Psalms 94

1. O LORD, thou God to whom vengeance belongeth, Thou God to whom vengeance belongeth, shine forth. 2 Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth : Render to the proud their desert. 3 LORD, how long shall the wicked, How long shall the wicked triumph ? 4 They prate, they speak arrogantly : All the workers of iniquity boast themselves. 5 They break in pieces thy people, O LORD, And afflict thine heritage. 6 They slay the widow and the stranger, And murder the fatherless. 7 And they say, The LORD shall not see, Neither shall the God of Jacob consider. 8 Consider, ye brutish among the people : And ye fools, when will ye be wise ? 9 He that planted the ear, shall he not hear ? He that formed the eye, shall he not see ? 10 He that chastiseth the nations, shall not he correct, Even he that teacheth man knowledge ? 11 The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, That they are vanity [a breath]. 12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, And teachest out of thy law ;

13. That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, Until the pit be digged for the wicked. 14 For the LORD will not cast off his people, Neither will he forsake his inheritance. 15 For judgment shall return unto righteousness : And all the upright in heart shall follow it. 16 Who will rise up for me against the evildoers ? Who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity ? 17 Unless the LORD had been my help, My soul had soon dwelt in silence. 18 When I said, My foot slippeth ; Thy mercy, O LORD, held me up. 19 In the multitude of my thoughts [doubts] within me Thy comforts delight my soul. 20 Shall the throne of wickedness have fellowship with thee, Which frameth mischief by statute ? 21 They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, And condemn the innocent blood. 22 But the LORD hath been my high tower ; And my God the rock of my refuge. 23 And he hath brought upon them their own iniquity, And shall cut them off in their own evil ; The LORD our God shall cut them off.

THE Psalm opens with an appeal to God to execute righteous vengeance on wicked rulers or judges who oppress and crush the helpless, while in their folly they dream that his long-suffering is but the supineness of indifference. It concludes with the expression of a calm confidence that God’s righteousness will be finally manifested. The righteous, taught by God’s fatherly discipline, and upheld by Him, can wait for the end, when the wicked shall reap the reward of their wickedness, and shall be utterly destroyed. The conviction thus expressed of the righteousness of God’s government is similar to that in Psalm 92, except that here this conviction is grounded more directly on personal experience. P.

1. God to whom vengeance belongeth.** There is a distinction between revenge and vengeance. “Revenge,” says Dr. Johnson, “is an act of passion, vengeance of justice; injuries are revenged, crimes avenged.” And it is from not attending to this essential distinction that the scorner attributes a vindictive spirit to the Almighty, as if he found delight in wreaking vengeance on an adversary. The call which the Psalmist here makes on God as a God to whom vengeance belongeth, is no other than if he had said, “O God, to whom justice belongeth!” Vengeance, indeed, is not for man, because with man’s feelings and propensities it would ever degenerate into revenge. “I will be even with him,” says nature; “I will be above him,” says grace. Bouchier.

God of retributions, Jehovah, God of retributions, shine forth! A very natural prayer when innocence is trampled down and wickedness exalted on high. If the execution of justice be a right thing—and who can deny the fact?—then it must be a very proper thing to desire it; not out of private revenge, in which case a man would hardly dare to appeal to God, but out of sympathy with right, and pity for those who are made wrongfully to suffer. S.

6. Widow and stranger they kill, and orphans they murder.** The strongest description of injustice and violence is given by saying that they not only wrong but murder the very classes of sufferers, who in the law are constantly exhibited as objects of compassion.

7. And they say, Jehovah will not see, and the God of Jacob will not attend.** The same impious presumption is expressed in Psalms 10: 11, 13; 14: 1; 59: 7. The Divine names are, as usual, significant. That the self-existent and eternal God should not see, is a palpable absurdity; and scarcely less so, that the God of Israel should suffer His own people to be slaughtered without even observing it. The last verb means to mark, note, notice.

8. Attend ye brutish among the people; and ye fools, when will ye act wisely?** The first verb is the same with that at the end of the preceding verse. It is stronger than the English word attend, implying in all cases intelligent attention. A.—The utter folly of this denial of a Divine providence because judgment is not executed speedily. The argument which follows is from the perfections of the creature to those of the Creator. The very nature of God and of man convicts these fools of their folly. “Can anything,” says Herder, “more to the point be urged, even in our time, against the tribe of philosophers who deny a purpose and design in nature? All that they allege of the dead abstraction which they term ’nature,’ the heathen ascribed to their gods; and what the prophets say against the one, holds against the other.” P.

