READING PSALM 92 · 2 OF 2
Planted and flourishing
Grass flourishes. So does a palm tree. Psalm 92 uses the same language of growth for very different lives. Read beyond the first appearance of success to the poem’s account of justice, belonging and lasting fruit.
In this lesson
Keep the whole song in view
Tehillim, the book of Psalms, gives us biblical poems for prayer and study. In A song for Shabbat, we read Psalm 92’s opening thanksgiving: the speaker praises Hashem, our customary name for God meaning “the Name,” for his work and acknowledges the depth of his thoughts.
Now the song turns toward something harder to understand: people who do wrong may flourish. The poem does not erase that observation. It asks us to understand it in relation to Hashem’s enduring rule and the different future of the righteous.
We continue the Hebrew numbering: the heading “A psalm, a song for the day of Shabbat” is verse 1, and thanksgiving begins at verse 2. Some English Bibles number the following verses one lower. Match the opening words when using another edition.
Do not stop at the grass
אִישׁ בַּעַר לֹא יֵדָע
וּכְסִיל לֹא יָבִין אֶת זֹאת7. An unthinking person does not know;
a fool does not understand this:בִּפְרֹחַ רְשָׁעִים כְּמוֹ עֵשֶׂב
וַיָּצִיצוּ כָּל פֹּעֲלֵי אָוֶן
לְהִשָּׁמְדָם עֲדֵי עַד8. When the wicked flourish like grass
and all who do wrong blossom,
it is for their destruction forever.וְאַתָּה מָרוֹם לְעֹלָם יְהוָה
9. But you are on high forever, Hashem.
כִּי הִנֵּה אֹיְבֶיךָ יְהוָה
כִּי הִנֵּה אֹיְבֶיךָ יֹאבֵדוּ
יִתְפָּרְדוּ כָּל פֹּעֲלֵי אָוֶן10. For look: your enemies, Hashem,
for look: your enemies will perish;
all who do wrong will be scattered.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva; line breaks aid comparison
Verse 7 continues the question of understanding after verse 6’s “very deep” thoughts. “A fool” here is the person who misses what the poem is teaching about wrongdoing and its outcome. The passage is not mocking someone who has only begun learning.
The wicked, resha’im, are paired with “all who do wrong.” Their flourishing is real enough to be noticed, yet the last line of verse 8 changes how we understand it. The verse does not end with their success. It ends with destruction.
Keep that hard word in the reading. Replacing it with “everyone eventually feels better” would change the poem’s claim. Hashem’s justice means that wrongdoing does not have the final word. The song speaks of the wrongdoers’ destruction, not merely the passing of an unhappy feeling.
1. What would be lost if we quoted only “the wicked flourish like grass”?
We would keep the visible growth and remove the outcome that governs its meaning: “their destruction forever.” The full verse acknowledges flourishing while denying that it secures the wrongdoers’ future. Its teaching depends on reading to the end.
2. How does verse 9 change our focus, and what phrase marks the contrast?
“But you” turns from the wicked to Hashem. Their growth ends in destruction; Hashem remains “on high forever.” The enduring point of reference is Hashem’s rule, not whichever human success is most visible at the moment.
Verse 10 repeats “your enemies” before stating their end. “All who do wrong,” already present in verse 8, returns. The repetition ties these lines together: this is a sustained moral contrast, not a passing interruption in an otherwise cheerful nature poem.
The singer is involved
וַתָּרֶם כִּרְאֵים קַרְנִי
בַּלֹּתִי בְּשֶׁמֶן רַעֲנָן11. You have raised my horn like that of a wild ox;
I am anointed with fresh oil.וַתַּבֵּט עֵינִי בְּשׁוּרָי
בַּקָּמִים עָלַי מְרֵעִים תִּשְׁמַעְנָה אָזְנָי12. My eye has looked on those watching me;
my ears hear the evildoers rising against me.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
The poem moves from “your enemies” to “my horn,” “my eye” and “my ears.” The singer is not detached from the conflict. Evildoers rise “against me,” and Hashem is the one who raises the singer’s horn.
The horn belongs to the image of a powerful animal. A raised horn pictures strength; it is not a musical instrument in this verse. The fresh oil adds a picture of renewed vigor. These images express the singer’s strengthening by Hashem, without giving us the name and date of a particular victory.
Notice also what we have not been told: the poem does not name these enemies. Read their description, “evildoers,” rather than treating every person who disagrees with us as a character in this verse.
3. Which words show personal involvement, and who gives the singer strength?
“My horn,” “my eye,” “my ears” and “against me” put the singer inside the situation. “You have raised” addresses Hashem as the source of strength. Verse 11’s horn belongs to the wild-ox image, not to the stringed music in the opening.
A different kind of growth
Now read the trees alongside the grass, not as a separate inspirational saying. A tzaddik is a righteous person, one who lives rightly before God. The poem contrasts this person with those who do wrong.
