The floods lifted up, O Jehovah, the floods lifted up their voice; the floods lifted up their roaring waves.
The psalm has just set God's throne beyond shaking. Verse 3 then lets the storm speak, three times over, rising from voice to roaring. Are these floods water at all? And why does the psalm report their noise while announcing that the Lord reigns?
Commentators read the floods as people, not weather. One writer points to another psalm that uses the same word for men. He sees here a permission God has given for a time:
God has permitted iniquity to have its way — has allowed the floods ("of ungodly men" Ps. 18:4) to lift up their voice; but in the day we are speaking of, He comes forth in His strength to put evil down. Lawlessness will no longer raise its bold head: "Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day."
Older translations of Psalm 18:4 read "the floods of ungodly men," which is where that phrase comes from.
Another writer says the same, and links it to the shaking of powers that prophecy describes:
...an actual breaking apart of all existing powers, and terror on every heart, with the tumultuous swellings of peoples. Compare Psalm 93, where I do not believe it is merely literal waters.
The verse says the same thing three times, and each line lifts it higher — from voice to roaring. (Where the ESV has "their roaring," older translations read "their waves.") One writer notes that the psalm never describes the battle itself:
There has been opposition. Strange strife has been permitted. The floods have lifted up not just their voice, but their crashing waves, against the Rock of Ages. No details of the strife are needed. Just compare the two sides: "Jehovah is mightier than the sound of many waters! than the mighty breakers of the sea!"
One writer compares evil to an ocean, held back by God's hand:
So too in the ocean of evil — the pride of Satan that burst out in rebellion against God, when the angels did not keep their proper place. God's restraining hand holds it all in check. The wicked, like the foaming sea, seem to rise higher and higher in their violence and pride. But God says to them, "You shall come this far, but no farther." So we see His restraining power over evil.
Because the boundary is already there, the rage does its damage to itself:
The floods are abroad, and the "floods lift up their waves." But it must be in vain: they break themselves against the limit God has fixed. God Himself has taken man's measure, and what is he? Only a fool, who does not know his Maker.
The throne is settled first; the uproar comes after. One writer sums up the psalm with the storm already in the past:
Psalm 93 states the grand and blessed results. Jehovah reigns. His throne was indeed always established, but the floods had lifted up their voice. The waves of ungodly men had risen up high. Jehovah on high was mightier.
When does the storm fall? Commentators place it in the time of trouble before Christ's reign begins:
Verses 3 and 4 return to consider what will take place before the coming of the millennium. The floods of ungodly men will be determined and bold in the Great Tribulation. They will lift up their voice in strong opposition to the Lord of glory. But they will find that "the Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, than the mighty waves of the sea" (v. 4). His mighty voice will completely subdue and silence the sea, which is a picture of the Gentile nations (Rev. 17:15).
The verse is not only a forecast. Writers also apply it to the believer standing in the noise right now:
The large rough billows are rolling upon us now. "The floods have lifted up their waves, but the Lord on high is mightier ... and His testimonies are very sure" (Ps. 93:3). When the test comes God does not fail those who put their trust in Him.
- Floods. The waters are peoples, not weather — "floods of ungodly men" whose rage rises like waves against God.
- Permitted. God has allowed evil to have its way for a time. The strife is strange, but God permits it; it never escapes Him.
- Bounded. God's restraining hand holds evil in check. He says to it, "You shall come this far, but no farther," and the waves break on a limit already fixed.
- Outmatched. The psalm gives no account of the battle, only the two sides: the roaring floods, and the Lord on high who is mightier.
- Answered. Commentators place the full rage in the trouble before Christ's reign. His voice will silence it. Until then, faith rests on testimonies that are very sure.
Jehovah on high is mightier than the voices of many waters, than the mighty breakers of the sea.
The psalm opens by declaring that the LORD reigns and that His throne has always stood. Verse 4 sets that throne against the loudest force the psalmist can name: water in full fury. The question is not whether the floods will roar. It is who is stronger.
Commentators read the roaring water as human rebellion given a voice:
Through long ages rebellious man has opposed the government of God. The floods lifted up their voice. The passion and will of man had risen up like angry, raging waves. But however great the power of man, "Jehovah on high is mightier."
One writer links the water to a passage that names the sea as the Gentile nations — the peoples outside Israel:
The sea pictures the Gentile nations (Rev. 17:15). His mighty voice will subdue and silence it completely. For His testimonies are very sure, unlike the noisy claims of all the nations.
One writer reads this short psalm as a summary of the whole history of God and man:
Jehovah reigns. His throne was always established, but the floods had lifted up their voice. The waves of wicked men had risen up high. Jehovah on high was mightier.
The same writer says how the conflict ends:
God's patient government has this result: man rises up against Him like floodwaters. But God is mightier. The end comes by power.
A writer on the book of Job pictures how God handled the sea at creation:
Left to itself the sea would have covered everything. But its Maker was its Master. He set limits to it. He broke the land into great mountain chains to make room for it, shut in with no way out. In His almighty hands its storms and fury are only the crying of a newborn baby. He wraps it in clouds and thick darkness as in baby clothes, and hushes it to sleep.
Jesus once silenced a storm on the lake. One writer reads that night in the light of this verse:
Not only was the Servant of Jehovah in the boat, but Jehovah Himself was there. For the One who spoke with such authority to the winds and the waves was certainly God. And the One who spoke was the same One who slept and woke at the cry of distress. This was indeed the God of Israel. As the Psalmist said, none but Jehovah is "mightier than the noise of many waters, yes, than the mighty waves of the sea."
Another writer joins the two scenes, the lake and the nations, as one act by the same hand:
As He stilled the waves on the lake when they thought He was asleep on a pillow, so now He stills the raging of the nations.
The psalm looks ahead to God putting evil down. Yet one writer also finds comfort in it now, and says it will mean most to those who suffer most:
While the wicked are in an uproar, it still comforts the soul that "Jehovah on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yes, than the mighty waves of the sea." The faithful few in Israel will prove how sweet this is in the sorrows of the last days. Our hearts know it in our measure too, and rest there.
One writer turns the verse into a reason to keep praying when a situation looks lost:
We are really on the winning side. The Lord is still on the throne. He still sits above the floodwaters. And the Lord on high is still greater than the noise of many waters, yes, than the mighty waves of the sea. So, Cheer up! Take courage! Pray on! Pray always! and never turn coward, never give up.
- Floods — the rising waters stand for rebellious man — his passion and will lifted up like angry, raging waves.
- Voice — the waters are loud, and loudness is all they have. God sets His testimonies, which are very sure, against the noisy claims of the nations.
- Mightier — the comparison decides everything. Man rises up like water; God is mightier, and the end comes by power.
- Master — its Maker set limits on the sea at creation, and the One who hushed the lake with a word was Jehovah Himself in the boat.
- Rest — because He still sits above the floodwaters, the noise is no reason to lose heart or stop praying.