New Defender's Study Bible Notes
92:3 solemn sound. Although instrumental music was used in the ancient Jewish worship, it was “solemn” music. The Hebrew for “solemn sound” is higgaion, a word translated “meditation” in Psalm 19:14. See note in Psalm 9:16.
92:5 very deep. See notes on Psalm 139:6,17, and Romans 11:33.
92:10 unicorn. The unicorn (Hebrew reem) was not a mythical animal, but an extinct animal. Many commentators think it was the giant wild ox, or aurochs. This verse indicates, however, that it did have a “horn” (not two horns, that may have looked like one horn from a distance). Deuteronomy 33:17 speaks of the “horns of unicorns,” but this is ambiguous as to whether it meant one-horned or two-horned animals. Many ancient writers describe unicorns as large and fierce animals with one horn. An extinct type of rhinoceros or some other now-unknown extinct animal may be the best explanation.
92:12 like the palm tree. Believers are often compared to trees in Scripture (Psalm 1:3; 52:8; Hosea 14:6). The palm here is the date palm, perhaps the most useful of all trees—producing dates, sugar, wine, honey, oil, resin, rope, thread, tannin and dyes. Its seeds are fed to cattle and its leaves are used for roofs, fences, mats, and baskets. Its fruit gets sweeter as the tree ages. Note the next verse, which says that true believers “shall still bring forth fruit in old age.”
92:14 fat and flourishing. Elderly believers who tend to become heavier as they grow older can perhaps take comfort from this promise!