Psalms 94

Subdivision 2. (Psalms 94:1-23; Psalms 95:1-11; Psalms 96:1-13; Psalms 97:1-12; Psalms 98:1-9; Psalms 99:1-9; Psalms 100:1-5.)The Judgment-salvation of the Earth. The second subdivision of these psalms gives us the salvation of the earth, its redemption from the condition into which sin had brought it, or what the Lord calls its “regeneration” (Matthew 19:28). This in the human soul is when the kingdom of God is set up within it, and the dominion of sin is therefore taken away. And in these psalms we find correspondingly Jehovah’s coming and reign over the earth. It is not, indeed, the final and perfect condition -the “new earth”; just as the regeneration of man is not his perfected condition: sin exists, though it does not reign; and not yet has the word been spoken, “Behold, I make all things new.” Yet the groaning condition of the earth ceases at the “manifestation” in glory “of the sons of God” (Romans 8:19); and the kingdom itself is final: no other will supersede it ever. This salvation is by judgment, therefore, the reign of the King and putting down of evil; and thus it is introduced here by the cry of the righteous, for whom judgment comes in. But this could not come, with any hope for man, until a new Man had been found with the secret of the Most High in His possession, and therefore able to claim and secure the blessing of God for Himself and for the earth as connected with Him. Atonement must indeed come in for this, but that is a secret at present as far as this book is concerned: the previous psalms have already declared it. Here it is more the earth, though man; of course, is involved: and He is come who can say, if “the earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved, I bear up the pillars of it” (Psalms 75:3). Thus He is in fact the new Adam; the Head of blessing for the world; and judgment, if it comes, shall not be for destruction; but for blessing and purification.

Psalms 94:1-23

The appeal of righteousness to power. The introduction gives us, as already said, the cry of the righteous, -the appeal of righteousness to power. As the Lord says: “And shall not God avenge His own elect, who cry day and night unto Him; though He bear long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily” (Luke 18:7-8). And in Revelation (Revelation 8:3-5) the angel takes the censer from which the smoke of the incense has gone up to God with the prayers of the saints, and fills it with the fire of the altar, and casts it to the earth, and there follow thunders and voices and lightnings and an earthquake -the answering judgments of God upon their persecutors.

1. Such is the cry then here: “God of vengeances, Jehovah” -covenant God of Thy people, pledged to take up their cause -“God of vengeances, shine forth.” The lightning-stroke is yet the revelation of the light: “Lift up Thyself, Thou Judge of the earth! render recompense to the proud.” Aye, it is pride which calls for abasement. “The day of Jehovah of hosts shall be upon all that is proud and lofty, and upon all that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low: and upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan; and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up; and upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall. . . . And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day” (Isaiah 2:12-17). Thus the cry here is in perfect accordance with the demands of holiness, and with the manner of the coming judgment. Pride is the very essence of sin; the creature lifted up out of its place and God dethroned from His; and for this the stroke must come. Here then is the prevailing plea.
2. The detailed catalogue of crime follows: continuous, and, as it would seem, triumphant rebellion; arrogant words pouring from their lips -boastings of utter vanity; Jehovah’s people and inheritance the object of attack; the widow, stranger, fatherless, all that have no strength to resist. And the patience of Jehovah scoffingly insulted, -the God of this poor despised Jacob. Enmity to Him is at the bottom of it all, and the heart that seeks its own things without regard to others.
3. The psalmist turns to expostulate with them, though they be like brutes that possess no faculty for knowing God. Does not the formation of the ear testify to One who hears? of the eye, to One who beholds? And is there not a moral government of the world which manifests itself, such as the Teacher of all human knowledge must possess -the rod of the Master? Ah, Jehovah knoweth well the thoughts of men that they are vanity; and happy is the man who knows the restraint of His government, and the teaching of His law. Kept in quiet from the fear of evil, he waits for the sure end of the wicked.
4. This leads him to affirm the judgment of experience, in which the faithfulness of God, realized as to His own; assures the soul that the reign of evil shall not continue. “Judgment” that has slipped away from righteousness, as Moses, rod (the sign of authority) out of his hand became a serpent. But as, after all, he retained authority over it, so that when he put forth his hand to take it, it became again a rod in his hand, so judgment shall return again to righteousness and all the upright in heart shall follow it: it shall be pursued in peace by these without the hindrance that now exists from the presence of evil. Meanwhile the destitution of other help only shuts one up to God all the more. And the soul knows what help He has already given. Had it not been for this he would have already been dwelling in silence. But even when he had realized that his foothold was already gone, a Stronger than he, and with heart, not merely hand, supported him. Thus amid a multitude of anxieties within him, the comforts of God soothed -or, in the vivid imagery that he uses, “caressed” -his soul.
5. But this only gives him confidence the more to turn to Him as to the state of things which are still unanswered. He puts a question which seems bold to rashness, but it is only an appeal to righteousness which, amid all exercise, he knows full well to be in Him who is Supreme. Can He go on as if in partnership with a throne of iniquity* which makes wickedness into law? The dread figure of the “Lawless one” is evidently before us here, and makes one realize what energy could be thrown into such questions. “They band together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood.”
   But he comforts himself in God: “Jehovah will be a high tower for me, and my God my Rock of refuge.” And the end is that which will test where God is. He will return upon them their iniquity; He will cut them off: Jehovah our God will cut them off."