Sabbath praise for steadfast justice

Sabbath thanks keeps morning and night when wicked grass looks tall

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 ten strings, psaltery, and harp. The heading assigns the psalm to the sabbath day. That is liturgical placement, not a law that this poem may be sung on only one weekday.

The singer is glad through God's work and calls those works great and thoughts deep. A brutish man and a fool do not understand this. When the wicked spring as the grass and workers of iniquity flourish, it is that they shall be destroyed for ever. But thou, LORD, art most high for evermore. The contrast is timing, not a claim that every unjust person is visibly cut down on schedule.

Palm and cedar are planted in the courts, and old age still bears fruit

Enemies perish and workers of iniquity are scattered. The speaker's horn is exalted like a wild ox, anointed with fresh oil. The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those planted in the house of the LORD flourish in the courts of our God. They still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing, to shew that the LORD is upright, a rock with no unrighteousness.

Palm and cedar are durable trees against the wicked's spring grass. Fruit in old age honors continued life in worship, not a beauty standard, a health guarantee, or a prosperity chart. Fat here is flourishing language in the poem, not a diet, and not proof that faithful households stay wealthy.