The Psalm 92, known as ''Mizmor Shir L'yom HaShabbat'', is ostensibly dedicated to the

Shabbat Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical stori ...

day. In the slightly different numbering system used in the Greek

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond t ...

and Latin

Vulgate The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels u ...

translations of the Bible, this psalm is Psalm 91. Although it can be recited any day, in

Jewish tradition Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites"" ...

it is generally reserved for Shabbat and is also recited during the morning services on festival days.

Text

The psalm is originally written in the

Hebrew language Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserve ...

. The Hebrew text is divided into 16 verses, as Psalm 92:1 comprises the designation :''A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath day.'' ( NKJV) This is not numbered as a separate verse in the English versions. Verses 1–15 in English versions correspond to verses 2–16 in the Hebrew text.

King James Version

: A Psalm or Song for the sabbath day. # It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High: # To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night, # Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound. # For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands. # O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep. # A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this. # When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever: # But thou, LORD, art most high for evermore. # For, lo, thine enemies, O LORD, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered. # But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil. # Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, and mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me. # The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. # Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. # They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; # To shew that the LORD is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

are of the

Masoretic Text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; he, נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, Nūssāḥ Hammāsōrā, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism. ...

tradition, which includes the

Aleppo Codex The Aleppo Codex ( he, כֶּתֶר אֲרָם צוֹבָא, romanized: , lit. 'Crown of Aleppo') is a medieval bound manuscript of the Hebrew Bible. The codex was written in the city of Tiberias in the tenth century CE (circa 920) under the ...

(10th century), and Codex Leningradensis (1008). The extant

palimpsest In textual studies, a palimpsest () is a manuscript page, either from a scroll or a book, from which the text has been scraped or washed off so that the page can be reused for another document. Parchment was made of lamb, calf, or kid skin an ...

Aq includes a translation into

Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

Aquila of Sinope Aquila (Hebrew: עֲקִילַס ''ʿăqīlas'', fl. 130 AD) of Sinope (modern-day Sinop, Turkey; la, Aquila Ponticus) was a translator of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, a proselyte, and disciple of Rabbi Akiva. Relationship to Onkelos Opinio ...

in c. 130 CE, containing verses 1–10.

Verse 1

:''It is good to give thanks to the Lord, ::''And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;''

Franz Delitzsch Franz Delitzsch (23 February 1813, in Leipzig – 4 March 1890, in Leipzig) was a German Lutheran theologian and Hebraist. Delitzsch wrote many commentaries on books of the Bible, Jewish antiquities, Biblical psychology, as well as a history o ...

, who sub-titles this psalm "sabbath thoughts", observes that honouring the Sabbath is "is good ... not merely good in the eyes of God, but also good for man, beneficial to the heart, pleasant and blessed".

Uses

Judaism

Psalm 92 is recited three times during all of Shabbat: *Part of Kabbalat Shabbat. This recitation officially ushers in the Shabbat. *During Pesukei Dezimra. (It is also recited in Pesukei Dezimra on a Yom Tov that occurs on a weekday, although some communities omit the first verse.) *The song of the day in the Shir Shel Yom of Shabbat. *Some communities recite it immediately after the Torah reading at

Mincha Mincha ( he, מִנחַה, pronounced as ; sometimes spelled ''Minchah'' or ''Minḥa'') is the afternoon prayer service in Judaism. Etymology The name ''Mincha'', meaning "present", is derived from the meal offering that accompanied each sacri ...

of the Sabbath. Verse 1 is part of Mishnah

Tamid Tamid ( he, תָמִיד ''ṯāmīḏ''; "daily offerings") is the ninth tractate in the Order of Kodashim, which is the fifth of the six orders of the Mishnah, Tosefta and the Talmud. The main subject of Tamid is the morning and evening burn ...

7:4. Verse 1 is part of Likel Asher Shabbat recited in the blessings preceding the

Shema ''Shema Yisrael'' (''Shema Israel'' or ''Sh'ma Yisrael''; he , שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל ''Šəmaʿ Yīsrāʾēl'', "Hear, O Israel") is a Jewish prayer (known as the Shema) that serves as a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewis ...

on Shabbat, and some add the beginning of Verse 2 as well. According to the

Midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. he, מִדְרָשׁ; ...

, Psalm 92 was said by

Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

. Adam was created on Friday, and he said this psalm on the onset of the Shabbat. It is not a psalm that speaks ''about'' the Shabbat, but one that was said ''on'' the Shabbat: this was Adam's first day of existence and he marveled at the work of the Creator.

Musical settings

*Psalm 92 "''Bonum est confiteri Domino"'' H.195, for soloists, chorus, 2 treble viols or violins and continuo, was set to music by

Marc-Antoine Charpentier Marc-Antoine Charpentier (; 1643 – 24 February 1704) was a French Baroque composer during the reign of Louis XIV. One of his most famous works is the main theme from the prelude of his ''Te Deum'', ''Marche en rondeau''. This theme is still us ...

(1687 - 88) *Psalm 92 was set to music by

Franz Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wo ...

for

Salomon Sulzer Salomon Sulzer ( he, סלומון זולצר, March 30, 1804, Hohenems, Vorarlberg – January 17, 1890, Vienna) was an Austrian ''hazzan'' (cantor) and composer. Biography His family, which prior to 1813 bore the name of ''Levi'', removed to ...

(). *The Requiem Ebraico (Hebrew Requiem) (1945) by Austrian-American composer Eric Zeisl, a setting of Psalm 92 dedicated to the memory of the composer's father "and the other countless victims of the Jewish tragedy in Europe", is considered the first major work of

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

commemoration. *American composer

Mark Alburger Mark Alburger (born April 2, 1957 in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania) is a San Francisco Bay area composer and conductor. He is the founder and music director of the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra, as well as the music director of Goat ...

also composed a musical setting for Psalm 92.

References

External links

* in Hebrew and English - Mechon-mamre
Recordings for musical settings to the second verse of Psalm 92
(in Hebrew) at the Zemirot Database
Musical settings to the last four verses of Psalm 92
("The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree...") at Zemirot Database {{Jewish prayers 092 Shabbat prayers Shacharit for Shabbat and Yom Tov