty, is but like the glimmerings of a glow-worm compared with the brightness of the sun when he goes forth in his strength. Are the enemies of God's kingdom great and formidable? Yet let us not fear them, for God's majesty will eclipse theirs.

      II. He reigns powerfully. He is not only clothed with majesty, as a prince in his court, but he is clothed with strength, as a general in the camp. He has wherewithal to support his greatness and to make it truly formidable. See him not only clad in robes, but clad in armour. Both strength and honour are his clothing. He can do every thing, and with him nothing is impossible. 1. With this power he has girded himself; it is not derived from any other, nor does the executing of it depend upon any other, but he has it of himself and with it does whatsoever he pleases. Let us not fear the power of man, which is borrowed and bounded, but fear him who has power to kill and cast into hell. 2. To this power it is owing that the world stands to this day. The world also is established; it was so at first, by the creating power of God, when he founded it upon the seas; it is so still, by that providence which upholds all things and is a continued creation; it is so established that though he has hanged the earth upon nothing (Job 26:7) yet it cannot be moved; all things continue to this day, according to his ordinance. Note, The preserving of the powers of nature and the course of nature is what the God of nature must have the glory of; and we who have the benefit thereof daily are very careless and ungrateful if we give him not the glory of it. Though God clothes himself with majesty, yet he condescends to take care of this lower world and to settle its affairs; and, if he established the world, much more will he establish his church, that it cannot be moved.

      III. He reigns eternally (Psalms 93:2; Psalms 93:2): Thy throne is established of old. 1. God's right to rule the world is founded in his making it; he that gave being to it, no doubt, may give law to it, and so his title to the government is incontestable: Thy throne is established; it is a title without a flaw in it. And it is ancient: it is established of old, from the beginning of time, before any other rule, principality, or power was erected, as it will continue when all other rule, principality, and power shall be put down, 1 Corinthians 15:24. 2. The whole administration of his government was settled in his eternal counsels before all worlds; for he does all according to the purpose which he purposed in himself; The chariots of Providence came down from between the mountains of brass, from those decrees which are fixed as the everlasting mountains (Zechariah 6:1): Thou art from everlasting, and therefore thy throne is established of old; because God himself was from everlasting, his throne and all the determinations of it were so too; for in an eternal mind there could not but be eternal thoughts.

      IV. He reigns triumphantly, Psalms 93:3; Psalms 93:4. We have here, 1. A threatening storm supposed: The floods have lifted up, O Lord! (to God himself the remonstrance is made) the floods have lifted up their voice, which speaks terror; nay, they have lifted up their waves, which speaks real danger. It alludes to a tempestuous sea, such as the wicked are compared to, Isaiah 57:20. The heathen rage (Psalms 2:1) and think to ruin the church, to overwhelm it like a deluge, to sink it like a ship at sea. The church is said to be tossed with tempests (Isaiah 54:11), and the floods of ungodly men make the saints afraid,Psalms 18:4. We may apply it to the tumults that are sometimes in our own bosoms, through prevailing passions and frights, which put the soul into disorder, and are ready to overthrow its graces and comforts; but, if the Lord reign there, even the winds and seas shall obey him. 2. An immovable anchor cast in this storm (Psalms 93:4; Psalms 93:4): The Lord himself is mightier. Let this keep our minds fixed, (1.) That God is on high, above them, which denotes his safety (they cannot reach him, Psalms 29:10) and his sovereignty; they are ruled by him, they are overruled, and, wherein they rebel, overcome, Exodus 18:11. (2.) That he is mightier, does more wondrous things than the noise of many waters; they cannot disturb his rest or rule; they cannot defeat his designs and purposes. Observe, The power of the church's enemies is but as the noise of many waters; there is more of sound than substance in it. Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise,Jeremiah 46:17. The church's friends are commonly more frightened than hurt. God is mightier than this noise; he is mighty to preserve his people's interests from being ruined by these many waters and his people's spirits from being terrified by the noise of them. He can, when he pleases, command peace to the church (Psalms 65:7), peace in the soul, Isaiah 26:3. Note, The unlimited sovereignty and irresistible power of the great Jehovah are very encouraging to the people of God, in reference to all the noises and hurries they meet with in this world, Psalms 46:1; Psalms 46:2.

      V. He reigns in truth and holiness, Psalms 93:5; Psalms 93:5. 1. All his promises are inviolably faithful: Thy testimonies are very sure. As God is able to protect his church, so he is true to the promises he has made of its safety and victory. His word is passed, and all the saints may rely upon it. Whatever was foretold concerning the kingdom of the Messiah would certainly have its accomplishment in due time. Those testimonies upon which the faith and hope of the Old-Testament saints were built were very sure, and would not fail them. 2. All his people ought to be conscientiously pure: Holiness becomes thy house, O Lord! for ever. God's church is his house; it is a holy house, cleansed from sin, consecrated by God, and employed in his service. The holiness of it is its beauty (nothing better becomes the saints than conformity to God's image and an entire devotedness to his honour), and it is its strength and safety; it is the holiness of God's house that secures it against the many waters and their noise. Where there is purity there shall be peace. Fashions change, and that which is becoming at one time is not so at another; but holiness always becomes God's house and family, and those who belong to it; it is perpetually decent; and nothing so ill becomes the worshippers of the holy God as unholiness.