The Psalms - Psalm 93
The Lord Reigns
by Rev. Jim Jester
August 24, 2025
SCRIPTURE READING: Psalm 2:1-6
“Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
3 ‘Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.’
4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.
6 Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.”
INTRODUCTION
Psalm 93 can be seen as the first psalm in a series of psalms (93-101) that describe and sing of the kingship of the LORD (Yahweh), that is, the Lord Jesus. At the same time, Psalm 93 is also a continuation of the previous psalms. It is the fulfillment of the promises of God as listed in Psalm 92.
The Lord is now King. In Psalm 93, the faithful remnant sings of the consequences of God’s action in favor of His people. We also see this in Psalms 96, 97 and 99. In the new series of psalms, beginning with Psalm 94, we get a look back at the trials the remnant went through.
“Psalm 93 describes a theocracy, as do the seven psalms that follow it. The words Yahwehmelek (‘Jehovah reigns’ or ‘Jehovah is king’) are the watchwords of these theocratic psalms.” (J. M. Boice) Psalm 93 is the shortest of the so-called enthronement psalms, in which the kingship of the Lord is celebrated.
GOD’S MAJESTY EXPRESSED BY HIS RAIMENT (v. 1):
“The LORD reigns, He is clothed with majesty;
The LORD is clothed, He has girded Himself with strength.
Surely the world is established, so that it cannot be moved.” (Ps. 93:1, NKJV)
The LORD reigns: Psalm 93 begins suddenly and wonderfully with the proclamation of God’s rule. This lifts the covenant God of Israel over every idol and pretender of sovereignty. This simple phrase indicates that our God’s reign is all encompassing, past, present and future.
The Lord reigns means that the Messiah reigns. He has taken His place as King in Jerusalem. He is the Immanuel, God with us. The Messiah is none other than the Lord Jesus, who has been given government by the Father because He is the Son of Man (Jn. 5:22, 27).
When the Lord Jesus appears in the world the second time, he is to reign openly. He rules now, but in secret, not openly visible to the world. To His own people it is visible by faith. His second appearance will not be like His first appearance. The first time He appeared as a poor Baby, wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. At His second appearance, He will come on the clouds of heaven and be “clothed…with strength.” Clothing is part of a person’s being; it shows others who a person is on the inside.
G. C. Morgan comments: “This psalm was written in all likelihood after some deliverance Jehovah wrought for His people, but through the open window the singer, consciously or unconsciously, saw the far distant light of another day in which the Kingdom of God will be set up in His might, and the song of an established order shall be the anthem of His praise.”
He is clothed with majesty: God is adorned with the garments fitting His sovereignty; He is clothed with “majesty” and “strength.” They surround and mark Him like clothing marks the man.“ Majesty is a hard idea to define, but it has to do with dignity, authority of sovereign power, stateliness, and grandeur.” (J. M. Boice)
Surely the world is established: God’s strength and majesty are not only displayed by His person, but also by what He does. In his strength and genius, He has constructed a world that “is firmly established, it will not be moved” (Ps. 96:10), unless He moves it.
The world is established… it cannot be moved: This verse is an example of the mistakes made in explaining the poetical figures in God’s Word; Calvin appealed to this passage as proving that the earth is motionless, which it is not. What the psalmist rejoices in is the completeness of God's creation. It needed no one to put on it a finishing touch. But man’s handiwork always needs finishing off.
Our God is in control. All the political, economic and spiritual powers that have caused the world to totter and fail have been removed by God’s judgment. Their power is gone forever. Now He rules forever, and does so according to His original ordinances that were established at creation.
GOD’S MAJESTY EXPRESSED BY HIS THRONE (v. 2):
“Your throne is established from of old;
You are from everlasting.” (Ps. 93:2, NKJV)
Your throne is established from of old: The throne on which He sits, from which He now exercises His power openly, is not new. It is a throne which “is established from of old;” He is “from everlasting.” Therefore, His power is from eternity. After all, there is no time when He has not been powerful. His throne stands unshaken from of old, no matter what men and nations on earth may do or think. There is no evil that can ever approach or affect that throne. His sovereignty is manifested in His control of the earth.
Albert Barnes has commented on this:
“Whatever might occur, the throne of God was firm. That could not be moved. It had been set up from all eternity. It had stood through all the convulsions and changes which had occurred in the universe; and it would stand firm forever. Whatever might change, that was immovable; and as long as that is unchanged we have a ground of security and hope. Should “that” be moved, all would be gone. The margin here is, as in Hebrew, “from then:” but it means “of old;” from the most ancient times; that is, from the period indicated by the next clause, “from everlasting.” From all eternity; thou hast always existed; thou art ever the same (Ps. 90:1).
You are from everlasting: God’s eternal authority extends to His very being. He is eternal and sovereign beyond any other entity; His life is without a beginning and without an ending. In these and in other ways, God stands majestically above and beyond His creation. This is a great blessing to us.
