Psalms 94:1-11

Context

Psalm 94¹

94:1 O Lord, the God who avenges!

O God who avenges, reveal your splendor!²

94:2 Rise up, O judge of the earth!

Pay back the proud!

94:3 O Lord, how long will the wicked,

how long will the wicked celebrate?³

94:4 They spew out threats⁴ and speak defiantly;

all the evildoers boast.⁵

94:5 O Lord, they crush your people;

they oppress the nation that belongs to you.⁶

94:6 They kill the widow and the one residing outside his native land,

and they murder the fatherless.⁷

94:7 Then they say, “The Lord does not see this;

the God of Jacob does not take notice of it.”⁸

94:8 Take notice of this,⁹ you ignorant people!¹⁰

You fools, when will you ever understand?

94:9 Does the one who makes the human ear not hear?

Does the one who forms the human eye not see?¹¹

94:10 Does the one who disciplines the nations not punish?

He is the one who imparts knowledge to human beings!

94:11 The Lord knows that

peoples’ thoughts are morally bankrupt.¹²

[94:1] ¹sn Psalm 94. The psalmist asks God to judge the wicked and affirms his confidence in God’s justice.

[94:1] ²tn Heb “shine forth” (see Pss 50:2; 80:1).

[94:3] ³tn Or “exult.”

[94:4] ⁴tn Heb “they gush forth [words].”

[94:4] ⁵tn The Hitpael of אָמַר (’amar) occurs only here (and perhaps in Isa 61:6).

[94:5] ⁶tn Or “your inheritance.”

[94:6] ⁷tn The Hebrew noun יָתוֹם (yatom) refers to one who has lost his father (not necessarily his mother, see Ps 109:9). Because they were so vulnerable and were frequently exploited, fatherless children are often mentioned as epitomizing the oppressed (see Pss 10:14; 68:5; 82:3; 146:9; as well as Job 6:27; 22:9; 24:3, 9; 29:12; 31:17, 21).

[94:7] ⁸tn Heb “does not understand.”

[94:8] ⁹tn Heb “understand.” The verb used in v. 7 is repeated here for rhetorical effect. The people referred to here claim God is ignorant of their actions, but the psalmist corrects their faulty viewpoint.

[94:8] ¹⁰tn Heb “[you] brutish among the people.”

[94:9] ¹¹tn Heb “The one who plants an ear, does he not hear? The one who forms an eye, does he not see?”

[94:11] ¹²tn Heb “the Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are emptiness.” The psalmist thinks specifically of the “thoughts” expressed in v. 7.