THE GOODNESS OF GIVING THANKS TO THE ETERNAL GOD
xcii. A royal song of thanksgiving to be classified with Ps xviii. The reasons for the royal classification appear in the following NOTES. -The Anchor Bible
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1t is both unreasonable and unwise to pass judgment on a work of art before it has been completed; even a masterpiece. may look like a grotesque mass of strokes and colors, prior to its completion. Human history is God's masterpiece. Physical creation was completed at the end of the sixth day, but the spiritual development of mankind will continue until this world ends, at the close of the sixth millennium. Thus it is both unfair and impossible to judge God's equity before the denouement of human history, despite the fact that history appears to be a long series of tragic injustices.
On the seventh day of the first week of creation, on the Sabbath, Adam surveyed God's completed work and he was stirred to sing of the marvelous perfection which his eyes beheld.
Similarly, when the panorama of human history is completed, the seventh millennium will be ushered in as the "the day of everlasting Sabbath." At that time all Adam's descendants will look back and admire God's completed masterpiece.
This psalm speaks of man's bewilderment as he observes the inequity which is apparent in this world. It also tells of the joy he will experience when the inequities are resolved.
Therefore, the Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 31a) prescribes this as the Song of the Day for the Sabbath, both in the song of the Levites in the Holy Temple and in the universal Sabbath liturgy. -Artscroll
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1. a song for the sabbath day. It is a reasonable inference that this psalm was actually sung as part of the Temple rite for the sabbath. In postbiblical Judaism, it was included in the sabbath liturgy, and six other psalms were chosen for recitation on each of the six other days of the week. -Alter, Robert. The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary (p. 2961).
Kabbalat Shabbat (קַבָּלַת שַׁבָּת; literally "Reception of the Shabbat") designates the inauguration of the Shabbat in general and, in a more specifically liturgical sense, is the part of the Friday evening service which precedes the regular evening prayer and solemnly welcomes the Shabbat.
The Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony begins considerably before nightfall "so as to add from the weekday to the holy day." Much care is traditionally lavished on preparing for the Shabbat. All housework that is forbidden on Shabbat - for example cooking or baking - is completed beforehand. It is customary to bathe before the beginning of the Shabbat and to put on festive clothes. The Talmud tells that Rabbi Ḥanina used to put on his Shabbat clothes and stand at sunset of Shabbat eve and exclaim: "Come and let us go forth to welcome the Queen Shabbat" and Rabbi Yannai used to don his festive robes at that time and exclaim, "Come, O bride! Come, O bride!"
These stories served as the main motif for the Shabbat hymn "Lecha Dodi" of Solomon ha-Levi Alkanetz and formed the basis of the custom of the kabbalists of Safed, who welcomed the Shabbat by going into the fields on Fridays at sunset to recite special prayers and hymns in honor of the Shabbat amid nature. In traditional synagogues this prayer is recited no later than half an hour after sunset. It opens with Psalm 29 (in the Ashkenazi and some other rites with the six Psalms 95–99 and 29 corresponding to the six days of creation or the six weekdays). The hymn "Lecha Dodi" is then sung, followed by Psalms 92 and 93. In some rituals the evening service is preceded by the recital of the Song of Songs in honor of the Bride (or Queen) Shabbat. In many traditional rituals the hymn "Anna be-Kho'ah" is said before the "Lecha Dodi" (or Psalm 121). Chapter 2 of Mishnah Shabbat (Ba-Meh Madlikin) is recited in some rites before the main evening prayer, in other rites following it. In the Yemenite ritual special piyyutim are also inserted before the evening prayer on those Shabbats which coincide with the New Moon as well as for Shabbats in the Omer period. The major deviations from the regular evening service are the elimination of the petitions of the Amidah and the substitution of blessings in honor of the Shabbat. - https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/kabbalat-shabbat
The Gemara expands on the topic of the daily psalms recited by the Levites. It is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Yehuda said in the name of Rabbi Akiva: On the first day of the week, Sunday, what psalm would the Levites recite? The psalm beginning with the phrase: “The earth is the Lord’s, and its fullness” (Psalms 24:1), in commemoration of the first day of Creation, because on that day He acquired the world and transferred it to man, and He was the only ruler in His world, as the angels were not created until the second day.
