Book IV · Psalms 90–106
God is still King
The answer to Book III's hard questions: the LORD reigns.
17 psalms · about a 4 minute read
Book IV runs from Psalm 90 to Psalm 106, and it arrives right when it's needed.
Book III finished by asking where God's promise had gone. Book IV answers — not by explaining everything, but by reminding everybody who is actually in charge.
Moses opens this one
Psalm 90 is the only psalm in the whole collection with Moses' name at the top, and it is placed here deliberately.
Moses lived hundreds of years before there were any kings in Israel. So when the book right before this one has just finished worrying about a king's broken promise, Book IV opens with a voice from before kings existed, saying: God was our home the whole time.
It's a long view. Mountains hadn't been made yet, and God was already God.
Lord, You have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.
Before the mountains were born or You brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting You are God.
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“The LORD reigns”
A run of psalms in the middle of Book IV keeps saying the same three words, over and over, like someone knocking on a door until you open it: the LORD reigns.
Reigns just means rules — the way a king rules. These songs aren't saying God will be king one day. They're saying He already is, right now, while things still look wrong.
That's the reply to Book III. The questions weren't silly and they don't get laughed at. They just get put next to something bigger.
The LORD reigns; He is robed in majesty. The LORD is robed in majesty and armed with strength; indeed, the world is established, firm and secure.
Songs for everybody
Psalm 100 is short enough to learn by heart and loud enough to shout, and it isn't addressed to one nation or one family. It's addressed to all the earth.
Book IV keeps widening out like that — the sea is invited to roar, the fields are invited to be glad, the trees are told to sing. Everything gets a part.
Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
The one about how kind God is
Psalm 103 is a person talking to himself — telling his own soul to wake up and remember.
Then he makes a list: forgiven, healed, rescued, crowned with love. He says God takes our wrongdoing as far away as the east is from the west, which is a distance that never runs out however far you travel.
And there's a line in it for anyone who feels like they're not enough: God knows exactly what we're made of, and He is gentle about it.
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.
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How Book IV ends
Psalm 106 spends most of its length honestly retelling all the times God's people got it wrong — and God kept them anyway.
Then comes the doxology, and this one is different from the others. It doesn't just praise God; it asks the crowd to answer back. Let all the people say, “Amen!”
For the first time, the bookend has a part for you.
Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Let all the people say, "Amen!" Hallelujah!
The ones people know best
- Psalm 90 · From Everlasting to Everlasting
Moses' psalm. God was home before the mountains were made.
- Psalm 91 · Under His Wings
Shelter, shadow, and wings. A psalm for frightening nights.
- Psalm 100 · Shout for Joy to the LORD
Shout for joy, all the earth. Short enough to learn by heart.
- Psalm 103 · Bless the LORD, O My Soul
A list of every kind thing God does, told to your own soul.