9. We can understand the mechanism of the eye, we can comprehend the wisdom that devised it; but the preparation of materials and the adjustment of parts speak of a power and skill to which man can never hope to attain. When he sees his most cunning workmanship surpassed both in plan and execution, shall he fail to recognize design? Shall we fail to recognize a builder when we contemplate such a work? P. A. Chadbourne.

10. He that teacheth man knowledge.** What knowledge have we but that which is derived from Himself or from the external world?—and what is that world, but His creation?—and what is creation, but the composition, structure, and arrangement of all things according to his previous designs, plans, intentions, will, and mandate? In studying creation in any of its departments, we therefore study His mind; and all that we can learn from it must be His ideas, His purposes, and His performances. No author, in his compositions, no artificer, in his mechanisms, can more truly display their talents and ideas to others than the unseen Creator manifests His thoughts and intelligence to us in the systems and substances which He has formed, and presents to our continual contemplation. In this sense nature is an unceasing revelation of them to us. Sharon Turner.

It was no limited power that could make this eye to see, this ear to hear, this heart to understand; and if that eye which He hath given us can see all things that are within our prospect, and that ear that He hath planted can hear all sounds that are within our compass, and that heart that He hath given us can know all matters within the reach of our comprehension; how much more shall the sight, and hearing, and knowledge of that Infinite Spirit, which can admit of no bounds, extend to all the actions and events of all the creatures that lie open before Him that made them! Bishop H.

He that teaches man knowledge, shall He not know? He not only as the God of nature has given the light of reason, but as the God of grace has given the light of revelation, has showed man what is true wisdom and understanding; and He that does this, shall He not know? (Job 28: 23, 28). The flowing of the streams is a certain sign of the fulness of the fountain. If all knowledge is from God, no doubt all knowledge is in God. From this general doctrine of God’s omniscience He not only confutes the atheists, who said, “The Lord shall not see (v. 7). He will not take cognizance of what we do;” but awakens us all to consider that God will take cognizance even of what we think (v. 11). The Lord knows the thoughts of man. H.

11. The Psalmist was going to say at the end of v. 10, “Shall not He know?” finishing his question as the preceding verses, but instead of that he gives the answer directly in v. 11. So far from “not seeing,” “not regarding,” as these “brutish” persons fondly imagine, Jehovah reads their inmost thoughts and devices, as He reads the hearts of all men, even though for a time they are unpunished. P.

Vanity. Had vanity been ascribed only to the exercise of our sensual or mortal part, or of that which we possess in common with other animals, it had been less humiliating. But the charge is pointed at that which is the peculiar glory of man, the intellectual part, his thoughts. The soul of man seems to be necessarily active. Everything we see, hear, taste, feel, or perceive has some influence upon thought, which is moved by it as leaves on the trees are moved by every breeze of wind. But “thoughts” here include those exercises of the mind in which it is voluntarily or intensely engaged, and in which we are in earnest: even all our schemes, contrivances, and purposes. Yet even these most serious exercises of the intellectual faculty “the Lord knoweth to be vanity.” A. Fuller. —Thoughts are the firstborn of the soul, the immediate issues of the mind; yet we lavish them away upon every trifle. Follow men all the day long and take account of their thoughts. What madness and folly are in all the musings they are conscious of: “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.” If we did judge as God judges, all the thoughts, reasonings, discourses of the mind, if they were set down in a table, we might write at the bottom, Here is the sum and total account of all—nothing but vanity. Manton.

12. Suddenly the course of thought changes. Such outrageous wickedness and persecution of the good has some indirect benefits. It may be turned to some account as discipline for the pious sufferer. “Blessed is the man, O Lord, whom Thou chastenest, and at the same time teachest him out of Thy law”—sustaining his heart by Thy precious truth, and giving him hope for the latter end. C.

Not only knowledge, but also every other gift which we call the gifts of fortune, have power to puff up earth; afflictions only level these mole-hills of pride, plough the heart, and make it fit for wisdom to sow her seed and for grace to bring forth her increase. Happy is that man, therefore, both in regard of heavenly and earthly wisdom, that is thus wounded to be cured, thus broken to be made straight; thus made acquainted with his own imperfections, that he may be perfected. Bacon.—Afflictions of themselves, though severe schoolmasters, yet can do us no good, unless God come by His Spirit and teach our hearts inwardly. Let us therefore pray, that, as in the ministry of God’s Word, so also of His works and judgments, we may be all taught of God. The reason that many men have rather grown worse by their afflictions than better, is because God’s Spirit hath not gone with the affliction to put life and spirit into it. D. Dyke.