צַדִּיק כַּתָּמָר יִפְרָח
כְּאֶרֶז בַּלְּבָנוֹן יִשְׂגֶּה13. A righteous person will flourish like a palm;
like a cedar in Lebanon, he will grow.שְׁתוּלִים בְּבֵית יְהוָה
בְּחַצְרוֹת אֱלֹהֵינוּ יַפְרִיחוּ14. Planted in the house of Hashem,
they will flourish in the courts of our God.עוֹד יְנוּבוּן בְּשֵׂיבָה
דְּשֵׁנִים וְרַעֲנַנִּים יִהְיוּ15. They will still bear fruit in old age;
they will be rich with sap and fresh.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
A palm and a cedar are not the same tree. The poem brings them together to picture flourishing and growth, then extends the picture into planting, fruit and freshness. We learn how the image works by following the surrounding lines, rather than assigning a hidden meaning to every botanical detail.
Verse 13 speaks of “a righteous person”; verse 14 continues with “they.” The singular figure opens into a plural company. Their growth has a setting: “the house of Hashem” and “the courts of our God.” These are the language of the sanctuary, the holy place of worship. The trees picture people whose flourishing belongs with closeness to Hashem.
Verse 15 adds time: still bearing fruit, even in old age. The image is not only height or an impressive first burst of growth. It is continuing fruitfulness. The poem honors a life that remains fruitful when youth is past.
4. What do verses 14 and 15 add to verse 13? Give one detail from each.
Verse 14 adds a place and a condition: the righteous are “planted” in Hashem’s house and flourish in his courts. Verse 15 adds lasting fruitfulness, “still” bearing fruit in old age. Those details deepen the palm-and-cedar comparison beyond visible size or present success.
A worked comparison: the same word, different futures
A learner says, “The righteous flourish, so anyone who flourishes must be righteous.” Watch what happens when we test that claim against both parts of the poem.
- Find the shared language. Verse 8 has בִּפְרֹחַ, “when [they] flourish”; verse 13 has יִפְרָח, “will flourish.” Both use the Hebrew root פרח, connected with blossoming. A root is a group of letters shared by related Hebrew words. You can make the comparison in English too.
- Identify who grows. The wicked flourish in verse 8; the righteous flourish in verse 13. Growth by itself therefore cannot tell the two apart.
- Read the continuations. Verse 8 ends in destruction. Verses 14–15 move toward being planted near Hashem and still bearing fruit in old age.
- Revise the claim. The poem contrasts the futures and grounding of these lives. It does not make visible prosperity a certificate of righteousness.
5. Someone points to a wrongdoer’s success as evidence that wrongdoing does not matter. Which part of the psalm answers that argument?
Verse 8 already acknowledges that wrongdoers can flourish. Its final clause denies that their flourishing secures a lasting future, and verse 9 sets Hashem’s enduring rule against it. The answer is not “wrongdoers never succeed,” but “present success does not overturn Hashem’s justice.”
Likewise, we should not reverse the tree image into a verdict against someone who is poor, ill or frail. The poem does not instruct us to diagnose another person’s standing before God from their health or possessions. Its own first example of flourishing belongs to the wicked. Its final statement will tell us what the righteous person’s fruitfulness declares.
6. Does “still bear fruit in old age” make physical strength the measure of a person’s righteousness?
No. The poem extends a tree image to picture continuing fruitful life before Hashem. It gives neither a medical test nor a wealth test for righteousness. Keep the image’s setting, duration and purpose together instead of turning one quality of a tree into a rule for judging a person.
Put the song back together
Now make your own four-sentence account of the whole psalm. Include thanksgiving, the problem of visible flourishing, the contrast of outcomes, and the final declaration. Give a verse number for each sentence. You can return to the opening source cards while preparing it.
8. Check your account against the poem
One possible account: “The singer gives thanks for Hashem’s work and declares his kindness and faithfulness (2–6). The wicked may flourish like grass, but their growth ends in destruction while Hashem remains on high (7–10). Hashem strengthens the singer, and the righteous are pictured as planted trees that continue bearing fruit (11–15). That fruitfulness declares Hashem’s uprightness and freedom from injustice (16).”
Your wording may differ. A complete account keeps the difficult middle, identifies Hashem as the source of strength and reaches the final declaration. A summary that says only “nature makes us happy” loses the poem’s argument.
When you next meet this song in Shabbat prayer, carry the whole movement with you. Shabbat makes room to acknowledge Hashem’s rule rather than measure every life by its visible output. Return to Shabbat: remember and keep to study the Torah’s teaching about the day, and to Open my lips for another psalm verse that helps give voice to our prayer.
Return tomorrow
Without looking back, name the two kinds of growth, explain why flourishing alone does not identify righteousness, and recall the declaration that closes the psalm. Then reopen the source and find one phrase you had forgotten.
9. Check your recall
The wicked flourish like grass, but verse 8 ends in destruction. The righteous flourish like palm and cedar, planted in Hashem’s house, still bearing fruit in old age. Since the poem describes both groups as flourishing, present success cannot settle the moral question.
The ending declares that Hashem is upright, “my rock,” with no injustice in him. Its “to declare” returns to the same phrase in verse 3. Remembering that connection helps us keep thanksgiving, justice and enduring fruitfulness within one song.
Return to the sources
- Psalm 92: the complete Hebrew psalm; compare especially 3 and 16, 8 and 13–15.
- Psalm 92 with Rashi: a second Hebrew reader with the commentary separately identified. Read the psalm first, then notice the questions our commentator takes up.