When it is said
Pray it when worries pile up and your mind will not settle.
The line about anxious thoughts is short enough to keep by heart and say on its own.
Where it comes from
Author by tradition
Which verses it keeps
The prayer keeps the psalmist’s own words of trust, verses 17 to 19 and verse 22. It leaves out verses 20 and 21 between them, which speak of corrupt rulers who condemn the innocent. The rest of the psalm calls on God, the Judge of the earth, to act against the proud who crush His people and kill the widow and the orphan.
A psalm for Wednesday
The Hebrew gives Psalm 94 no heading and names no writer. The old Greek translation of the Bible (the Septuagint) numbers it 93 and calls it “a Psalm of David for the fourth day of the week”, which is Wednesday. It is Wednesday’s psalm in the Mishnah too, an early Jewish book that lists the psalm the Levites sang in the temple on each day of the week.
Brenton’s translation of the Septuagint, Psalm 93; Mishnah Tamid 7:4, on Sefaria
What the words mean
Anxious thoughts
The Hebrew word in verse 19 means troubled, restless thoughts. It appears only once more in the Bible, in Psalm 139:23, where the psalmist asks God to know his anxious thoughts. The King James has “the multitude of my thoughts”, and the Greek reads “the multitude of my griefs”. The plain English follows the Hebrew.
The Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon, on Bible Hub; Brenton’s translation of the Septuagint, Psalm 93
The silence of the grave
In verse 17 the Hebrew says the psalmist’s soul would soon have dwelt “in silence”. The Greek says “in Hades”, the place of the dead. The plain English joins the two and reads “the silence of the grave”.
The Hebrew Bible, on Mechon Mamre; Brenton’s translation of the Septuagint, Psalm 93
The Scripture in it
Unless the LORD had been my helper, I would soon have dwelt in the abode of silence. If I say, “My foot is slipping,” Your loving devotion, O LORD, supports me. When anxiety overwhelms me, Your consolation delights my soul.
But the LORD has been my stronghold, and my God is my Rock of refuge.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.