Psalms 94:5-15

5 They crush your people, LORD, hurting those you claim as your own.
6 They kill widows and foreigners and murder orphans.
7 “The LORD isn’t looking,” they say, “and besides, the God of Israel doesn’t care.”
8 Think again, you fools! When will you finally catch on?
9 Is he deaf—the one who made your ears? Is he blind—the one who formed your eyes?
10 He punishes the nations—won’t he also punish you? He knows everything—doesn’t he also know what you are doing?
11 The LORD knows people’s thoughts; he knows they are worthless!
12 Joyful are those you discipline, LORD, those you teach with your instructions.
13 You give them relief from troubled times until a pit is dug to capture the wicked.
14 The LORD will not reject his people; he will not abandon his special possession.
15 Judgment will again be founded on justice, and those with virtuous hearts will pursue it.

Psalms 94:5-15 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.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Hebrew of Jacob. See note on 44:4 .
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