Psalms 94:1-19

1 O LORD, God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, appear!

2 Arise, O Judge of the earth. Give arrogant people what they deserve.

3 How long, O LORD, will wicked people triumph? How long?

4 They ramble. They speak arrogantly. All troublemakers brag about themselves.

5 They crush your people, O LORD. They make those who belong to you suffer.

6 They kill widows and foreigners, and they murder orphans.

7 They say, "The LORD doesn't see it. The God of Jacob doesn't even pay attention to it."

8 Pay attention, you stupid people! When will you become wise, you fools?

9 God created ears. Do you think he can't hear? He formed eyes. Do you think he can't see?

10 He disciplines nations. Do you think he can't punish? He teaches people. Do you think he doesn't know anything?

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.

Psalms 94:1-19 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.