Psalms

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Psalm 93

1 The Lord reigns. He is robed in majesty. The Lord is robed; he wears strength around his waist. Indeed, the world is established; it cannot be moved.⁠ 2 Your throne has been secure from ancient times; you have always been king. 3 The waves roar, O Lord, the waves roar, the waves roar and crash. 4 Above the sound of the surging water, and the mighty waves of the sea, the Lord sits enthroned in majesty.⁠ 5 The rules you set down are completely reliable. Holiness aptly adorns your house, O Lord, forever.

Texts in conversation

Compare Genesis 1:17 and Psalm 93:1

Hebrew Bible

Summary

Psalm 93 describes the earth as unmoving, matching Genesis where the sun, moon, and stars move through the sky. In Genesis, they are set in a solid dome and used to define time and seasons, describing a world where their motion displays divine order.

Passages

Genesis 1:17

Hebrew Bible

14 God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them be signs to indicate seasons and days and years, 15 and let them serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” It was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to rule over the day and the lesser light to rule over the night. He made the stars also. 17 God placed the lights in the expanse of the sky to shine on the earth, 18 to preside over the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good.

750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

Psalm 93:1

Hebrew Bible

1 The Lord reigns. He is robed in majesty. The Lord is robed; he wears strength around his waist. Indeed, the world is established; it cannot be moved. 2 Your throne has been secure from ancient times; you have always been king. 3 The waves roar, O Lord, the waves roar, the waves roar and crash. 4 Above the sound of the surging water, and the mighty waves of the sea, the Lord sits enthroned in majesty.

600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

References

"... Another reason for understanding that môʿăḏîm in Genesis 1:14 does not refer to seasons of the year is because this interpretation conflicts with the biblical cosmology presented in Genesis 1. Genesis 1:17 says “God set (nātan) them (the sun, moon and stars) in the rāqîaʿ haš-šāmāyim. Here the verb nātan has the sense of ‘put, place, set’ in a physical location. Elsewhere the scriptures describe the earth as being fixed and immovable, as in 1 Chronicles 16:30, Psalm 93:1, Psalm 96:10 and Psalm 104:5, while the heavenly bodies, such as the sun, moon and stars, move with respect to the earth. Compare Psalm 19:5–6 where the sun runs its course from one end of the heavens to the other; also Joshua 10:12–14 where Joshua commands both the sun and the moon to stand still in the sky, and Job 38:31–33 where God challenges Job to control the movement of the constellations of stars ..."

John R. Roberts, The Anachronism of Môʿăḏîm ‘Appointed Times’ in Gen 1.14 (Dallas: SIL International, 2016), 1–8.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Psalms150 psalms

Compare Genesis 1:17 and Psalm 93:1

Summary

Passages

Genesis 1:17

Psalm 93:1

References

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