Psalm 90:1-2, “Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. 2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”
Adam Clarke wrote, “There never was a time in which God did not reign, in which he was not a supreme and absolute Monarch; for he is from everlasting. There never was a time in which he was not; there never can be a period in which he shall cease to exist.”
HIS MIGHT OVER CREATION (v. 3-4):
“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,
Than the mighty waves of the sea.” (Ps. 93:3-4, NKJV)
The floods have lifted up, O LORD: The word here rendered “floods,” means properly “rivers,” and then it may be applied to any other waters. The word “voice” here refers to the noise of raging waters when agitated by the winds, or when they dash on the shore.
Albert Barnes comments:
“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.”
The psalmist likens the wild tumult of the peoples in rebellion against God to the fury of a storm at sea. “The floods” are symbols of power systems that determine the thinking of man’s society. Today, for example, our youth face an educational system that is pro-liberal and anti-Christian. These institutions cover our land and have a deleterious effect on our nation through the political system.
Prophetically, these “floods” are a reference to great powers that opposed God, such as Egypt, Babylon, or Assyria with its Euphrates River, powers that can only be broken down by the Lord:
Isaiah 8:7-8,
“Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks: 8 And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.”
They are influences that “lift up” themselves against God. They “lift up their voice,” indicating that they can make themselves heard. God’s enemies, very often, arrogantly speak out against God and his people. “Why do the heathen rage [like a storm at sea], and the people imagine a vain thing?” (Ps. 2:1) It is all for naught.
The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters: As fearsome and powerful as the “mighty waves of the sea” are, they are not higher or stronger than God. He reigns over all that might challenge or oppose Him.
They “lift up their waves.” With their compelling and pernicious teachings, they drown society. This indicates that they pump their teachings into society with power and violence. We see this in our day in the systematic destruction of marriage and family instituted by God, and the difference between man and woman established by God in creation.
Mightier than the noise of many waters: The waters of the sea with its waves are a picture of the other nations or races:
Isaiah 17:12, “Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!”
Revelation 17:15, “And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.”
The believer responds to this with peace and assurance, for our God is untouchable by these mighty nations. God will answer all their pride with mocking laughter and fierce judgment by sending His Messiah:
Psalm 2:4-9,
4 “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. 5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. 6 Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
7 I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. 8 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. 9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
F. B. Meyer illustrates the sea of Galilee when Jesus walked on the water, “He sits as King, higher than the spray is tossed, deeper than the fathomless depths, mightier than the strongest billow. Let Him but say, ‘Peace, be still!’ and the greatest storm that ever swept the waves in fury sinks into the tranquil sleep of childhood.”
HIS MIGHT OF HOLINESS (v. 5):
“Your testimonies are very sure;
Holiness adorns Your house, O LORD, forever.” (Ps. 93:5, NKJV)
Your testimonies are very sure: As in other psalms, “testimonies” is a poetic reference to God’s word. The psalmist understood that the sovereignty and strength of God was powerfully expressed in and through His word. This would embrace all that God has spoken, whether in his law, his promises, his commands, his prophecies, or his statements of what has occurred and what will occur. Since God is King, his warnings are dependable. Faith trusts in the Word of God as in God Himself, not only for the final victory, but also for the way to it.
Holiness adorns Your house: God’s testimonies are embedded in His holiness, and they focus the heart of the believer on God. God is holy: His power is holy power and His sovereignty is a holy sovereignty. His holiness is connected to all He is and does, and could be said to adorn His very house. This is true for the representation of His “house” on earth (the temple under the Old Covenant), His “house” (the church under the New Covenant), and His ultimate “house” in heaven.
If taken as an exhortation to God’s people to display holiness, this idea has parallels in the New Testament:
1 Corinthians 3:17, If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
1 Peter 2:9, But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
The King has come to dwell among His people, making them and His house holy. The Church should be cleansed from all sin and fully consecrated to Him. In His heavenly court the purity is perfect and perpetual; and ultimately, the earthly court will be absorbed into the heavenly, which will abide for ever.
O LORD, forever: God’s great being and character—His might, sovereignty, strength, and holiness—are His eternally. He is “from everlasting” (Ps. 93:2) and unchanging. He will not diminish with time.
CONCLUSION
The majesty of God’s Kingdom eclipses all others. He can do everything; with Him nothing is impossible. Let not the Christian therefore fear the power of man which is borrowed, but fear Him who has power that is omnipotent, sovereign and eternal.
The King Immortal will stand upon His glorious throne in the person of the Son of Man. Let us offer the sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving that He is certainly worthy to receive. And in our giving, we also are receiving the benefits of His reign which enrich and glorify our lives. That the Lord Jesus already does reign in the hearts of His own should be our praise. That He may come and set up His Kingdom on earth should be our prayer.
