Psalm 94:1-8

1 God is Lord of vengeances; God of vengeance did freely. (God is the Lord of vengeance; O God of vengeance, show thyself!)

2 Be thou enhanced that deemest the earth; yield thou (a) yielding to proud men. (Be thou raised up, who judgest the earth; and punish thou those, who be proud.)

3 Lord, how long sinners; how long shall sinners have glory? (Lord, how long shall the sinners, yea, how long shall the sinners have glory?)

4 They shall tell out, and shall speak wickedness; all men shall speak that work unrightfulness. (They boast, and they all speak wickedness; yea, all who work unrighteousness have glory in themselves.)

5 Lord, they have made low thy people; and they have dis-eased thine heritage. (Lord, they have beaten down thy people; and they have distressed thy inheritance.)

6 They killed a widow and a comeling; and they have slain fatherless children and motherless. (They have killed widows and newcomers, or strangers; and they have slain the fatherless and the motherless, or the orphans.)

7 And they said, The Lord shall not see (it); and, (The) God of Jacob shall not understand.

8 Ye unwise men in the people, understand; and, ye fools, learn sometime. (Understand this, ye ignorant among the people; and learn something, ye fools.)

Psalm 94:1-8 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.