On the second day of the week what psalm would the Levites recite? The psalm that begins: “Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised in the city of our God, His sacred mountain” (Psalms 48:2). This is because on the second day of Creation He separated His works, dividing between the upper waters and the lower waters, and ruled over them as King; and this psalm speaks of Jerusalem as “The city of a great King” (Psalms 48:3).
On the third day of the week they would recite the psalm beginning: “God stands in the congregation of God” (Psalms 82:1), because on the third day of Creation He revealed the land in His wisdom and thereby prepared the world for His assembly that could now live on the dry land.
On the fourth day of the week they would recite the psalm beginning: “O Lord God, to Whom vengeance belongs” (Psalms 94:1), because on the fourth day of Creation He created the sun and the moon, and in the future He will punish and take vengeance upon those who worship them.
On the fifth day of the week the Levites would recite the psalm beginning: “Sing aloud to God our strength” (Psalms 81:2), because on the fifth day of Creation He created birds and fish to praise His name.
On the sixth day of the week they would recite the psalm beginning: “The Lord reigns, He is clothed with majesty” (Psalms 93:1), because on that day He completed His labor and ruled over all of creation in full glory.
On the seventh day of the week, Shabbat, they would recite the psalm beginning: “A psalm, a song for the day of Shabbat” (Psalms 92:1), as the future world will be a day that is all Shabbat.
A. Giving Thanks
1. The Manner of Giving Thanks. (vv. 1-3)
(1) A psalm. A song; for the sabbath day.
(2) It is good to praise the LORD, to sing hymns to Your name, O Most High,
(3) To proclaim Your steadfast love at daybreak, Your faithfulness each night.
2. The Reason for Giving Thanks. (v. 4)
(4) With a ten-stringed harp, with voice and lyre together.
B. God’s Works for His People and His Enemies
1. God’s great thoughts. (vv. 5-6)
(5) You have gladdened me by Your deeds, O LORD; I shout for joy at Your handiwork.
(6) How great are Your works, O LORD, how very subtle Your designs!
2. God Judges His Enemies. (vv. 7-9)
(7) A brutish man cannot know, a fool cannot understand this:
(8) though the wicked sprout like grass, though all evildoers blossom, it is only that they may be destroyed forever.
(9) But You are exalted, O LORD, for all time.
3. The psalmist’s experience of blessing and deliverance. (vv. 10-11)
(10) Surely, Your enemies, O LORD, surely, Your enemies perish; all evildoers are scattered.
(11) You raise my horn high like that of a wild ox; I am soaked in freshening oil.
4. God Makes the Righteous Flourish. (vv. 12-16)
(12) I shall see the defeat of my watchful foes, hear of the downfall of the wicked who beset me.
(13) The righteous bloom like a date-palm; they thrive like a cedar in Lebanon;
(14) planted in the house of the LORD, they flourish in the courts of our God.
(15) In old age they still produce fruit;
they are full of sap and freshness,
(16) attesting that the LORD is upright, my rock, in whom there is no wrong.
A. Giving Thanks
1. The Manner of Giving Thanks. (vv. 1-3)
(1) A psalm. A song; for the sabbath day.
(2) It is good to praise the LORD, to sing hymns to Your name, O Most High,
(3) To proclaim Your steadfast love at daybreak, Your faithfulness each night
A song of the Day of Shabbat. Ordinarily the phrase mizmor l’- is translated as “a psalm of . . .”— as in mizmor l’David, “a psalm of David,” implying David’s authorship. If we were to apply that principle here, mizmor shir l’yom haShabbat should be rendered “a psalm, a song by the day of Shabbat,” implying that Shabbat wrote this psalm. This is how the Midrash to Psalms interprets it, suggesting that a personified Shabbat was horrified that Adam and Eve were to be put to death for their disobedience to God on the Friday afternoon before the first Shabbat. God acceded to the prayer of Shabbat to spare their lives, and so Adam wished to sing a song of praise to Shabbat. “No, no,” responded Shabbat modestly, “Let us both sing a song of thanks to God,” at which point Adam joined in on the song which Shabbat composed.
