Psalm 93 - The Lord Reigns

Chapter 4

Psalm 93

The Lord Reigns

As Psalm 92 called for the people of God to sing and make music in their giving of thanks and praise, perhaps Psalm 93 is one of the songs which the people sang together. It is short - only five verses. It has a poetic form with repetitions, which make for good lyrics.

The psalm is a declaration of the majesty and power of God over his creation.

V. 1a. The Lord reigns. (Psalm 93: 1, NASB)

If anyone should question whether or not God is in control, there is no question in the mind of the psalmist - God is in control. God knows what is going on, and He oversees all of it, the good and the bad.

If God is in control, when then does He allow the bad? 

God has designed the world to work according to central principles. In science, these are called laws. There are laws of physics that govern the motion of objects. Laws of thermodynamics govern the energy of systems. There are laws of biology that govern how living systems behave. Nature works according to law.

For those who acknowledge God, these laws are part of the creation. They are built-in. They are the operating system in the computer which is life. Those who do not acknowledge God see these laws as merely the observations of the way things are. Theists see design, purpose, and intent in the balance of the variables which allow for life. Non-theists see that balance as merely a chance and random possibility out of all the options of all universes. Theists see the hand of God carefully designing all of the variables just the way He wanted them to be.

The theist understands God as personal and powerful. He is the creator of heaven and earth, as the opening lines of Genesis declare. In Psalm 93, the greatness of God is expressed in His majesty, as though it were a royal robe.

v. 1b. He is clothed with majesty. (Psalm 93: 1, NASB)

To theists, the size of the universe gives evidence to the majesty of God. If God did create the heavens and the earth, then what we observe about the heavens tells us something about God. Whereas early man had no conception about the size of the physical universe, the observations of the sky by the astronomer Edwin Hubble and the Mt. Wilson telescope in the 1920s, began to reveal the extent of the universe. Rather than only one galaxy, Hubble saw multitudes of galaxies. The universe was much larger and more extensive than anyone had ever dreamed. For theists, if God created everything, His domain and His Kingdom were more extensive than anyone had ever imagined.

v. 1c The Lord has clothed and girded Himself with strength; (Psalm 93: 1, NASB)

The earth, by contrast, became much smaller in the cosmic scheme of things. And yet, the planet was an essential place for the God of heaven and earth. God was personally involved with it. God interacted with the planet and with those created to live on it.

v. 1d Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved. (Psalm 93: 1, NASB)

Each phrase from verse one is a declaration about who God is and the extent of His reign. We affirm God's greatness when we acknowledge that God lives and that God is still on His throne as the King of His Kingdom.

It is also appropriate in worship to express these things to God Himself. In verse 2, the writer does just that.

v. 2 Your throne is established from of old;

You are from everlasting. (Psalm 93: 2, NASB)

There are two aspects to this declaration, which are extremely interesting—first, the recognition of time, and second, the recognition of timelessness.

First, the writer recognizes time in terms of relative time, meaning that it is the nature of time that some things are older than others. The establishment of God’s throne over the earth and the heavens has a time element to it. At the time of the writing of this psalm, there was no way to measure how old this might be. However, in the twentieth-century, astronomy and physics observations gave evidence that the universe was not in a steady-state, as earlier cosmologists had presumed, but that the physical universe had a beginning, which became known as the Big Bang. Based upon later data, such as the confirmation of microwave background radiation from the COBE satellites, a date was established for the age of our universe. The Big Bang appears to have occurred about 13.8 billion years ago.

Secondly, the writer understands that God is not limited by time. What happened before the Big Bang? There is no way to know. Some cosmologists talk about membranes of multiverses at times intersecting to form new universes, but this is pure speculation. Without God overseeing the process, non-theists must develop some mechanism for how the Big Bang occurred. They work to describe under what conditions something like this could ever happen. For theists, the answer lies in the eternity of God. There is no beginning because God exists eternally. In that sense, He is out of time.

Astrophysicist and pastor Dr. Hugh Ross has discussed the multi-dimensionality of God at length in his writings. 

(See The Creator and the Cosmos. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1993, 2nd ed. 1995, 3rd ed. 2001, 4th ed. 2018 ISBN 978-1886653146., and, 

Creation and Time. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1994 ISBN 978-0891097761.)

