Psalms 93:4

Above the voices of many waters, the mighty breakers of the sea, Yahweh on high is mighty.

World English Bible
Learn

Your notes

Private to you. Anything you write on this verse, here or while reading, shows up here and in My study.

Other translations

WEBBE

Above the voices of many waters, the mighty breakers of the sea, The LORD on high is mighty.

BSB

Above the roar of many waters— the mighty breakers of the sea— the LORD on high is majestic.

KJV

The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.

ASV

Above the voices of many waters, The mighty breakers of the sea, Jehovah on high is mighty.

BBE

The Lord in heaven is stronger than the noise of great waters, yes, he is stronger than the great waves of the sea.

Original Hebrew

Look up a word

Tap a word to see what it means and everywhere else it's used.

The early church

"The floods lift up their voices" [Psalm 93:3]. What are these floods, which have lift up their voices? We heard them not: neither when our Lord was born, did we hear rivers speak, nor when He was baptized, nor when He suffered; we heard not that rivers did speak. Read the Gospel, you find not that rivers spoke. It is not enough that they spoke: "They have lift up their voice:" they have not only spoken, but bravely, mightily, in a lofty voice. What are those rivers which have spoken?...The Spirit itself was a mighty river, whence many rivers were filled. Of that river the Psalmist says in another passage, "The rivers of the flood thereof shall make glad the city of God." Rivers then were made to flow from the belly of the disciples, when they received the Holy Spirit: themselves were rivers, when they had received that Holy Spirit. Whence did those rivers lift their voices? Wherefore did they lift them up? Because at first they feared. Peter was not yet a river, when at the question of the maid-servant he thrice denied Christ: "I do not know the man." [Matthew 26:69-74] Here he lies through fear: he lifts not his voice as yet: he is not yet the river. But when they were filled with the Holy Spirit, the Jews sent for them, and enjoined them not to preach at all, nor to teach in the name of Jesus....For when the Apostles had been dismissed from the council of the Jews, they came to their own friends, and told them what the priests and elders said unto them: but they on hearing lifted up their voices with one accord unto the Lord, and said, "Lord, it is You who has made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is;" [Acts 4:24] and the rest which floods lifting up their voices might say, "Wonderful are the hangings of the sea" [Psalm 93:4]. For when the disciples had lifted up their voices unto Him, many believed, and many received the Holy Spirit, and many rivers instead of few began to lift up their voice. Hence there follows, "from the voices of many waters, wonderful are the hangings of the sea;" that is, the waves of the world. When Christ had begun to be preached by so powerful voices, the sea became enraged, persecutions began to thicken. When therefore the rivers had lift up their voice, "from the voices of many waters, wonderful" were "the hangings of the sea." To be hung aloft is to be lifted up; when the sea rages, the waves are hung as from above. Let the waves hang over as they choose; let the sea roar as it chooses; the hangings of the sea indeed are mighty, mighty are the threatenings, mighty the persecutions; but see what follows: "but yet the Lord, who dwells on high, is mightier." Let therefore the sea restrain itself, and sometime become calmed; let peace be granted by Christians. The sea was disturbed, the vessel was tossed; the vessel is the Church: the sea, the world. The Lord came, He walked over the sea, and calmed the waves. How did the Lord walk over the sea? Above the heads of those mighty foaming waves. Principalities and kings believed; they were subdued unto Christ. Let us not therefore be frightened; because "the Lord, who dwells on high, is mightier."
Augustine of Hippo · d. 430Expositions on the Psalms

Commentary

Spurgeon · Verse 4

The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters. The utmost of their power is to him but a sound and he can readily master it, therefore he calls it a noise by way of contempt. When men combine to overthrow the kingdom of Jesus, plot secretly, and by and by rage openly, the Lord thinks no more of it than of so much noise upon the sea beach. Jehovah, the self existent and omnipotent, cares not for the opposition of dying men, however many or mighty they may be.

"Loud the stormy billows spoke,

Loud the billows raised their cry;

Fierce the stormy billows broke,

Sounding to the echoing sky.

Strong the breakers tossing high,

Stronger is Jehovah's might.

True thy words; and sanctity

Well becomes thy temple bright."

Yea, than the mighty waves of the sea. When the storm raises Atlantic billows, and drives them on with terrific force, the Lord is still able to restrain them, and so also when impious men are haughty and full of rage the Lord is able to subdue them and overrule their malice. Kings or mobs, emperors or savages, all are in the Lord's hands, and he can forbid their touching a hair of the heads of his saints.

Read Spurgeon on Psalm 93 →

Cross-references

9

Topics

Cross-references: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. Hebrew and Greek data from STEPBible.org (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0. Library: sources.