The afflictions of the saints are fatherly chastenings, designed for our instruction, reformation, and improvement. When the teachings of the Word and Spirit go along with the rebukes of Providence, they then both bespeak men blessed and help to make them so; for then they are marks of adoption and means of sanctification. When we are chastened we must pray to be taught, and look into the law as the best expositor of Providence. It is not the chastening itself that does good, but the teaching that goes along with it and is the exposition of it. God therefore teaches His people by their troubles, that He may prepare them for deliverance and so give them rest from their troubles; that being reformed they might be relieved, and the affliction having done its work may be removed. H.

If by outward afflictions thy soul be brought more under the inward teachings of God, doubtless thy afflictions are in love. All the chastening in the world, without Divine teaching, will never make a man blessed; the man that finds correction attended with instruction, and lashing with lessening, is a happy man. If God, by the affliction that is upon thee, shall teach thee how to loathe sin more, how to trample upon the world more, and how to walk with God more, thy afflictions are in love. If God shall teach thee by afflictions how to die to sin more, and how to die to thy self-interest more, thy afflictions are in love. If God shall teach thee by afflictions how to live to Christ more, how to lift up Christ more, and how to long for Christ more, thy afflictions are in love. If God shall teach thee by afflictions to get assurance of a better life, and to be still in a gracious readiness and preparedness for the day of thy death, thy afflictions are in love. When God loves, He afflicts in love. T. Brooks.

It is only in the Word of God that we learn to consider affliction as a blessing. The utmost which the most refined philosophy can effect is to remove from our sorrows that which is imaginary, to divert the attention from the cause of distress, or to produce a sullen and stoical resignation more like despair than hope. The religion of the Gospel grapples with the evil itself, overcomes it, and transforms it into a blessing. It is by no means included in the promises made to true Christians that they shall be exempt from suffering. On the contrary, chastisement forms a necessary part of that paternal discipline by which our heavenly Father fits His children for their eternal rest in glory. The Psalmist asserts the blessedness of the man who is chastised by the Lord with this qualification as necessary to constitute it a blessing, that he is also instructed in Divine truth. By this we understand that the influence of chastisement is not physical; that mere suffering has no inherent efficacy; but that the afflictions of this life are, in the hand of God, instrumental in impressing Divine truth upon the heart, awakening the attention of the believer to the consideration of his own character and situation, the promises of the Gospel, and the rewards of heaven. The child of God is assured that all things work together for his good; in this is plainly included the pledge that chastisements and afflictions shall eventually prove a blessing; and this is verified by the experience of the whole Church. Particularly, chastisement is useful, because it convinces the believer of his helplessness and misery when left to himself, and of his entire dependence on God; because it leads him to renew his repentance, puts his faith to the test, and strengthens his Christian graces; because it contributes to the exercise of filial submission, and fixes the mind upon the heavenly inheritance. J. W. A.

The end of our spiritual Father, in all our chastisements, is to make us “partakers of His holiness.” Who that knows what it is to be holy, but will rejoice in this end of the Divine discipline? To be made like to God, to be beautified with the graces of His own image, what a high and exalted design is this! And such is the effect of His chastisements. They wean the Christian from the world, they turn his mind back to Him who made it, they take him off from self-will, they break the perverseness which clings to the fallen heart. “My soul,” says the Psalmist, “is even as a weaned child,” humbled within me, no longer meddling with things too high for me: quieted, calmed, composed; saying with the prophet, “What I know not, teach Thou me;” “If I have done iniquity, I will do so no more.” R. Hall.

Through suffering to glory; to eternity this remains the fundamental law under which we live on earth. Suffering trains for glory. God deals with His chosen ones as the diamond-polisher with the precious stone which he handles, so that the dust is separated from it on all sides, but only that thus it may shine the brightest jewel in a kingly crown. Suffering is changed into glory, even as the shadow is swallowed up in light and death in life. Glorious Gospel which lets fall so comforting a light in the dark depths. Glad prospect for so many who here daily sow with tears, yet as certainly may count upon a harvest with rejoicing! Van O.

