Ps. 93.4 (But greater)

But greater than / the roar of many waters
mighty waters / breakers of the sea
was the Almighty One on high / O Yhwh. 

The psalmist now shifts from the waters to Yhwh on high. The ‘turn’ comes through the phrase “But greater than….”. It is here that we can back up and point out something we perhaps failed to take note of in the previous reflection. One thing we said there was that the  ‘roar’ of the waters is reduced to a ‘whimper’ in the presence of Yhwh. That is true, but that conclusion was too hasty and it failed to make an important observation. The waters, in verse 3, are meant to be terrifying. The psalmist draws a picture of a continuous “roar” and an almost overwhelming sense of power. The waters are “lifted up”; they are ‘thunderous’ and they ‘pound’. With his repetition of the power of the waters, the psalmist almost creates the sense of being consumed in an ever-changing chaos. The waters are a force of a great and tremendous power. And, here is the key—the psalmist wants us to enter into that. If we don’t, then this phrase “But greater…” will fall flat. In other words, unless the ‘greatness’ of the waters is perceived, then the ‘greater’ of Yhwh will likewise not be perceived. This is the dramatic tension, so to speak, in the psalm. 

That said, the psalmist has accomplished something rather remarkable in highlighting Yhwh’s greatness, and it something we have been reflecting on already. It is this—when the psalmist shifts to Yhwh and his greatness, he simultaneously puts Yhwh in comparison with the waters and completely removes him from any resemblance of competition with the waters. And he does through the techniques we have already alluded to: the fact that the action takes place entirely ‘off stage’; that Yhwh is entirely passive and, in fact, doesn’t ‘do’ anything; that while the waters ‘roar’, Yhwh never speaks. In other words, Yhwh’s complete superiority to the waters is accomplished, dramatically, through a type of profound and almost absolute silence on Yhwh’s part. Their power is utterly inconsequential when compared with his. His authority, in the most profound manner, so exceeds the water’s power that it enters into a realm of almost darkness and silence. It is as if it stands in comparison with the waters and yet so far exceeds it that it is of an entirely, qualitatively, different order all together; it , in a sense, both stands along the same continuum and so exceeds it that it is without compare. One last point, in this verse, what was described in verse 2 as Yhwh being ‘from eternity’ is now described as Yhwh being ‘on high’. 

This is important in many ways, but, for our purposes in this psalm, what it conveys is the fact that ‘eternity’ is the realm of ‘on high’ (that which is ‘chronological’ has now become ‘geographic’). What we will come to see in the next verse, is that that ‘on high’ has come ‘down to earth’ in the Temple. So, for those who enter the Temple, we could say, they both enter ‘eternity’ and they ascend ‘on high’ because the Temple is where Yhwh dwells.