Other aspects of the psalm that may recommend themselves to Shabbat are the references to Creation (vv. 5– 6); the sense of universal righteousness of which Shabbat, in the Rabbinic understanding, is a model (v. 8); and, in another Rabbinic view, the sense that Shabbat is a time to praise God (vv. 2 and 16) and not petition the Holy One. -Levy, Rabbi Richard N.. Songs Ascending: The Book of Psalms (Vol. 2)
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1. A psalm, a song for the Shabbat day—a song to be sung by the Levites in the Temple on Shabbat. The theme of the psalm is Shabbat (Radak).
According to Rashi, the theme of the psalm is the World to Come, a world that is wholly "Shabbat."
According to Megaleh Amukot (S58), this psalm is Dnash said by the soul as it leaves this world and goes toward the World to Come, which is called "Shabbat."
Eyes on the Prize
The interpretations of Radak and Rashi cited above follow the respective opinions of Rabbi Nattan and Rabbi Akiva in the Talmud. Rabbi Nattan maintains that our psalm recalls the original Shabbat day while Rabbi Akiva asserts that it foreshadows the Messianic age (Rosh Hashanah 3 la and Rashi there).
In Rabbi Nattan's view, we ought to be completely Chasidut focused on our present task, without thought to what will occur in the future. He therefore maintains that the Levites sang this psalm as an ode to the Shabbat as we know it, not to the future "Shabbat."
Rabbi Akiva disagrees. In his view, even in our present state we can already glimpse the spiritual utopia of the future. Rabbi Akiva urges us to reach into the future—to sing of the "eternal Shabbat" even as we dwell in exile. As the Baal Shem Tov said, "Where a person's thoughts are, there is he." Our thoughts have the power to transport us to another reality.8
Halachah follows the opinion of Rabbi Akiva in this case.9 This suggests that the proper way to serve God is with an eye to the future, to the world that is wholly "Shabbat" (The Rebbe).
Adam's Song
As mentioned above (90:1), Psalms 90-100 were Midra.sh composed by Moses. The Midrash, however, states that this psalm was originally composed by Adam and then forgotten. Moses revealed it in his time and alluded to his own name at the beginning of the psalm. The first letters of the first four words of the psalm spell L'Moshe -- by Moses" (Bereishit Rabbah) -Book of Psalms with English Translation and Commentary: With Commentary from the Talmud, Midrash, Kabbalah, Classic Commentators, and the Chasidic Masters
2. It is good to acclaim the LORD. Although the language of acclaim or thanksgiving (hodot) and hymning (zamer) immediately aligns this text with the psalms of thanksgiving, it also has a strong Wisdom coloration as an attempt to explain why the wicked seem to flourish and what is the true order of justice in the world. -Alter, Robert. The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary (p. 2961).
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It is good to praise God, and to sing to Your Name, O Most High. It is good and proper for us to praise God and to sing to His Name, which is supreme above all (Metzudot).
Soul Set Free
Shabbat is better than any other day for praising God since we are then disengaged from material concerns. The soul is released from bodily burdens and can delve into wisdom and service of God. The soul, which descended from on High, finds itself free to sing to God, the Most High (Radak). -Book of Psalms with English Translation and Commentary: With Commentary from the Talmud, Midrash, Kabbalah, Classic Commentators, and the Chasidic Masters
3. To proclaim Your kindness in the morning and Your faithfulness in the nights. It is good and proper to proclaim God's kindness each morning and His faithfulness—that He fulfills His promise—each night (Metzudot).
Morning and Night
Whereas each morning we arise and go to work, on Shabbat morning, we arise for a day of rest and a day of delight for body and soul. We then recall God's kindness, among all the other good He has done for us, in having given us Shabbat as a day of rest. We do so in the morning of Shabbat day and in its nights, Friday night and Shabbat night. Although the latter is not part of Shabbat, it is a restful time since one generally does not return to work before the following morning. Furthermore, relative to the workdays, the nights of the week are also restful and therefore an opportune time to proclaim God's kindness and faithfulness.
