Psalms 94:1-12

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

94:12 How blessed is the one¹³ whom you instruct, O Lord,

the one whom you teach from your law,

[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.

[94:12] ¹³tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew wisdom literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender or age. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender and age specific “man” with the more neutral “one.” The generic masculine pronoun is used in v. 2.