Psalms 94:11-21

11 The LORD knows that people's thoughts are pointless.

12 O LORD, blessed is the person whom you discipline and instruct from your teachings.

13 You give him peace and quiet from times of trouble while a pit is dug to trap wicked people.

14 The LORD will never desert his people or abandon those who belong to him.

15 The decisions of judges will again become fair, and everyone whose motives are decent will pursue justice.

16 Who will stand up for me against evildoers? Who will stand by my side against troublemakers?

17 If the LORD had not come to help me, my soul would have quickly fallen silent [in death].

18 When I said, "My feet are slipping," your mercy, O LORD, continued to hold me up.

19 When I worried about many things, your assuring words soothed my soul.

20 Are wicked rulers who use the law to do unlawful things able to be your partners?

21 They join forces to take the lives of righteous people. They condemn innocent people to death.

Psalms 94:11-21 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 94

Some, as Jarchi and others, think this psalm was written by Moses; others, with greater probability, assign it to David; as do the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and all the Oriental versions; and which all but the Syriac version say it was composed to be sung on the fourth day of the week, on which day the Talmudists say it was sung; see the argument of the preceding psalm. This psalm and others, that go before and follow, are without any title in the Hebrew Bible: the title of it in the Syriac version is,

``a Psalm of David, concerning the company of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; but spiritually, concerning the persecution against the church;''

not of the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt, as some; nor of the Jews in their present exile, as Kimchi; but rather of the people of God under the tyranny of antichrist; who are represented as complaining of his insults and cruelty, and as comforting themselves in the hopes of deliverance, and in the view of his destruction.