The highest felicity that outward things can bring us is when they come in the guise of sorrow, with the errand of chastening from our Father. Polished steel needs much friction. The fair statue needs much merciless hammering away of lumps which, though they be marble, obscure the likeness. June roses are the children of February’s sleet. And the world that we live in to-day has been made ready for men by tremendous convulsions and chaos. And so God deals with us all, moulding us for His purposes by sharp blows; polishing us for His quiver by painful friction; making us fruitful by many a storm; and preparing us to be the dwelling-place of Himself, by many an earthquake throe and much chaos and darkness. Let us accept the gift as part of the benediction of heaven. So all comes to this. If we will trust God, will fear Him, will dwell with Him, will aspire after Him, will bring our sins to Him to be forgiven, if we will regulate our lives and our hearts by His gracious and sweet law, if we will take His chastisements as His love gifts, and say, “It is the Lord!” then, whatever happens, we shall not be desolate. A. M.

13. To give him rest.** This is the end of God’s teaching, that His servant may wait in patience, unmoved by, safe from, the days of evil, seeing the evil all round lifting itself up, but seeing also the secret, mysterious retribution slowly but surely accomplishing itself. In this sense the “rest” is the rest of a calm, self-possessed spirit. P.

Rest from the days of adversity. To rest from the days of adversity is not to be disturbed by them to such an extent as to murmur or despond in spirit, but to trust in God, and in silence of the mind and affections expect from God deliverance. Venema.—It is not the will of God to give us more troubles than will bring us to live by faith simply on Him; He loves us too well. Romaine.

Whatever may be the longing of the natural heart, and whatever may be the teachings of the most widely popular of false religions, in the direction of a selfish, ease-giving rest, the whole spirit of the Gospel of Jesus breathes of the gain and of the duty of suffering; while all the Gospel precepts and all the Gospel illustrations in this sphere indicate that the “rest” which is given on earth to the Christian believer, is a rest while in suffering, rather than a rest from suffering. “It behooved Christ to suffer;” “leaving you an example, that ye should follow His steps.” And “as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings,” even “so also are ye (partakers) of the comfort” which is in and from Christ, in His triumph over evil. He who promises “rest” to all who will come to Him, promises them “tribulation” also; and Christ’s conditional promise of eternal rest is, “He that endureth unto the end, the same shall be saved.” Contentment and endurance in suffering are the privilege and the duty of every true disciple of Jesus. And as are the teachings of the Gospel of Jesus so are the teachings of the highest and noblest experiences of the children of men. There is a gain in suffering. True rest is not in unthinking ease. Only through prolonged endurance is there any real attainment of a worthy soul-enjoyment. H. C. T.

The essence of Christianity is self-renunciation; and the discipline that brings us to feel our childlike dependence is the perfecting of our piety. Grief after grief brings us to joy. Broken in spirit, we are made whole; humbled, we are exalted. We gain the great victory through a succession of defeats. It is in the Lord that we must “rest,” and it is for His Almighty will that we must “wait.” Any other rest will be guilty indolence; any other waiting will be faithless self-love. It must be a religious repose. It must be that holy and consecrated frame in which every subdued and submissive energy shall breathe the consistent prayer, “Thy will be done.” This will be casting all our care on Him who careth for us. This will be the peace and joy of believing. F. D. H.

How needful amid the trials of this earthly life, and how blessed is it to look off from the low plane, and past the near horizon of earth and time, to the higher, wider heavens with their juster standards and clearer lights and unsetting glories, that thus we may learn to judge aright of the events around us, and of the influences that are passing over us. Earthly trial, however sharp and however long, is not hopeless or endless, or even aimless, if accepted as the appointment of a parental Providence, and as training and meeting us for rest in Jesus. William R. Williams.

15. Upright in heart.** While religion and prosperity go together, it is hard to say which a man follows; but when once they are forced to a separation, where the heart was will soon be manifest. The upright in heart are like Ruth; whatsoever becometh of the Gospel, they will be sharers with it in the same condition; be it affliction or be it prosperity; be it comfort or be it sorrow; be it fair weather or be it foul; be it light or be it darkness—they will take their lot with it. Caryl.