Morning and nights also allude to redemption and exiles. When the morning of redemption arrives, we will proclaim God's kindness in having redeemed us from exile despite our sins. We will then proclaim that He was faithful to us during the nights of exile in ensuring our survival. Alternatively, during the nights of exile we will proclaim God's faithfulness—i.e., our trust that He will fulfill His promise to redeem us (Radak). -Book of Psalms with English Translation and Commentary: With Commentary from the Talmud, Midrash, Kabbalah, Classic Commentators, and the Chasidic Masters
2. The Reason for Giving Thanks. (v. 4)
(4) With a ten-stringed harp, with voice and lyre together.
B. God’s Works for His People and His Enemies
1. God’s great thoughts. (vv. 5-6)
(5) You have gladdened me by Your deeds, O LORD; I shout for joy at Your handiwork.
(6) How great are Your works, O LORD, how very subtle Your designs!
6. Your designs are very deep. This clause lays the ground for the rest of the poem, and for the next two verses in particular. God’s designs are deep. Superficial observation might lead to the conclusion that crime pays, but, despite appearances to the contrary, God prepares due punishment for the wicked. It is this unapparent system of justice that the brutish man is incapable of understanding. -Alter, Robert. The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary (p. 2961).
2. God Judges His Enemies. (vv. 7-9)
(7) A brutish man cannot know, a fool cannot understand this:
(8) though the wicked sprout like grass, though all evildoers blossom, it is only that they may be destroyed forever.
(9) But You are exalted, O LORD, for all time.
3. The psalmist’s experience of blessing and deliverance. (vv. 10-11)
(10) Surely, Your enemies, O LORD, surely, Your enemies perish; all evildoers are scattered.
(11) You raise my horn high like that of a wild ox; I am soaked in freshening oil.
4. God Makes the Righteous Flourish. (vv. 12-16)
(12) I shall see the defeat of my watchful foes, hear of the downfall of the wicked who beset me.
(13) The righteous bloom like a date-palm; they thrive like a cedar in Lebanon;
(14) planted in the house of the LORD, they flourish in the courts of our God.
(15) In old age they still produce fruit; they are full of sap and freshness,
(16) attesting that the LORD is upright, my rock, in whom there is no wrong.
13. like the palm tree, / like the Lebanon cedar. These proverbially stately trees with their deep roots are an obvious antithesis to the metaphor of ephemeral grass used to represent the wicked. The contrast is akin to the one in the first psalm between the righteous as a tree planted by waters and the wicked as chaff blown by the wind. -Alter, Robert. The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary (p. 2961).
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Chasidut: The Two Trees
The righteous one will flourish like a palm tree; he will grow tall like a cedar in Lebanon. The Baal Shem Tov saw these two types of trees as two types of righteous individuals. A cedar tree is impressive in its strength and inspiring in its beauty, yet it does not yield fruit. 12 It symbolizes those righteous people who excel in spiritual accomplishments but fail to stimulate similar growth in others. They are strong and admirable, but they do not "bear fruit." do not influence others and thus fail to reproduce goodness in the world.
The palm tree, though lacking the beauty of the cedar, does yield fruit. It symbolizes the righteous who put their fellow's spiritual growth before their own. Their personal strength and beauty is secondary to them since their focus is on "bearing fruit" by helping others realize their potential.
Though the "cedar" is also perfectly righteous, it cannot compare to the "palm tree." The Talmud states that the rank of baalei teshuvah, penitents, is loftier than that of the perfectly righteous (Berachot 34b). Included in this lofty rank are those righteous individuals who also help others to achieve teshuvah.
Our mandate, as the Baal Shem Tov taught, is clear: To look beyond our own personal growth and focus on making the world purer, loftier, brighter, and holier (The Rebbe).
