Ps. 93.2 (throne from eternity)

Your throne was established / long ago
you are from eternity / O Yhwh. 

I want here to pick up on an observation we made yesterday regarding Yhwh’s action toward himself. There, we saw how the psalmist accomplished something rather profound in figuring Yhwh as ‘dressing himself’. Yhwh is both ‘dramatic’ and yet not beholden to anyone in assuming or dawning his regal authority. He, in a sense, makes himself king, and perpetuates that kingship on his own authority. As we saw also, however, verse 1 stands as a type of summary of the psalm and it is not addressed to Yhwh but to those who are engaging in this ‘royal liturgy’. Here, we turn to Yhwh and, in this turn, the emphasis on Yhwh’s ‘activity’ shifts rather profoundly. When the psalmist addresses Yhwh, Yhwh is no longer portrayed as active. Notice how the ‘establishment of the throne’ is in the passive: “your throne was established long ago…”. The verse then moves into Yhwh’s being ‘from eternity’. And, just to note here, when the “waters” are portrayed as existing under the authority of Yhwh, it merely says, “But greater than the waters….was the Almighty One on high.” What is important to see here is how all of the ‘action’ takes place off stage. It is not that Yhwh does not ‘establish his throne’, nor that he doesn’t dominate the waters—the point is that the more Yhwh’s activity is foregrounded, the more his overwhelming authority is portrayed and felt. Here is what I mean: the more ‘active’ Yhwh is portrayed, the more he appears to be in ‘battle’ with what opposes him (the waters, for example). The Scriptures will often portray Yhwh in this fashion. However, there is another way of portraying Yhwh’s authority (his sovereignty) and that is by way of his remaining entirely immovable and yet, in this immobility, remaining entirely in control. This perspective is, arguably, more ‘effective’ in the sense that Yhwh’s authority is portrayed as so excessively beyond any other power that Yhwh does not even need to ‘move’ to enact his sovereignty. This does not mean that Yhwh is ‘not active’ though. The point is, in fact, completely the opposite. Rather, Yhwh’s ‘enacted sovereignty’ is so profoundly active that it, as it were, takes place in a realm far superior to any ability to grasp. 


The establishment of the throne. In his turn to Yhwh the psalmist picks up on the word ‘establishment’ used in the immediately preceding line. There, he declared that “the world is firmly established, immovable.” Now, that ‘establishment’ refers to Yhwh’s throne. However, whereas the world is firmly established, the throne was established long ago. In the next line, the psalmist will allude to Yhwh being ‘from eternity’. This shift in tense is important. The opening line, as a declaration or exclamation, takes joy in the present enactment of Yhwh’s ‘establishment’. Here, however, the focus is different. The psalmist is now shifting into a type of narrative, or drama. The point in this portion of the psalm will be the drama between Yhwh-and-the-waters. The ‘opening act’ of the drama is this verse. It begins in the ‘deep past’, in ‘eternity’. From there, Yhwh’s throne ‘was established’ and it is from there that Yhwh ‘is’. What I believe the psalmist is attempting to convey is the sovereignty of Yhwh’s dominion as expressed in linear terms. In other words, that which is ‘deeper in time’ is that which is more foundational, more powerful and more sovereign. It is a qualitative statement that coincides with a quantitative description. His chronological priority is an expression of his absolute superiority over all forces (here, the ‘waters’ of chaos). The psalmist rather eloquently casts Yhwh’s dominion as emerging ‘from eternity’. There is nothing ‘before’ him; he, and his throne, were always-already prior. This ‘always-already-prior/greater’ quality of Yhwh is, in verse 4 portrayed ‘geographically’ as Yhwh being ‘on High’. In this verse, though, the stage has been (meta)physically set.