Psalm 92:5

O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) Thoughts.—Better, plans, or purposes. (Comp. in addition to references in margin, Psalm 36:6.)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

92:1-6 It is a privilege that we are admitted to praise the Lord, and hope to be accepted in the morning, and every night; not only on sabbath days, but every day; not only in public, but in private, and in our families. Let us give thanks every morning for the mercies of the night, and every night for the mercies of the day; going out, and coming in, let us bless God. As He makes us glad, through the works of his providence for us, and of his grace in us, and both through the great work of redemption, let us hence be encouraged. As there are many who know not the designs of Providence, nor care to know them, those who through grace do so, have the more reason to be thankful. And if distant views of the great Deliverer so animated believers of old, how should we abound in love and praise!

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

O Lord, how great are thy works! - Compare Psalm 8:3; Psalm 40:5. See also the notes at Job 11:7. The meaning here is this: The psalmist, on the Sabbath, in giving himself to meditation on the works of God, is overwhelmed with a sense of their vastness, their incomprehensible nature, and the depth of wisdom evinced, far beyond the grasp of man, in what God had done. How soon is man lost; how soon does he get beyond his depth; how soon does he feel that here is greatness which he cannot comprehend, and wisdom which he cannot fathom, and goodness which he cannot appreciate, when he sits down to meditate on the works of God!

And thy thoughts are very deep - Compare Isaiah 28:29; Romans 11:33-34. The meaning is, that the plans or the purposes of God, as evinced in the works of creation and providence, are too profound for man to understand them. Who but God himself can comprehend them?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5. great … works—correspond to deep or vast thoughts (Ps 40:5; Ro 11:23).

The Treasury of David

5 O Lord, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.

6 A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a feel understand this

Psalm 92:5

"O Lord, how great are thy works!" He is lost in wonder. He utters an exclamation of amazement. How vast! How stupendous are the doings of Jehovah! Great for number, extent, and glory and design are all the creations of the Infinite One. "And thy thoughts are very deep." The Lord's plans are as marvellous as his acts; his designs are as profound as his doings are vast. Creation is immeasurable, and the wisdom displayed in it unsearchable. Some men think but cannot work, and others are mere drudges working without thought; in the Eternal the conception and the execution go together. Providence is inexhaustible, and the divine decrees which originate it are inscrutable. Redemption is grand beyond conception, and the thoughts of love which planned it are infinite. Man is superficial, God is inscrutable; man is shallow, God is deep. Dive as we may we shall never fathom the mysterious plan, or exhaust the boundless wisdom of the all-comprehending mind of the Lord. We stand by the fathomless sea of divine wisdom, and exclaim with holy awe, "O the depth!"

Psalm 92:6

"A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this." In this and the following verses the effect of the Psalm is heightened by contrast; the shadows are thrown in to bring out the lights more prominently. What a stoop from Psalm 92:5; from the saint to the brute, from the worshipper to the boor, from the Psalmist to the fool! Yet, alas, the character described here is no uncommon one. The boorish or boarish man, for such is almost the very Hebrew word, sees nothing in nature; and if it be pointed out to him, his foolish mind will not comprehend it. He may be a philosopher, and yet be such a brutish being that he will not own the existence of a Maker for the ten thousand matchless creations around him, which wear, even upon their surface, the evidences of profound design. The unbelieving heart, let it boast as it will, does not know; and with all its parade of intellect, it does not understand. A man must either be a saint or a brute, he has no other choice; his type must be the adoring seraph, or the ungrateful swine. So far from paying respect to great thinkers who will not own the glory or the being of God, we ought to regard them as comparable to the beasts which perish, only vastly lower than mere brutes, because their degrading condition is of their own choosing. O God, how sorrowful a thing it is that men whom thou hast so largely gifted, and made in thine own image, should so brutify themselves that they will neither see nor understand what thou hast made so clear. Well might an eccentric writer say, "God made man a little lower than the angels at first, and he has been trying to get lower ever since."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Thy thoughts; thy counsels and methods in the government of the world and of thy church.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

O Lord, how great are thy works!.... Of nature, providence, and grace, both for quantity and for quality, for number, excellency, and glory, as they are a display of God's wisdom, power, and goodness; see Psalm 104:24,

and thy thoughts are very deep; his counsels, purposes, and designs, they are unfathomable and unsearchable; see 1 Corinthians 2:10.

Geneva Study Bible

O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. How great are thy doings, Jehovah!

Exceeding deep are thy thoughts.

The grandeur and profundity of Jehovah’s designs in the government of the world stir the Psalmist’s admiration. Cp. Psalm 36:6; Psalm 40:5; Psalm 139:17-18; Isaiah 55:8-9; Romans 11:33-34.

“Deep in unfathomable mines

Of never-failing skill

He treasures up His bright designs,

And works His sovereign Will.”

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - O Lord, how great are thy works! (comp. Psalm 40:5). Mighty and wonderful, i.e., are the ways of Providence. And thy thoughts are very deep (comp. Job 11:8). Psalm 92:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Statement of the ground of this commendation of the praise of God. Whilst פּעל is the usual word for God's historical rule (Psalm 44:2; Psalm 64:10; Psalm 90:16, etc.), מעשׂי ידיך denotes the works of the Creator of the world, although not to the exclusion of those of the Ruler of the world (Psalm 143:5). To be able to rejoice over the revelation of God in creation and the revelation of God in general is a gift from above, which the poet thankfully confesses that he has received. The Vulgate begins Psalm 92:5 Quia delectasti me, and Dante in his Purgatorio, xxviii. 80, accordingly calls the Psalm il Salmo Delectasti; a smiling female form, which represents the life of Paradise, says, as she gathers flowers, she is so happy because, with the Psalm Delectasti, she takes a delight in the glory of God's works. The works of God are transcendently great; very deep are His thoughts, which mould human history and themselves gain from in it (cf. Psalm 40:6; Psalm 139:17., where infinite fulness is ascribed to them, and Isaiah 55:8, where infinite height is ascribed to them). Man can neither measure the greatness of the divine works nor fathom the depth of the divine thoughts; he who is enlightened, however, perceives the immeasurableness of the one and the unfathomableness of the other, whilst a אישׁ־בּער, a man of animal nature, homo brutus (vid., Psalm 73:22), does not come to the knowledge (לא ידע, used absolutely as in Psalm 14:4), and כּסיל, a blockhead, or one dull in mind, whose carnal nature outweighs his intellectual and spiritual nature, does not discern את־זאת (cf. 2 Samuel 13:17), id ipsum, viz., how unsearchable are God's judgments and untrackable His ways (Romans 11:33).