Chasidut: Patient Growth
A date palm matures slowly. It takes years before it starts to bear fruit. 14 But after the long wait, it produces one of the sweetest fruits—the date. We exert ourselves and toil in our Divine service. It takes effort and persistence to grow in one's spiritual life. The date palm teaches us that the effort we invest yields beautiful fruit. Do not be deterred by the exertion required to serve God, for through it, we become His sweetest "fruits" (The Rebbe) -Book of Psalms with English Translation and Commentary: With Commentary from the Talmud, Midrash, Kabbalah, Classic Commentators, and the Chasidic Masters
14. Planted in the House of God, they shall blossom in the courtyards of our God. In the Messianic age, the righteous will be immersed in the study of God, as it is written: For the earth shall be filled of Divine knowledge, as the water covers the sea (Isaiah 11:9). The sages and teachers of Divine wisdom will abide primarily in the Temple and its courtyards, where they will blossom and grow in their knowledge of God (Radak). ) -Book of Psalms with English Translation and Commentary: With Commentary from the Talmud, Midrash, Kabbalah, Classic Commentators, and the Chasidic Masters
16. to tell that the LORD is upright. At the very end, the psalm picks up “to tell” from the beginning, thus marking an envelope structure. The poem begins and concludes by affirming what a good and fitting thing it is to tell God’s greatness. -Alter, Robert. The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary (p. 2961).
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16. Branching out in tales of the uprightness of Adonai. The Hebrew is l’hagid ki yashar Adonai, “to tell [others] that Adonai is upright.” We have tried to combine the metaphor of the righteous person as a flourishing tree with the statement of how good it is to tell tales of God’s love in verse 3. God’s uprightness is, of course, the source of the righteous person’s soaring height as a palm or a cedar, and part of his righteousness is the continual praising of God. -Levy, Rabbi Richard N.. Songs Ascending: The Book of Psalms (Vol. 2)
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My Rock, / In whom no imperfection can be found. As the tree is a metaphor here for human nobility, the rock is a metaphor for God’s eternality. Unlike ordinary gemstones, no imperfections can be found in God. Human beings are not eternal; trees wither and die, however tall they may grow; but God is a rock, a shield for the noble and the righteous, a model for human upward striving in every generation. -Levy, Rabbi Richard N.. Songs Ascending: The Book of Psalms (Vol. 2)
15. They shall be fruitful even in old age; they shall be full of sap and freshness. In the Messianic age, our days will be lengthened—as it is written: The days of My nation will be like that of a tree (Isaiah 65:22). Even at an advanced age, we will be youthful and vibrant. Isaiah (65:22) similarly prophesies: A lad will die at one hundred years—i.e., if a person will die at the age of one hundred, it will be said of him that he died in his "youth" (Radak). -Book of Psalms with English Translation and Commentary: With Commentary from the Talmud, Midrash, Kabbalah, Classic Commentators, and the Chasidic Masters
Spiritual Applications
This psalm is well known to those who pray on Shabbat, for it is regularly sung in the morning and evening on the seventh day, as well as on festivals. The midrash that we have quoted above, along with other comments to verse 1, are some ways of understanding the relationship of this psalm to Shabbat. But how might it assist our own observance?
It is interesting that this psalm encourages us to sing God’s praises on musical instruments, which Rabbinic law discourages on Shabbat. Many Jews do play instruments on the seventh day, out of a belief that they enhance their joy at the culmination of God’s Creation. In creating human beings, God also created humans who crafted musical instruments as an integral part of human culture (see Gen. 4: 21).
This psalm also encourages us to look at some phenomena of nature as teaching us about human beings: that while some grasses threaten to overtake other plantings in our gardens, eventually they will dry up, leaving the intentional plantings to thrive. Wickedness, too, does not last forever; and if we continue to nurture the plantings of beauty and rootedness, eventually it is in the natural order that enough of them will survive to ensure a harvest of beauty in the world.
But just as flowers need to be planted in the divine courts to fully take root, so do our actions. Are our words rooted in the language of love and caring, of gentle reproof and robust support? Are our actions rooted in God’s mitzvot, in the Torah’s understanding of right actions, and the demands of our consciences as well? Shabbat is an excellent day to reflect on such questions, to look into the Torah portion and see how it can interpret the week that has passed, to enter into Shabbat prayer with the desire to come close to the God who formed this sweet day. Shabbat, with its candles and wine and white tablecloths, is a time to reflect on the holiness that surrounds us, that is helping us to be fruitful in our thoughts and our
deeds. Shabbat is a day when we can join with the seventh day in singing a song to God. -Levy, Rabbi Richard N.. Songs Ascending: The Book of Psalms (Vol. 2)