18. Thy mercy held me up.** We have come to see the beauty of law, and to know that the broken heart, the dying babe, the crucified Christ—all these things come as much out of the Divine love as the flowering spring, the yellow harvest, the marriage-day, and the birth of the firstborn. We believe that God is the merciful Giver to man of bitterness, as well as of what men call bliss; we believe that when we are sad He is as near to us as when we are glad; we believe that He is equally the Author of what men call evil as He is of happiness; that all is of God, all in God. And we rise at last, not in pride, but in humility, to say, Where each man is at this moment is best for his eternal gain, the world’s eternal good, and the unbroken purposes of the Almighty. Does it require little faith and courage to hold this creed? It requires more humility, more faith, more courage. G. Dawson.

19. Thoughts,** or “perplexities;” literally, divided or branching thoughts,” whether doubts or cares. P.—There is a graphic little picture in those words. They mean literally, “in the multitude of my tangled or intertwined thoughts,” a confused mass of thoughts like the interlacing twigs and boughs of a tree swept by a tempest. His thoughts are too confused to think out anything. That suggests a common feature of sorrow. When a great calamity has overtaken one, the first experience, and a dreadful one it is, is that of utter confusion, of inability to think connectedly at all. It is there, amid the multitude of tangled, conflicting thoughts, that he finds healing if he can get hold on God. It is a comfort if he can only realize that God is in the dark with him.

He does not trouble himself much about the mode of the comfort He merely clings to God and finds the more comfort the closer he gets to Him. V.

In the multitude of my thoughts within me. When I am tossed to and fro with various reasonings, distractions, questionings, and forebodings, I will fly to my true rest, for “Thy comforts delight my soul.” From my sinful thoughts, my vain thoughts, my sorrowful thoughts, my griefs, my cares, my conflicts, I will hasten to the Lord; He has Divine comforts, and these will not only console, but delight me. S.—It is still true that “many are the afflictions of the righteous,” and that “through much tribulation” we enter the kingdom. But all this is not a matter of chance, nor an indication of imperfect wisdom and love. The world is evil, and goodness can only live in it by conflict. It is part of the great battle of the universe that sin shall be exterminated by endured sorrows. History proves that the purest lives and most beautiful virtues have flourished in times and by means of severe trial. Every sufferer knows how blessed it is to be driven nearer to God. The tribulation is only for a brief space, and works out a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Hence faith can bear the strain; the more so as God does succor and delight the soul with His comforts. Chapman.

We are to understand here such comforts as are peculiarly and altogether God’s, such as flow at once from God. The comforts that we get from His attributes—from meditating on, and what we call realizing them; the comforts we get from His promises—believing and hoping in Him; and the comforts of His presence, He drawing near to our souls and shining into them—we knowing He is near us, conscious of it by the light and happiness and renewed strength within us. “Thy comforts”—the comforts we get from the Lord Jesus Christ; from looking at Him, considering Him; thinking of His person, and offices, and blood, and righteousness, and intercession, and exaltation, and glory, and His second coming; our meeting Him, seeing Him, being like Him. “Thy comforts”—the comforts which come from the Holy Spirit, “the Comforter;” when He opens the Scriptures to us, or speaks through ceremonies and ordinances, or witnesses within us of our adoption of God; shining in on His own work of grace in our hearts; enabling us to see that work, and to see in it God’s peculiar, eternal love to us; not opening to us the book of life, and showing us our names there, but doing something that makes us almost as joyful as though that book were opened to us; showing us the hand of God in our own souls—His converting, saving hand—His hand apprehending us as His own; making us feel, as it were, His grasp of love, and feel, too, that it is a grasp which He will never loosen. C. Bradley.

20-23. This strophe, like the last, applies the general doctrine of the Psalm to the individual case, the personal security of the Psalmist, and the righteous retribution visited upon the evil-doers. But for “Jehovah my God,” in v. 22, we have in v. 23, “Jehovah our God,” as if to remind us that His personal welfare does not stand apart from, but is bound up with, that of the nation. Compare v. 14. P.

20. Judges and magistrates ought to exercise their authority as God’s vicegerents, so that in this their unrighteousness they might seem to be claiming God Himself as their ally. Bunsen.

23. God interposes in a special manner, and cuts short the career of tyrants while they are in the very midst of their crimes. Wicked men are often arrested by the pursuivants of Divine justice redhanded, with the evidences of their guilt upon them. “He shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness.” While the ill-gotten wedge of gold is yet in their tent judgment overtakes them. God Himself conspicuously visits them, and reveals His own power in their overthrow, “yea, the Lord our God shall cut them off.” Here, then, the matter ends; faith reads the present in the light of the future, and ends her song without a trembling note. S.