Many physicists, especially string-theorists, understand that the universe began multi-dimensionally, meaning with more than the four dimensions we live in today: height, length, width, and time. They describe the universe in 11 dimensions, with six of them curled up in what physicists call Calabi-Yau spaces. For a detailed mathematical description of multiple time dimensions, see: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_time_dimensions

For theists, the idea of multiple time dimensions correlates to an understanding of the God who is not limited by time. As a plane taking off gets higher in the sky, the passengers inside can see greater distances simultaneously. Astronauts who traveled to the moon could see the entire earth at once (at least the half of the planet facing the moon). So, in the same way, God can see all time at the same moment and yet still be involved with time as we see it. The psalmist understands that God is involved with time and yet is also outside of time. God is from everlasting.

So if God is so powerful, then why do bad things happen?

 In April 2020 the world was dealing with the pandemic of COVID-19. If God is powerful, then why was this happening? Why didn't He simply stop it?

For the writer of the psalm, the threat was flooding. The Christmas Day tsunami in 2004 was the result of a powerful earthquake in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia, measuring 9.1-9.3 on the Richter scale. As the energy spread through the oceans, it brought tsunami conditions to the coastlines. An estimated 225,000 people died in 14 countries that day from the tsunamis. 

Similarly, the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011 destroyed much of northern Japan's coastline, killing more than 15,000 people. Video of the emerging tsunami circulated widely on social media. Live television coverage from helicopters showed the waters sweeping over the land carrying away cars, buildings, and individual people. Communities along the coast disappeared as someone wiping down a table.

Many local floods have similar effects as waters overflow rivers and swallow entire communities. Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans directly in 2005, causing over 1200 deaths and $125 billion in property damage.

Thus the psalm writer talks about the power of the floods.

v. 3 The floods have lifted up, O Lord,

The floods have lifted up their voice,

The floods lift up their pounding waves. (Psalm 93: 3, NASB)

Yet even though the floods are so powerful and so devastating, the writer affirms that the Lord is greater.

v. 4 More than the sounds of many waters,

Than the mighty breakers of the sea,

The Lord on high is mighty. (Psalm 93: 4, NASB)

Earlier the question was asked, "If God is so powerful, why does He allow these things to happen"? We must be careful not to answer this question as though He is evil in allowing the floods to come. God is not evil but holy. There is no evil in Him. God has created the universe to operate according to His laws. Man needs to understand those laws and learn to live within the constraints and consequences of those laws. Blaming God for the fact that the world operates according to those laws is foolish. This principle concludes the psalm.

v. 5 Your testimonies are fully confirmed;

Holiness befits Your house,

O Lord, forevermore. (Psalm 93: 5, NASB)

In the timeless of God, there is no beginning. There is also no end, and thus the psalmist affirms the eternal nature of God. He is holy, and His Kingdom is forever.

Cosmologists study the aging of the universe to try to get a picture of its fate. Will it continue to expand and then become cold as the universe's energy dissipates? Will the stars live out their lives until their elements burn up? Or will there be a time when gravity causes the universe to stop expanding and begin to retract until a second Big Bang occurs? There is no clear answer.

However, for the theist, there is a clear answer. We will participate in eternity in the presence of God.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16, NASB)

“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.” (John 14:1-4, NASB)

These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5: 13, NASB)

But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6: 22-23, NASB)

Eternal life is available by faith through Jesus, the Savior. His death satisfied the justice of God once for all.

By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Hebrews 10:10)

So we will participate in that eternal Kingdom of God. The eventual death of the physical universe will not limit us. We will participate in the eternal Kingdom of God. 

What an expression of positive hope! This psalm allows us to express our confidence in God and to affirm his majesty and greatness. 

The Lord reigns! Amen.

Back in the 1970s and 80s, Matthew Ward and his two sisters, Annie and Nellie, were a popular Christian recording band called 2nd Chapter of Acts. On their 1978 album, “Mansion Builder," is the song “Ps. 93," written by Matthew Ward and Richard Souther. It is a solo song by Matthew and is a through-composed setting of the song, meaning that it does not have repetitions of the text. It is the text set straight through with music. Here is the link to hear the song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APx3t8HNK0E

The Lord reigns! Hallelujah! We praise You, O God, for the opportunity to reflect on Your greatness and majesty, in the name of Jesus, amen.