Psalms 94:11-23

94:11 The Lord knows that

peoples’ thoughts are morally bankrupt. ¹ 

94:12 How blessed is the one ²  whom you instruct, O Lord,

the one whom you teach from your law,

94:13 in order to protect him from times of trouble, ³ 

until the wicked are destroyed. ⁴ 

94:14 Certainly ⁵  the Lord does not forsake his people;

he does not abandon the nation that belongs to him. ⁶ 

94:15 For justice will prevail, ⁷ 

and all the morally upright ⁸  will be vindicated. ⁹ 

94:16 Who will rise up to defend me ¹⁰  against the wicked?

Who will stand up for me against the evildoers? ¹¹ 

94:17 If the Lord had not helped me,

I would have laid down in the silence of death. ¹² 

94:18 If I say, “My foot is slipping,”

your loyal love, O Lord, supports me.

94:19 When worries threaten to overwhelm me, ¹³ 

your soothing touch makes me happy. ¹⁴ 

94:20 Cruel rulers ¹⁵  are not your allies,

those who make oppressive laws. ¹⁶ 

94:21 They conspire against ¹⁷  the blameless, ¹⁸ 

and condemn to death the innocent. ¹⁹ 

94:22 But the Lord will protect me, ²⁰ 

and my God will shelter me. ²¹ 

94:23 He will pay them back for their sin. ²² 

He will destroy them because of ²³  their evil;

the Lord our God will destroy them.

[94:11]  ¹ tn 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]  ² tn 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.

[94:13]  ³ tn Heb “to give him rest from the days of trouble.”

[94:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “until a pit is dug for the wicked.”

[94:14]  ⁵ tn Or “for.”

[94:14]  ⁶ tn Or “his inheritance.”

[94:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “for judgment will return to justice.”

[94:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “all the pure of heart.” The “heart” is here viewed as the seat of one’s moral character and motives. The “pure of heart” are God’s faithful followers who trust in and love the Lord and, as a result, experience his deliverance (see Pss 7:10; 11:2; 32:11; 36:10; 64:10; 97:11).

[94:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “and after it [are] the pure of heart.”

[94:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “for me.”

[94:16]  ¹¹ sn Who will stand up for me…? The questions anticipate the answer, “No one except God” (see v. 17).

[94:17]  ¹² tn Heb “If the Lord [were] not my help, quickly my life would have lain down in silence.” The psalmist, perhaps speaking as the nation’s representative, recalls God’s past intervention. For other examples of conditional sentences with the term לוּלֵי (luley, “if not”) in the protasis and a perfect verbal form in the apodosis, see Pss 119:92 and 124:2-5.

[94:19]  ¹³ tn Heb “when my worries are many within me.”

[94:19]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “your comforts cause my soul to delight.”

[94:20]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “a throne of destruction.” “Throne” stands here by metonymy for rulers who occupy thrones.

[94:20]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Is a throne of destruction united to you, one that forms trouble upon a statute?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “Of course not!” The translation, while not preserving the interrogative form of the statement, reflects its rhetorical force.

[94:21]  ¹⁷ tn Or “attack.”

[94:21]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the life of the blameless.”

[94:21]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and the blood of the innocent they declare guilty.”

[94:22]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and the Lord has become my elevated place.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive is used in a rhetorical sense, describing an anticipated development as if it were already reality.

[94:22]  ²¹ tn Heb “and my God [has become] a rocky summit of my safety.”

[94:23]  ²² tn The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive is used in a rhetorical sense, describing an anticipated development as if it were already reality.

[94:23]  ²³ tn Or “in.”